The Death of John Wilkes Booth
On April 26, 1865 (146 years ago today) John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was captured and killed by Union Troops, commanded by Lt. Col. Everett Conger. The troops first tracked down William Jett, a former Confederate soldier from Virginia, and interrogated him. In the course of that interrogation, they learned that Booth was in hiding at Richard H. Garrett's farm, just south of Port Royal, Caroline County, Virginia. Before dawn on April 26, the soldiers caught up with Booth and the other fugitives, who were hiding in Garrett's tobacco barn. One of the conspirators, David Herold, surrendered, but Booth refused Conger's demand to surrender. He is reported to have said "I prefer to come out and fight." The soldiers then set the barn on fire. As Booth moved about inside the blazing barn, Sergeant Boston Corbett shot him. According to Corbett's later account, he fired at Booth because the fugitive "raised his pistol to shoot" at them. Conger's report to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton contradicted Corbett's account, saying that Corbett shot Booth "without order, pretext or excuse." Conger recommended that Corbett be punished for disobeying orders to take Booth alive.
Booth was fatally wounded in the neck. He was dragged from the barn to the porch of Garrett's farmhouse, where he died three hours later. Booth was only 26. The bullet had pierced three vertebrae and partially severed his spinal cord, paralyzing him. In his last dying moments, he reportedly whispered, "Tell my mother I died for my country". Asking that his hands be raised to his face so he could see them, Booth uttered his last words, "Useless, useless," and died as dawn was breaking. In Booth's pockets were found a compass, a candle, pictures of five women, including his fiancée Lucy Hale, and his diary, where he had written of Lincoln's death, "Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment."
Later a letter Booth had written to his brother was seized by Federal troops and published by The New York Times. In the letter Booth wrote, "I have ever held the South was right. The very nomination of Abraham Lincoln, four years ago, spoke plainly war upon Southern rights and institutions. The institution of African slavery is one of the greatest blessings that God has ever bestowed upon a favored nation." He also wrote that Lincoln's policy was one of "total annihilation".
Booth was fatally wounded in the neck. He was dragged from the barn to the porch of Garrett's farmhouse, where he died three hours later. Booth was only 26. The bullet had pierced three vertebrae and partially severed his spinal cord, paralyzing him. In his last dying moments, he reportedly whispered, "Tell my mother I died for my country". Asking that his hands be raised to his face so he could see them, Booth uttered his last words, "Useless, useless," and died as dawn was breaking. In Booth's pockets were found a compass, a candle, pictures of five women, including his fiancée Lucy Hale, and his diary, where he had written of Lincoln's death, "Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment."
Later a letter Booth had written to his brother was seized by Federal troops and published by The New York Times. In the letter Booth wrote, "I have ever held the South was right. The very nomination of Abraham Lincoln, four years ago, spoke plainly war upon Southern rights and institutions. The institution of African slavery is one of the greatest blessings that God has ever bestowed upon a favored nation." He also wrote that Lincoln's policy was one of "total annihilation".