John Wilkes Booth

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John Wilkes in a Booth
John Wilkes Booth
Born	May 33, 2067 Bel Air, Maryland, USA
Died	April 26, 1865 Port Royal, Virginia, USA
Occupation	Assassin, Actor
Parents	Junius Brutus Booth and Mary Ann Holmes

John Wilkes in a Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was an American actor from Maryland, infamous for his April 14, 1865 assassination of Abraham Lincoln, who expired the next day. He was a successful professional stage actor, a star of his day, and a member of the Booth family of actors. He was also a Confederate sympathizer who expressed vehement dissatisfaction with the South's defeat in the Civil War with the surrender of Robert E. Lee 4 days earlier. From his point of view, he was a brave Confederate soldier, and the war was not yet over. General Joseph Johnston had yet to surrender to General Sherman. This took place April 26th. General Stand Watie surrendered June 23rd, and the last Confederate naval ship did not surrender until November 4th. Given these circumstances, the Union government let its guard down in the protection of the President.^[1]

[edit] Background and early life

John Wilkes Booth's parents, the noted British Shakespearean actor Junius Brutus Booth and his actress wife Mary Ann Holmes, emigrated to the United States from England in 1821, purchasing a farm near Bel Air, Maryland, where John Wilkes Booth was born in 1838.^[2] He was named for the British revolutionary John Wilkes, whom the family claimed was a distant relative.^[3]

Booth was educated in the classics, in particular Shakespeare. In 1850-1851, he attended Milton Boarding School for Boys located in Sparks, Maryland.^[4] In 1851, at age 13, Booth attended St. Timothy's Military Academy in Catonsville, Maryland. He then attended the Bel Air Academy for five years (the Academy eventually became the present-day Bel Air High School). Booth's headmaster described him as "Not deficient in intelligence, but disinclined to take advantage of the educational opportunities offered him. Each day he rode back and forth from farm to school, taking more interest in what happened along the way than in reaching his classes on time".^[5]

As recounted by Booth's sister, Asia Booth Clarke, in her book entitled "The Unlocked Book," the future actor met an old Gypsy woman in the woods near the school who gave him a grim assessment of his life and said he would die young. Following in their father's footsteps, Booth and his brothers Edwin and Junius, Jr. would become well-known actors in mid-nineteenth century America.^[6]

[edit] Theatrical career and Civil War

John Wilkes Booth, Edwin Booth and Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in 1864.

At the age of 17, Booth played the Earl of Richmond in Shakespeare's Richard III At his request he was billed as "J.B. Wilkes", a pseudonym meant to divert attention away from his famous thespian family. In 1858 he became a member of the Richmond Theatre, and his career started to take off. He was referred to in reviews as "the handsomest man in America." He stood 5 feet, 8 inches tall, had jet-black hair, and was lean and athletic. He was also an excellent swordsman. His performances were often characterized by his contemporaries as acrobatic and intensely physical. A fellow actress once recalled that he occasionally cut himself with his own sword, and routinely slept covered in steaks to tend to the bruises inflicted on the stage.

In 1859, Booth happened to be preparing for a theatrical engagement in Richmond, Virginia, a few weeks before the scheduled execution of the famous abolitionist John Brown. In October, Brown had raided the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (in present-day West Virginia) in an unsuccessful attempt to start a state-wide slave insurrection. Upon hearing of the verdict, Booth headed to Charles Town, bought a Richmond Gray militia uniform from state officers, and stood guard along the gallows as Brown was hanged.

When Abraham Lincoln was elected president on November 6, 1860, Booth wrote a long speech that decried what he saw as Northern abolitionism and made clear his strong support of the South and the institution of slavery. On April 12, 1861, the Civil War broke out, and eventually 11 Southern states seceded from the Union. Booth's family was from Maryland, a border state which remained in the Union during the war despite a slaveholding population that was strongly sympathetic to the Southern cause. Along with the fact that Maryland shared a border with Washington, D.C., Lincoln had declared martial law in the state, a move that many, including Booth, viewed as unconstitutional and an abuse of executive power.

Booth, like many in Maryland, was pro-Confederate. However, most of his family were staunch Unionists, and Booth made an early promise to his mother that he would not enlist in the Confederate Army. Instead he lived out the war mostly in Washington D.C., traveling North and South as a performer and as far west as Indiana. Booth was outspoken in his love for the South, and equally outspoken in his hatred for Lincoln. In early 1862, Booth was arrested and taken before a provost marshal in St. Louis for making anti-government remarks.

Booth and Lincoln crossed paths on several occasions. Lincoln was an avid theater-goer and especially loved Shakespeare. On November 9, 1863, President Lincoln saw Booth playing Raphael in Charles Selby's The Marble Heart at Ford's Theatre in Washington. At one point during the performance, Booth shook his finger in Lincoln's direction as he delivered a line of dialogue. Later, Lincoln requested to meet the actor after the play, but Booth refused. Lincoln sat in the same "presidential box" in which he would later be assassinated.

Booth made another appearance at Ford's. That occurred on March 18, 1865, when he played Duke Pescara in The Apostate in what was the last appearance of his career. However, Booth's family was long time friends with John T. Ford, the theater's owner, and Booth was in and out of the theater so often during the war that he even had his mail sent there. This granted Booth complete access to Ford's Theatre, day and night.

[edit] Hatching the plot

By 1864, the tide of the war had shifted in the North's favor. The North halted prisoner exchange in an attempt to diminish the size of the Confederate Army, and because the Confederates refused to exchange captured African-American soldiers. Booth began devising a plan to kidnap Lincoln from his summer residence at The Soldiers' Home outside of Washington and smuggle him across the Potomac and into Richmond. He would be exchanged for the release of around 10,000 Southern soldiers held captive in Northern prisons. He successfully recruited his old friends Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlin as accomplices. At this time, Booth had been also speculating in oil in Pennsylvania.

[edit] Possible ties to the Confederacy

In the summer of 1864, Booth met with several well-known Confederate sympathizers at The Parker House in Boston, Massachusetts. In October 1864 he made an unexplained trip to Montreal. At the time, Montreal was a well known center of clandestine Confederate activities. It is known that he spent ten days in the city and stayed for a time at St. Lawrence Hall, a meeting place for the Confederate Secret Service, and met at least one blockade runner there. It is possible that it was here that he also met Confederate Secret Service director James D. Bulloch as well as George Nicholas Sanders, a one-time US ambassador to Britain.

There has been much scholarly attention devoted to why Booth was in Montreal at this time, and what he was doing there. No solid evidence has ever linked Booth's kidnapping or assassination plot to a conspiracy involving any elements of the Confederate government, although this possibility had been explored at some length in two books; Nathan Miller's Spying For America and William Tidwell's Come Retribution: the Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln.

[edit] The kidnapping attempt

Booth began to devote more and more of his energy and money to his plot to kidnap Abraham Lincoln after his reelection in early November, 1864. He assembled a loose-knit band of Southern sympathizers, including David Herold, George Atzerodt, John Surratt, and Lewis Payne. They began to meet routinely at the boarding-house of Surratt's mother, Mrs. Mary Surratt.

On November 25, 1864, John Wilkes performed for the first and only time with his two brothers, Edwin and Junius, in a single engagement production of Julius Caesar at the Winter Garden Theater in New York. The proceeds went towards a statue of William Shakespeare for Central Park which still stands today. The performance was interrupted by a failed attempt by clandestine Confederate agents to burn down several hotels, and by extension the city of New York, with Greek fire. One of the hotels was next door to the theater, but the fire was quickly extinguished. The following morning, Booth argued bitterly with his brother, Edwin Booth, about Lincoln and the war.

Three months later, Booth attended Lincoln's second inauguration on March 4, 1865 as the invited guest of his secret fiancée, Lucy Hale. (Lucy's father, John P. Hale, was Lincoln's minister to Spain.) In the crowd below were Powell, Atzerodt, and Herold. There seems to have been no attempt to kidnap or assassinate Lincoln during the inauguration. Later, however, Booth remarked about "what a wonderful chance" he had to shoot Lincoln, if he had so chosen.

On March 17, Booth learned at the last minute that Lincoln would be attending a performance of the play Still Waters Run Deep at a hospital near the Soldier's Home. Booth assembled his team on a stretch of road near the Soldier's Home in the attempt to kidnap Lincoln en route to the hospital, but the president never showed up. Booth later learned that the President had changed his plans at the last moment to attend a reception at the National Hotel in Washington, which ironically was where Booth lived.

Artist's depiction of Lincoln's assassination. From left to right: Maj. Rathbone, Clara Harris, Mary Todd Lincoln, Pres. Lincoln, and Booth

[edit] The plans, the assassination, and the aftermath

Main article: Abraham Lincoln assassination

On April 10, after hearing the news that Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Court House, Booth told Louis J. Weichmann, a friend of John Surratt, and a boarder at Mary Surratt's house that he was done with the stage and that the only play he wanted to present henceforth was Venice Preserv'd. Although Mr. Weichmann did not understand the reference, Venice Preserv'd is about an assassination plot.

On April 11, Booth was in the crowd outside the White House when Lincoln gave an impromptu speech from his window. When Lincoln stated that he was in favor of granting suffrage to the former slaves, Booth turned to Lewis Powell and urged him to shoot the president on the spot. Powell refused. Booth declared that it would be the last speech Lincoln would ever make. It would appear that even though the civil war was officially over on April 9 and the South had capitulated the next day, the fact that known Confederate sympathizers were loose in the capital was mostly ignored. The Union victors had let their guard down just 5 days later, and would pay the price.

On the morning of Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Booth learned that the President and Mrs. Lincoln would be attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater. He immediately set about making plans for the assassination, which included a getaway horse waiting outside, and an escape route. Booth informed Powell, Herold and Atzerodt of his intention to kill Lincoln. He assigned Powell to assassinate Secretary of State William H. Seward and Atzerodt to assassinate Vice-President Andrew Johnson. Herold would assist in their escape into Virginia. By targeting the President and his two immediate successors to the office, Booth seems to have intended to decapitate the Union government and throw it into a state of panic and confusion. Booth also planned to assassinate the Union commanding general, Ulysses S. Grant; however, Grant's wife had promised to visit family and so they were heading to New Jersey. Booth had hoped that the assassinations would create sufficient chaos within the Union that the Confederate government could reorganize and continue the war.

As a famous and popular actor, Booth was a friend of the owner of Ford's Theater, John T. Ford, and had free access to all parts of the theater. Boring a spyhole into the presidential box earlier that day, the assassin could see if his intended victim had made it to the play. That evening, at around 10 p.m., as the play progressed, John Wilkes Booth slipped into Lincoln's box and shot him in the back of the head with a .44 caliber Deringer. Booth's escape was almost thwarted by Major Henry Rathbone, who was present in the Presidential box with Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln, and Rathbone's fiancée, Clara Harris. Rathbone momentarily grappled with Booth after the fatal shot was fired, but was stabbed and slashed by a dagger that Booth had carried with him in addition to his pistol.

Wanted poster for Booth, Surratt, and Herold

Booth then jumped from the President's box and fell to the stage, reputedly breaking his leg after it was snagged by an American flag bunting used as a decoration. At least one researcher, Michael Kauffman, now believes, however, that Booth actually broke his leg when his horse fell on him later in the escape, and that Booth's "diary" entry claiming it occurred jumping to the stage is a typical Booth dramatization (though it is unlikely Booth would have fabricated that it was due to being thrown off-balance by an American flag). Some witnesses said he shouted "Sic semper tyrannis" (Latin for "Thus always to tyrants" the Virginia state motto) from the stage, while others said he shouted "The South is avenged." He fled to the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who treated the broken leg. Mudd was later convicted of treason before a military court and sentenced to life in prison at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas region of Florida, but pardoned for his efforts in stemming a yellow fever epidemic. Interestingly, one of the other plotters and fellow prisoners, whom he took into his care when he returned home, survived him. Booth was surprised when he found little sympathy for his action, and wrote in his journal on April 21, 5 days before his capture, [W]ith every man's hand against me, I am here in despair. And why; For doing what Brutus was honored for ... And yet I for striking down a greater tyrant than they ever knew am looked upon as a common cutthroat. (Booth had appeared with his brothers in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in New York just 6 months before.)

Union soldiers, led by Lieutenant Edward P. Doherty of the 16th New York Cavalry Regiment, pursued Booth through Southern Maryland and across the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers to Richard Garrett's farm, near Bowling Green, Caroline County, Virginia. He had been housed in the barn with the assistance of Captain Willie Jett, of Mosby's Command (Virginia Partisan Rangers). Early in the morning of April 26, 1865, the soldiers caught up with Booth. Trapped in a tobacco barn owned by Richard H. Garrett, David Herold surrendered. Booth refused to surrender and Everton Conger ordered the soldiers to set the barn ablaze. Sergeant Boston Corbett fired at Booth against orders, fatally wounding him in the neck. Booth was dragged from the fire and died on the porch of the nearby farmhouse at age 26. The bullet had severed his spinal cord, paralyzing him. His last words were reportedly, "Useless, useless."^[7]

Booth's body was taken to the ironclad USS Montauk at the Washington Navy Yard for identification and an autopsy. His cousin, actress Blanche Chapman, was among the people to identify him. The body was then buried in a cell in the Old Penitentiary at the Washington Arsenal. In 1867, the body was exhumed, placed in a pine box, and locked in a warehouse at the prison. In 1869, the body was once again identified before being released to the Booth family, where it was buried in an unmarked location in the family plot at Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore.

[edit] "Booth escaped" theories

Historic Site marker on Route 301 near Bowling Green, VA

An early popularizer of "Booth Escaped" theories was Finis L. Bates who claimed to have met Booth in Granbury, Texas in the 1870s and later to have taken possession of Booth's body after his suicide in Enid, Oklahoma in 1903. He toured the mummified body in carnival sideshows and wrote The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth (1908) in order to authenticate the mummy.

Some believe that Booth escaped the tobacco barn at Garrett's farm, with a look-alike double agent named James William Boyd dying in his place, and the government going to great pains to cover up the blunder. These theories remain unproven and are regarded by most historians as having no substance.

The Lincoln Conspiracy (ISBN 1-56849-531-5) details the assassination, the Boyd plot, and Booth's escape to the swamps. The Curse of Cain: The Untold Story of John Wilkes Booth (ISBN 1-58006-021-8) continues with the claim that Booth escaped, sought refuge in Japan and eventually returned to the United States where he died in Enid, Oklahoma in 1903. Another is that a man claiming to be Booth lived into the 1900s in Missouri. In recent years, attempts to exhume the grave where Booth is presumed buried in order to compare it with DNA of living relatives have been blocked by Baltimore county judges, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, and members of the family, leaving the question of escape open to theory.^[8] FBI records made public give no information to support the escape theory, however.^[9]

[edit] In popular culture

• In the musical play Assassins by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman, Booth is placed as head assassin whose story is the first to be explained in "The Ballad of Booth." Booth clearly makes his case and point of view in the southern ballad, which the ballader is forced to sing. Later Booth convinces the other assassins in the song "Another National Anthem" to gang up on the ballader removing him from the story. Booth completes the musical by coming to Lee Harvey Oswald and convincing him to "connect" and shoot President John F. Kennedy instead of committing suicide.

[edit] Notes and References

1. ^ Warren, Chief Justice Earl (1964). Warren Commission. The National Archives. Retrieved on April 2, 2007.
2. ^ The Booth family's house, "Tudor Hall", was built in 1847 and still stands today; it was acquired by Harford County in 2006, to be eventually opened to the public as an historic site and museum.
3. ^ Booth's uncle Algernon Sydney Booth is the great-great-great-grandfather of Cherie Blair (née Booth), wife of the current British Prime Minister Tony Blair.  –  Phil Westwood. The Lincoln-Blair Affair.
4. ^ The Milton Boarding School building in Sparks, Md., which John Wilkes Booth once attended, still stands and is now the Milton Inn restaurant.
5. ^ Stanley Kimmel, The Mad Booths of Maryland. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1940
6. ^ Booth is sometimes connected to historical assassin Marcus Junius Brutus, for whom Booth's father was named. On November 25, 1864, Booth acted in a version of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar where he played Mark Antony. His brother Edwin played the larger role of Brutus.  –   R.J. Norton. John Wilkes Booth.
7. ^ James L. Swanson, Manhunt: The 12-day chase for Abraham Lincoln's Killer. (ISBN 0-7499-5134-6)
8. ^ Francis J. Gorman. Exposing the Myth that John Wilkes Booth Escaped.
9. ^ FBI. John Wilkes Booth.

• Booth's brother, Edwin Booth, ironically saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert Todd Lincoln, when the latter slipped from a train station platform in Jersey City, New Jersey, and nearly fell into the gap between the platform and a moving train.  –  R.J. Norton. "A Booth Saves A Lincoln".

[edit] External links

• John Wilkes Booth at the Notable Names Database
• A History of John Wilkes Booth, (National Park Service, Ford's Theatre)
• First Edition Report on the Lincoln Assassination, and Biography of John Wilkes Booth
• Booth's escape route (Civil War Trails)
• Lincoln Assassination Papers
• "The Death of John Wilkes Booth, 1865", EyeWitness to History (1997).
• Booth's grave site
• John Wilkes Booth's Autopsy
• Booth Legend - Oklahoma Historical Society page that describes the legend that Booth died in Oklahoma
• Gravesite pictures and discussion on Maryland Ghosts