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Breakfast with Booth: Carrie Bean

Posted on September 11, 2023 by Dave Taylor

On the night of April 13, 1865, Washington, D.C. was a city of jubilation. The nation’s capital was decked out in beautiful displays of celebration and light. Described as the Grand Illumination, countless businesses and private homes burned candles and were lavishly decorated in order to mark the essential end of the Civil War due to Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9th. The event brought many visitors to D.C. and the streets were filled with revelers until late into the night.

Among the throng of people who viewed the Grand Illumination in all its grandeur was a solemn and dejected John Wilkes Booth. The cheering and good humor of the citizens of Washington was nothing but a reminder to Booth that his prior months’ plan to abduct President Lincoln and surrender him to the Confederacy had come to naught. With the war being celebrated as practically over, Booth had to admit to himself that he had done nothing substantive on behalf of his cause.

At around 2:00 a.m., Booth returned to his rented room at the National Hotel. He composed a quick note to his mother stating of the illumination, “Everything was bright and splendid. More so in my eyes if it had been a display in a nobler cause. But so goes the world. Might makes right.” With that, Booth retired.

Booth’s whereabouts in the subsequent hours leading up to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln have long been the subject of study. We know several of the places he visited during this time – such as Ford’s Theatre to get his mail and the Surratt boarding house to ask Mrs. Surratt to take a package to her tavern for him. However, creating a minute-by-minute timeline of his movements is difficult as witnesses sometimes place him in contradictory places at the same time. Arthur Loux has done the best job of trying to establish Booth’s routine on assassination day with his book John Wilkes Booth: Day By Day. Still, plenty of uncertainties remain.

One example that demonstrates the unknowns regarding Booth and his movements on assassination day is in regard to his earliest of tasks: eating breakfast.

The first source that attempts to explain Booth’s breakfast on April 14, 1865, is journalist George Alfred Townsend. GATH, as he was known, was a correspondent for The World newspaper out of New York City. On the night of Lincoln’s assassination, GATH was actually in Richmond, having arrived shortly after the Confederate capital fell. After the news of Lincoln’s assassination reached Richmond, GATH quickly returned to Washington. From there, he wrote several dispatches to The World, detailing the crime, manhunt, capture of Booth, and the eventual trial of the conspirators. GATH had good relationships with civilians, government leaders, and military officers alike. As a result, he was able to compose fairly detailed reports back to his readers.

On April 28, 1865, The World published a biographical article about John Wilkes Booth written by GATH. The lengthy biography ended with a paragraph titled “Closing Scenes” which stated:

“On the morning of the murder, Booth breakfasted with Miss Carrie Bean, the daughter of a merchant and a very respectable young lady, at the National Hall. He arose from the table at, say eleven o’clock. During this breakfast, those who watched him say that he was very lively, piquant and self-possessed as ever in his life.”

While GATH does not provide the source for his knowing that Booth dined with “Miss Carrie Bean”, the entire article about Booth was supposedly “complied for The World from the statements of his personal friends and companions”. GATH’s knack for sniffing out details had always served him well. In this instance, I’m willing to believe that GATH visited the National Hotel himself and heard the story from some people there.

So who was this Carrie Bean that GATH wrote about? Well, for the longest time, I believed that Carrie Bean was this woman buried in D.C.’s Congressional Cemetery. I’ve visited her grave in the past and even had her marked on my Lincoln assassination maps as the woman who might have shared breakfast with the assassin of Lincoln.

However, as I was researching for this piece, I became less and less convinced that the Carrie Bean buried in Congressional Cemetery is the correct woman. GATH described Carrie Bean as a “Miss”, “young”, and the “daughter of a merchant”. Congressional Carrie doesn’t really fit any of these descriptors. Her father, Thomas Copeland, had been dead since 1856. He was never a merchant but spent most of his career as a “master machinist and engineer of the U.S. Navy Yard.” Next, Congressional Carrie wouldn’t have been considered all that “young” by Victorian standards. At the time of Lincoln’s assassination, she was 34 years old and the mother of three children. Her first husband, William Bean, had died ten years previously. Lastly, in 1862, Carrie remarried a man named John Russell. Thus, in 1865, Congressional Carrie was technically Mrs. Carrie Russell. While she did have a similar name as the person referred to by GATH, it no longer seems possible for her to have been the one he was writing about.

Trying to track down the identity of GATH’s “Miss Carrie Bean” has been quite a struggle as his description provided so little to go on. However, after following up on many false leads over the course of two weeks, I think I have actually found the person he was referencing. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to walk you through my research process on this. I did not take the most linear path, but I still believe I managed to find the most likely candidate.

My investigation started when I saw a version of the following image attached to the FindaGrave page for Carrie Bean Russell buried at Congressional Cemetery:

This drawing comes from the cover of the March 23, 1861 edition of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. On this cover several of the ladies who attended President Lincoln’s first inaugural ball are shown, wearing their beautiful gowns.

Now, this labeled image seems to be proof that Congressional Carrie was quite the socialite and had attended Lincoln’s inauguration in 1861, thus making it more likely she could have later rubbed elbows with John Wilkes Booth at the National Hotel. However, attributing this image to Carrie Bean Russell is yet another case of mistaken identity.

What bothered me about Carrie’s drawing was how some of the other ladies present on the cover had their home cities listed, while Carrie Bean did not. For example, the lady right next to Carrie is “Miss White, of Washington” and two ladies down from her is “Mrs. Frank Smith, of Boston”. Yet Carrie and others on the page are not attributed to a certain city. I found a digitized copy of the whole issue on the Internet Archive and flipped through the pages. Near the end of the issue is the article about the inaugural ball and its attendees. The dresses of the different ladies on the cover are described, some more than others. The description for Carrie Bean is short but provides one key piece of information. It states: “Miss Bean, of New York, in white tarletan.”

Suddenly things made sense. Frank Leslie’s was a New York City paper. Thus, Carrie Bean and the other New York ladies present on the cover did not need any introduction to the paper’s New York audience. Only the ladies from outside of New York got special treatment.

I decided to try and track down this Carrie Bean of New York. While Frank Leslie’s only placed her in D.C. in March of 1861, I was hoping that she might have had enough clout to get another invitation to Lincoln’s second inauguration in March of 1865, just one month before his assassination. Plus, since GATH was writing for the New York World, it would make sense for him to include this detail about Booth’s breakfast since it involved a New Yorker.

Doing different searches for “Carrie Bean” and “New York” provided several newspaper articles that appeared to be the subject in question, but none of them really provided more information on who she was. However, they all helped establish that Miss Bean was a well-known socialite who hobnobbed with important figures of the day, many of whom had connections to the National Hotel. For example, in February of 1864, “Miss Bean, of New York” attended a ball in Washington, D.C. put on by General Gouverneur Warren in honor of the II Corps of the Union Army. The exclusive event was attended by Vice President Hanibal Hamlin, General George Meade, Senator John P. Hale “and daughter” (Lucy Hale, perhaps?), along with other senators and generals. Steve Williams, a fellow researcher on Roger Norton’s Lincoln Discussion Symposium, found the following article describing “Mrs. Bean and Miss Bean” attending a reception at the home of Ohio Senator John Sherman in February of 1865. The guest list was the very elite of Washington society:

In February of 1865, Senators James Harlan of Iowa and John P. Hale of New Hampshire were both living at the National Hotel. The fact that these Senators were connected to Miss Bean and her mother enough to include them in their party or escort one of them made it seem like I was on the right track. This reception took place just two months before the assassination of Lincoln.

It must be remembered that Washington became a bustling city as a result of the Civil War and the hotel industry there boomed. It was common for people to engage in long hotel stays in those days. Politicians especially lived out of hotels and boarding houses while Congress was in session, only to return to their home states when in recess. The Vice President didn’t have an official residence in D.C. until the 1970s, which is why Andrew Johnson was living at the Kirkwood House hotel at the time of Lincoln’s death. But long hotel stays were not limited to politicians. John Wilkes Booth had been residing at the National Hotel for months before the assassination. Correspondents from all the nation’s papers lived full-time in D.C. hotels. Lawyers with business in the federal courts spent weeks or months living out of hotels waiting for their cases to come up. Countless lobbyists, salespeople, and contract-type employees in connection with the federal government took up residence in hotels rather than purchasing property. If you had the money, then staying long-term at a hotel was the way to go.

Despite these and other finds showing that Miss Bean of New York was a known social figure in Washington during the Civil War years, I still lacked any additional identifying information. A big break came from a couple of articles that were published by GATH in June of 1865. These articles had nothing to do with the assassination but covered the annual examinations at the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY. The West Point examinations were a celebrated public event in which members of the public watched as the cadets were drilled and tested. In the first article, GATH included the name of “Miss Carrie Bean” among the ladies who had helped to make the examinations a successful social affair.

However, the big break came in the second article about the West Point examinations. It focused on the attendance of Generals Winfield Scott and Ulysses S. Grant at the trials. When GATH wrote out the list of visitors who watched as the cadets were tested in the academy’s library, he included the following:

“The ladies list included Mr. F. B. Conkling, Mrs. Sherwood, Mrs. Bigelow, the Misses Fish, Mrs. Strong, Mrs. Lavery, and many of equal social prominence, Mrs. Carrie Bean, Miss Roe and other bright faces represented the Highlands.”

Ignoring the change in salutation for the moment, it was the note that this Carrie Bean and others “represented the Highlands” that finally gave me a lead.

The Highlands is the area right around West Point on either side of the Hudson River. The land here is technically part of the Appalachian Mountains, though most of the mountains here are quite low in comparison with other parts of the range. Still, along the Hudson River in this area, the land is quite hilly earning the name the Hudson Highlands. If GATH was writing truthfully, then Carrie Bean was a resident of this particular area of New York, which greatly narrowed down the search.

Armed with this information, I quickly found my most promising lead yet in the 1870 census. I found a 23-year-old named Cara Bean living in Phillipstown, NY which was located just across the Hudson River from West Point.

After spending over a week researching her and painstakingly creating her family tree, I’m very confident that this is the Carrie Bean referenced by GATH. Allow me to introduce you to her.

Cara Bean was the daughter of Aaron Hook Bean and Maria Louise Remer. Aaron was a New Hampshire native who moved to New York City with his brother, Moses Dudley Bean. The two men entered into the liquor business and quickly became successful merchants. After a few years, Dudley left the partnership, leaving Aaron with a successful solo business.

Aaron married Maria Remer in New York City in October of 1841. On December 22, 1842, the couple announced the birth of a daughter named Cara Louise. Two other children followed, Anabel in 1853, and Howard Dudley in 1857. In addition to his thriving liquor business, Aaron Bean got involved in other ventures. In 1844, Aaron’s sister Susan Bean Marston, a widow with two children, married Thomas “Peg Leg” Ward of Austin, Texas. Ward was a celebrated figure in Texas as a result of his having lost a leg in the fight for Texas independence. While the marriage between Ward and Susan Bean would later prove to be acrimonious and abusive, in the first few years Ward was a celebrated member of the family. Aaron used his brother-in-law’s fame and reputation to jump-start more business ventures. As a merchant, Aaron provided patent documents and clerical supplies to Ward when the latter was engaged as a Texas Land Commissioner. Aaron also invested in the Galveston, Houston, and Henderson Railroad bringing him further financial success. In the 1860 census, Aaron Bean’s real estate holdings were valued at $300,000 and his personal estate was valued at around $50,000. It was in this way that Cara Bean, her siblings, and her cousins, all lived a life without want.

When Cara Bean began living the life of a young socialite is unclear. Her family certainly had the money to support such a lifestyle. While they were New York residents, the Bean family were no strangers to the nation’s capital. Aaron Bean’s name can be found on the arrival lists of various D.C. hotels starting as early as 1853. On the last day of February 1861, Aaron Bean checked into Clay’s Hotel in Washington. Cara Bean joined her father in the city as preparations for Lincoln’s inauguration were underway.

In support of this claim is a letter written by Blanche Butler, the daughter of future Union General Benjamin Butler. In 1861, 14-year-old Blanche was attending boarding school in Washington. She regularly corresponded with her father and mother back home in Massachusetts. On March 11, 1861, Blanche wrote a letter to her mother about the events surrounding Lincoln’s inauguration and her attendance at the inaugural ball. In the letter, she mentions Carrie Bean and Clay’s Hotel specifically:

“[Uncle] came over quite early in the morning, and we had breakfast at Clay’s Hotel, with the Misses Bean, and we stood on the balcony all the morning and saw the procession go by; then Uncle took me up to Mr. Baker’s and there he decided that I had better go to the Ball; although I was not anxious to do so. Carrie Bean lent me a white muslin dress, which with a cherry sash, white gloves, a cherry and white fan, a pair of white kid slippers with little rosettes on the top, completed my outfit. We went about half past nine and returned at half past three. As I refused to dance every set but one, ate a very light supper, I did not experience any ill effects from it excepting a slight cold, which you know was impossible to avoid.”

Blanche Butler was the beneficiary of Carrie Bean’s kindness in lending the young girl a dress and the two joined the other celebrants at the ball on March 4. But it was Carrie, not Blanche, who got her dress memorialized in the pages of Frank Leslie’s.

When the Civil War broke out, Aaron Bean sold many of his business assets, including his lucrative liquor business. With the funds, he purchased the 252-acre piece of property near West Point, NY where the family is found in the 1870 census. However, Aaron Bean was not completely divested of all his businesses. In the middle of the war, Aaron partnered with a cousin of his named Moses Hook Bean to lease the former Clay’s Hotel in D.C. and run it as the United States Hotel. Aaron was also active in pushing for an expansion of the D.C. street car system. His name was on a list of incorporators for a line that would connect the Navy Yard to Georgetown. Aaron’s business interests in D.C. meant that the family had plenty of reasons to return to Washington. The various mentions of “Miss Bean” at different social gatherings in D.C. make it clear that Cara was easily able to ingratiate herself with important members of Washington society during the Civil War years.

Elizabeth “Libbie” Custer

In the spring of 1864, a new woman came to reside in Washington. Her name was Elizabeth “Libbie” Custer, and she was the wife of Major General George Armstrong Custer. The Custers had just married in February of ’64, but George’s duties to the Union army had cut their honeymoon short. Libbie, a Michigan native, was brand new to the capital city but her husband’s service at the Battle of Gettysburg had made him famous. Thus, she was quickly welcomed by the political elite of the city.

Given that both ladies ran in the same social circles, it was only inevitable that Libbie Custer and Cara Bean would meet. When this happened exactly is unclear but soon the pair had formed a friendship. In addition, Libbie became friends with Cara’s cousin, Fanny. Blanche Butler mentioned the “Misses Bean” in the plural when writing her letter in 1861. Cara Bean was 18 years old at the time of Lincoln’s first inauguration while her younger sister, Anabel, was only about 8. It’s possible that Anabel joined her sister for that trip to Washington, but I posit that there is also a chance that Blanche was referring to Cara’s cousin, Fanny.

Fanny Ellen Bean was the daughter of Moses Dudley Bean and his wife Mary Curtis. The two cousins, practically identical in age, grew up together. Aaron and Dudley’s families are shown all living together under the same roof in the 1850 and 1860 censuses. Fanny was close to Cara their whole lives and when Fanny died in 1899, she left Cara part of her estate.

Cara Bean appears to have become quite close with the Custers. It is because of them that we actually have a picture of Cara Bean. According to photography expert D. Mark Katz, on October 23, 1864, Libbie, Custer, and “Cora” Bean posed together for this photograph in Mathew Brady’s studio in Washington:

Here’s a close-up of Cara Bean from a different copy of this image:

If the date this photograph is attributed to is correct, then this is Cara Bean as she appeared just a couple months shy of her 22nd birthday.

I found this image fairly early on in my research. However, the name attributed to this image is “Miss Cora Bean”. During my initial searches, I found a couple mentions of Cora Bean but I had no way of knowing if this was the same person as the Carrie Bean mentioned by GATH and featured on the cover of Frank Leslie’s. For a time, I had actually dismissed all the references to Cora Bean entirely as I found that there was a Cora L. Bean from New York who was alive during the Civil War.

However, when I discovered Cara L. Bean and saw how easily her unique name could be confused for Cora (and how it often was when she was older), I delved more into the other Cora Bean. It ends up that Cora and Cara were second cousins. Cora was the daughter of Cotton Ward Bean, a cousin of Aaron H. Bean. But beyond the family connection, the important thing I learned is that Cora Bean wasn’t born until 1858. That means she would have only been about 6 when this picture with the Custers was taken. But it’s clear that the person in this photograph is not 6 years old. This photograph cannot be of the actual Cora L. Bean. It must be of Cara L. Bean. This helped establish the fact that, in addition to Carrie and Cara, I had another name I would have to search for in order to flesh out her life story.

The shared photograph is not the only connection between the Custers and Cara Bean. In March of 1866, George Custer was in New York without Libbie. On March 29th, George wrote a letter to Libbie recounting his activities. Libbie’s biographer, Shirley Leckie, summarized the contents of the letter in her book:

“[George] took Cora [sic] and Fannie Bean, two of Libbie’s friends, to dinner and shopping. Later the three attended Maggie Mitchell’s performance in Little Barefoot. The blond actress had become one of the most popular figures on stage, following her role in Fanchon, the Cricket, a play she now owned. During curtain calls, Custer and the two young women threw a bouquet with a card: ‘from an admiring trio.'”

Leckie continues, describing how a few days later on April 5th, Custer and the Bean cousins attended a Bal d’Opera at the Academy of Music. This was a masquerade ball in which Custer dressed up as the devil. Later, he wrote to Libbie noting Thomas Nast had drawn the scene of the ball and that a caricature of his costume was published in Harper’s Weekly. While the drawing doesn’t seem to capture either Cara or Fanny Bean, here apparently is George Armstong Custer as the devil.

General Custer was famously killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. A year later, his body was shipped to New York for burial at West Point Cemetery. According to newspaper articles, Libbie was attended at the funeral by her friend, Cora [sic] Bean.

The Custers were not the only individuals with whom Cara Bean established a friendship during the Civil War years. As mentioned before Senator James Harlan of Iowa had resided at the National Hotel in 1864 and 1865 and was connected to the Beans. In the early years of the war, he had lived at Clay’s Hotel, another usual haunt of the Beans. Senator Harlan’s eldest child was Mary Eunice Harlan. She was born in 1846 and was educated both in Iowa and in Washington due to her father’s position as Senator. At some point during her months in Washington, Mary Harlan met Cara Bean, likely because they ran in the same circles and often boarded at the same hotels. In 1864, a courtship began between Mary Harlan and Robert Todd Lincoln. At his father’s second inaugural ball, Robert Lincoln escorted Mary Harlan as his date. The two were planning a wedding when Abraham Lincoln’s assassination occurred. For a time, it looked like their courtship was over as a result. Eventually, however, the two renewed their courtship and on September 24, 1868, Robert Lincoln and Mary Harlan were married.

Mary Harlan in her wedding dress

By this time the Harlans had ceased living out of hotels and so the wedding was held at their home on H Street in Washington. While the wedding of Lincoln’s eldest child would have been the most celebrated event in Washington, the couple decided to keep it very small. They only invited about thirty of their closest friends. It was a very exclusive event but one person who made the cut was Cara Bean. Her outfit for the wedding was described in the D.C. papers:

“Miss Cora [sic] Bean, of New York, was dressed in white French mouslin, elegantly embroidered over a purple silk, with amethyst necklace, earrings and bracelets. Her dress was made in the latest and most fashinable [sic] style.”

From these examples, it’s clear that Cara Bean was an active participant in the social circles of Washington, D.C. during the Civil War years.

After the Civil War ended, it appears that Cara Bean returned home to New York to live at the family’s estate near West Point. References to her in the D.C. papers end with Robert Lincoln’s marriage in 1868. In 1879, the Beans sold their estate and moved back into New York City. In the 1880 census, Cara, her parents, and her brother are all living in a hotel. Also boarding in the same hotel is Cara’s cousin Fanny. Aaron Bean died in 1883 and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.

Cara Bean never married. In the 1890s she lived with her widowed mother and fellow spinster cousin Fanny at The Albany, an apartment complex on Broadway and 51st streets in New York City. Yet she was still engaged in social activities. She was a patron of the music scene and contributed her time and money to worthwhile causes, especially those catering to needy children.

1899 – 1900 was a period of great loss to Cara Bean. Her cousin Fanny died in November of 1899. A month later, her mother Maria also passed. Six months after that her brother Howard Dudley died. By 1901, she was alone at The Albany. Cara sought company with the only close relative she had left, her sister Anabel. The younger middle Bean sibling was the only one who had children. Anabel lived with her husband Edward Leavitt in Stamford, Connecticut. Cara Bean departed New York City to live with her sister and her five nieces and nephews.

On November 16, 1902, Cara Louise Bean died at the home of her sister in Stamford. She was 59 years old. Her obituary in the New York Times was short but did recount how Cara and her cousin Fanny (misidentifed as Blanche) were, “well known in New York society”.

Cara Bean’s body was transported back to New York and she was interred in Woodlawn Cemetery with her parents.

I believe that the “Miss Carrie Bean” described by George Alfred Townsend in his article about John Wilkes Booth was Cara Louse Bean of New York. The pieces of Cara Bean’s life and influence in D.C. society all seem to fit GATH’s description of that, “daughter of a merchant and a very respectable young lady”. Cara Bean knew and interacted with so many important figures in D.C. society. She resided for long periods of time at the National Hotel. She went to parties and balls with the daughters of Senators like Mary Harlan and Lucy Hale. She was escorted to events by the like of Lincoln’s private secretary John Hay and was well known to Robert Todd Lincoln. I have no doubt in my mind that Cara Bean also knew the famous actor, John Wilkes Booth.

With that being said, nothing in my research can definitively prove GATH’s claim that Cara Bean ate breakfast with John Wilkes Booth on the morning of April 14, 1865. I think it’s certainly possible that she did, but without another witness or something from Cara herself attesting to the shared meal, we can never be sure.

I never intended to do this deep dive on Cara Bean. Remember, I originally thought the Carrie Bean mentioned in GATH’s article was the woman buried in Congressional Cemetery. Talking about Carrie Bean was supposed to be the quick and easy part of a completely different blog post. I was just going to mention Carrie Bean in order to give context to an interesting article I had stumbled across. You see, Carrie Bean is not the only person who was connected with John Wilkes Booth’s breakfast on April 14, 1865. In my next post, I’ll discuss the two other ladies who have been linked to the assassin’s breakfast. One of them has a doozy of a story:

References:
The family history of Cara Bean was assembled through documents accessible through Ancestry.com and newspaper articles accessed through GenealogyBank, Newspapers.com, and the Internet Archive.
“Right or Wrong, God Judge Me”: The Writings of John Wilkes Booth edited by John Rhodehamel and Louise Taper (1997)
“John Wilkes Booth and George Alfred Townsend: A Marriage Made in Hell?” by Terry Alford (1992)
Peg Leg: The Improbable Life of a Texas Hero, Thomas William Ward, 1807 – 1872 by David C. Humphrey (2009)
Chronicles from the Nineteenth Century: Family letters of Blanche Butler and Adelbert Ames, married July 21st, 1870 by Blanche Butler Ames (1957)
Custer in Photographs by D. Mark Katz (1985)
Elizabeth Bacon Custer and the Making of a Myth by Shirley Leckie (1993)
NYPL Digital Collections
Wikimedia Commons
Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln by Jason Emerson (2012)
Proceedings of the John Bean (1660) Association at its Annual Reunion at Boston, September 5, 1900
Burial records from Woodlawn Cemetery
My thanks to Steve Williams and others at Roger Norton’s Lincoln Discussion Symposium for helping in my initial searches for Carrie Bean.

Categories: History | Tags: Carrie Bean, GATH, John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln, National Hotel, Newspapers, Research | 14 Comments

Some Upcoming Events 2023

Posted on August 12, 2023 by Dave Taylor

A few interesting Lincoln assassination related events have popped up on the radar over the next couple of months that I wanted to share. I wish I lived near some of these so that I could attend them.

August 25, 2023

Boston, Massachusetts

Lincoln and Booth: Live Music Played to Film

“The West End Museum presents an unforgettable theatrical experience when members of the New England Film Orchestra combine the magic of film with the power of music as they perform live music in-sync to two films highlighting the lives of Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth.

Odie Henderson, Boston Globe Film Critic and author of ‘Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxploitation Cinema’ (out in January 2024), will join us to provide context for the films.

John Wilke’s Booth was in Boston in April of 1865, eight days before the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. What the well-known actor was doing during those last fateful days is not altogether clear, but during that time was purportedly seen practicing his aim at a local shooting gallery.

The first firm is an early silent short by Thomas Edison from 1915 entitled “The Life of Abraham Lincoln,” which spans the famous president’s life from his marriage to his assassination by Booth. The second, “The Man in the Barn,” is a speculative docu-drama from 1937 that asks if John Wilkes Booth didn’t die by gunshot while trapped in a burning barn just days after Lincoln’s assassination, but rather escaped to live another 38 years.

Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind “surround-sound” movie event at Boston’s landmark Hub Hall, adjacent to TD Garden and North Station and boasting 18 diverse food and drink options for a before or after-movie snack.”

Cost: $15

Event page: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lincoln-and-booth-live-music-played-to-film

September 23, 2023

Washington, D.C.

Smithsonian Booth Escape Route Bus Tour [led by American Brutus author, Michael Kauffman!]

“Fleeing Ford’s Theatre on the night of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth traveled through Maryland into Virginia, where, a few days later, he was found and fatally shot. Historian Michael Kauffman retraces Booth’s escape route and reveals the personalities and intrigues surrounding the Lincoln assassination.

Stops include Ford’s Theatre; the house near Clinton, Maryland, belonging to Mary Surratt, who was hanged for her involvement in the plot; and the house of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, who set Booth’s broken leg.

Enjoy a seafood lunch at Captain Billy’s Crab House at Popes Creek Landing, near where Booth and co-conspirator David Edgar Herold crossed the Potomac. In Virginia, visit sites where they contacted local sympathizers and where Booth was captured and died.”

Cost: $170 for members, $220 for non members

Event page: https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/booths-escape-route

October 15, 2023

Albany, New York

The Rathbones of Albany The Tragic Story of John Wilkes Booth’s Last Victim

Presented by the Friends of Albany Rural Cemetery

“Clara Harris and Henry Reed Rathbone were from prominent families in Albany. Each had wealth, education, and a bright future. Mark will reveal the sad, gruesome, yet true story of two local people who witnessed the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln first-hand, and the Cottage in Loudonville where ghostly apparitions have been reported.”

[Note from Dave: While Henry and Clara Rathbone are not buried at the Albany Rural Cemetery, their parents are. In addition, this cemetery is the final resting place of Absalom Bainbridge, one of the Confederate soldiers who met up with John Wilkes Booth and David Herold at Port Conway on April 24, 1865. Bainbridge assisted his cousin Mortimer Ruggles and a third Confederate, Willie Jett, in transporting Booth to the Garrett farm. Herold went with Bainbridge to spend the night at the home of Mrs. Clarke outside of Bowling Green. On the morning of April 25th, Bainbridge and Ruggles brought Herold back to the Garretts where they dropped him off. After seeing the Union soldiers crossing the ferry between Port Conway and Port Royal, Bainbridge and Ruggles raced back to alert Booth and Herold before fleeing themselves. If you attend this event, be sure to hunt down Bainbridge’s grave (and send me a photo of it). President Chester Arthur is buried here, too.]

Cost: Tickets don’t go on sale until September 24th

Event page: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-rathbones-of-albany-the-tragic-story-of-john-wilkes-booths-last-victim

October 21, 2023

Bel Air, Maryland

The Lincolns, the Booths, and the Spirits & The Forgotten Women of the Lincoln Assassination

“The Junius B. Booth Society (JBBS) and the Historical Society of Harford County, Inc. (HSHC) are holding an intriguing, one-of-a kind fundraising event titled The Lincolns, the Booths, and the Spirits & The Forgotten Women of the Lincoln Assassination featuring author/historians Terry Alford and Kathryn Canavan on Saturday, October 21 at the Historical Society of Harford County. This is a fundraiser and the proceeds will be split between JBBS and HSHC. All proceeds to JBBS will be used for the Tudor Hall museum. Seating is limited to 95 people, so reserve your seats now. Drinks and snacks will be provided. Following the closing remarks, the first floor of Tudor Hall, the childhood home of John Wilkes Booth will be open to attendees till 5:30 PM.

Terry Alford will present The Lincolns, the Booths, and the Spirits. Terry’s latest book, In the Houses of Their Dead, is the first book of the many thousands written about Lincoln to focus on the president’s fascination with Spiritualism (very popular in the Civil War era). Terry will demonstrate how it linked Lincoln, uncannily, to the man who would kill him. Abraham Lincoln is usually seen as a rational, empirically-minded man, yet as acclaimed scholar and biographer Terry Alford reveals, he was also deeply superstitious and drawn to the irrational. Like millions of other Americans, including the Booths, Lincoln and his wife, Mary, suffered repeated personal tragedies, and turned for solace to Spiritualism, a new practice sweeping the nation that held that the dead were nearby and could be contacted by the living. Remarkably, the Lincolns and the Booths even used the same mediums, including Charles Colchester, a specialist in “blood writing” whom Mary first brought to her husband, and who warned the president after listening to the ravings of another of his clients, John Wilkes Booth.

Kathryn Canavan is an independent researcher and the author of Lincoln’s Final Hours: Conspiracy, Terror, and the Assassination of America’s Greatest President. Kathryn will present The Forgotten Women of the Lincoln Assassination digging deep and uncovering surprising secrets and stories about some of the fascinating women connected to Lincoln’s assassination.”

Cost: $30

Event page: https://www.harfordhistory.org/event/the-booths-of-bel-air/

Categories: History, News | Tags: Abraham Lincoln, BERT, Clara Harris, Events, Henry Rathbone, John Wilkes Booth, Media, Michael Kauffman, Researchers, Tours | 8 Comments

History’s Greatest Mysteries: The Escape of John Wilkes Booth

Posted on August 6, 2023 by Dave Taylor

On December 5, 2020, the History Channel aired the fourth episode of their television show History’s Greatest Mysteries. This episode was called The Escape of John Wilkes Booth. And while it did have some reputable experts like Michael Kauffman who described the assassination and Booth’s subsequent 12 day escape, the almost hour and a half long episode mainly dealt with the plethora of conspiracy theories claiming that JWB escaped his death at the Garrett farm. Sadly, it seems like all the “documentaries” today that cover the Lincoln assassination story end up being about these very fringe and long discredited theories. When the episode first aired, I angrily tweeted from my friend Bob’s ottoman about the most obvious falsehoods as so many incorrect and illogical statements were presented alongside legitimate history.

The show seemed to be following the route of its injudicious “everything you have ever been told is a lie” predecessors which would inevitably end with a call to exhume JWB’s body on the basis of “evidence” that has been repeatedly and thoroughly debunked. While the very end of the episode did ultimately feature the hosts wondering if more information could be found by digging Booth up, just prior to that, this program pleasantly surprised me. They actually put some of these conspiracy theories to the test by using handwriting analysis and DNA comparison.

Below, I have excerpted a seven minute portion from near the end of the program that reveals their analysis of three theories presented in the show. These theories are: that David E. George was John Wilkes Booth (as claimed by Finis Bates), that John Wilkes Booth fathered children with Izola Martha Mills both before and after his supposed death, and a separate claim that John Wilkes Booth escaped and fathered a child that bore his own name. Give it a watch:

Let’s recap what we just saw there. First a handwriting expert looked at notarized document which stated, only at the end, that David E. George claimed to have been John Wilkes Booth just before his death. The expert concluded the document had been altered and the sentence describing George’s so called confession was added after the original had been notarized. The same expert also compared David E. George’s signature to known examples of John Wilkes Booth’s handwriting and found they did not match.

Next, the show used DNA from a descendant of Jane Booth Mitchell, Junius Brutus Booth’s sister, in order to see if various descendants of Martha Izola Mills are related to the Booth family. It was established that Booth descendant and the Mills descendants are not related. Then a similar comparison was done to a descendant who claimed John Wilkes Booth as her great great grandfather. Her father’s name was John Wilkes Booth III (and was actually interviewed by members of the Surratt Society in the 1980s). It was found that this descendant was also not related to the family of the real John Wilkes Booth.

In one fell swoop, History’s Greatest Mysteries actually did a huge favor to legitimate history by publicly discrediting these conspiracy theories. While it’s unfortunate that the important information uncovered is hidden in over an hour of misinformation, I’m still grateful they made some attempt to be objective and not just cater to sensationalism.

In this way, the show proved what close family and siblings of John Wilkes Booth knew all along. Their brother was killed at the Garrett farm on April 26, 1865. Even before he died, JWB was identified by photograph comparison at the Garrett farm and he had identifying items on his person. Despite the poor condition of his corpse by the time it got back to Washington, numerous friends, acquaintances, and his doctor further identified him on the USS Montauk. Finally, when his body was released to the family in 1869, his remains were once again identified by close theater friends who had known him for years and by his own brother, Joseph Booth. While some modern Booth relatives may wholeheartedly hope that their distant relative escaped his death, it’s just not so. Hopefully this program will help bring closure to a family that has long been abused by hucksters and frauds who attempted to use members of the Booth family to push their own agendas.

If you would like to watch the full episode, it’s available to purchase digitally on sites like Amazon and Google Play for like $2. You can also purchase season 1 & 2 of History’s Greatest Mysteries on DVD from Amazon for $10. If you are a subscriber to the Disney Plus streaming service, you can actually watch the episode for free. Just be warned that some of the “experts” featured on the show are really out there with their fantasies (i.e. the claim that Willie Jett shot “Booth”).

My friend Steve Miller refers to the Booth escaped conspiracy theories as rubber spiders. Like rubber spiders, no matter how hard you stomp on them, they just can’t be killed. I know that despite the mountain of evidence proving that John Wilkes Booth was killed at the Garret farm and is buried in the family plot at Green Mount Cemetery, people will continue to claim that Booth somehow escaped his own death. We’ll never be able to stomp out these stories for good. Still, I try to find solace in the fact that anyone who actually takes the time to investigate and evaluate these stories for themselves will quickly see that, like the rubber spiders, these conspiracy theories have never been real.

Categories: History | Tags: Conspiracy Theory, David E George, Garrett farm, John Wilkes Booth, Media, Mummy | 10 Comments

A Genuine Garrett Farm Relic? Patrick Tighe and the Patrols of the 16th NY

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Dave Taylor

My friend Carolyn Mitchell alerted me to this lot currently up for bid from Raynor’s Historical Collectible Auctions. It is a collection of materials from a Civil War veteran by the name of Patrick Tighe.

The lot includes some of Tighe’s possessions including his Grand Army of the Republic medals and badges, his pocket watch, a memorial ribbons for President Lincoln, and also some CDVs and books which are not pictured. The most interesting part of the lot, and the likely reason that the starting price is $3,500, is the large piece of wood that has a replica wanted poster affixed to it. According to the lot description the piece of wood is from the Garrett house, on the porch of which John Wilkes Booth died on the morning of April 26, 1865.

The lot description states, in part:

“Patrick Tighe, (The CW Date Base spells it TIGH) at age 38, enlisted September 3, 1864 at Avon New York, mustering into Company H, 16th NY Cavalry and mustered out May 29, 1865. Tighe was a member of of the detachment of the 16th New York that had the distinction of killing Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth and apprehending accomplice David Herold. Post war, Tighe joined GAR post #235, Avon New York. The impressive 13″ x 18” barn wood has two period labels, “GAR Post 235, H.C. Cutler, Avon New York” where Tighe was a member and the donor of the piece. The second label “This barn siding was from the Garnett House where John W. Booth was killed”. When the Post closed, c1930, the siding was returned to the Tighe family. The siding has a reproduction April 20, 1865 Reward Poster for the Assassins, 11″ x 15″…”

Carolyn knew this lot would pique my curiosity due to my interest in the death of Booth at the Garrett farm. But the name of Patrick Tighe did not ring a bell. With some research I confirmed that Pvt. Tighe was a member of the 16th NY Cavalry. As we know, a detachment of the 16th NY were the ones who tracked down John Wilkes Booth. However, when I consulted a list of the soldiers of the 16th NY present at the Garrett farm when Booth was shot and killed, Tighe’s name is not included. Nor did Tighe receive any reward money for the capture of Booth. Tighe wouldn’t be the first member of the 16th NY Cavalry to later claim to have been at Booth’s death even though he wasn’t. Several others who were part of the 16th NY but not at the Garrett farm embellished and lied about their role in hunting down Booth in the decades that followed. I was ready to chock up Patrick Tighe’s piece of Garrett farmhouse wood as yet another fake, just like the replica wanted poster attached to it.

But I decided to dig a little bit more on Mr. Tighe. Though Tighe never received any money for Booth’s capture, I was surprised to find that he did make an application to the government for a share of the reward. Here are the microfilm scans of Tighe’s official application for reward money followed by a transcription:

“Avon, Dec. 8th 1865
To/ The Adjutant General of the Armies of the U.S.

Your petitioner, Patrick Tighe private in Co. H. 16th Cavalry N.Y.V humbly represents that he was one of the Cavalry detailed to arrest, seize, and if necessary kill the Assassin of Abraham Lincoln, and his accomplices.
As the Government has set apart a sum to reward those engaged to secure such arrest, I hereby put in my claim for such part of the reward as I may be entitled to – being myself, Patrick Tighe aforesaid, one of party detailed. My residence is Avon, N.Y. and the Commander of my detachment was Lieutenant Peter McNaughton, then in command of Co. H. 16th Cavalry N.Y.V.
An early answer from your department would much oblige.

Yours with high Consideration
Patrick Tighe”

I was a bit perplexed by this reward application. It is carefully worded to imply that Tighe was with the group that arrested Booth and Herold, but it doesn’t explicitly state that. It just states that Tighe was detailed with attempting to find the assassins. Hundreds of men were put in the field to search for Booth and his accomplices and many of them filed reward claims only to be denied, as Tighe was. But his ongoing connection to the 16th NY was intriguing.

I contacted Steve Miller who is THE expert on Boston Corbett and the 16th NY. He stated Tighe’s name didn’t ring any bells but the commander Tighe mentioned, Lt. Peter McNaughton, did. Steve reminded me about how different detachments of men from the 16th NY Cavalry were all over the place during the manhunt. John M. Lloyd, the renter of Mary Surratt’s tavern who became a key prosecution witness against her, was arrested by men of the 16th NY. On April 21st, Dr. Mudd was arrested by Lt. Alexander Lovett of the Veteran Reserve Corps. accompanied by Lt. William Farrell (and men) of the 16th. At the same time Booth was shot and killed a separate detachment of men from the 16th NY claimed to have been on his trail and only four miles from the Garrett farm. Lt. Peter McNaughton, in his own reward application, claimed to have been one of the men present at Dr. Mudd’s arrest.

Lt. Peter McNaughton
Courtesy of Steven G. Miller

McNaughton was also one of the leaders of what Steve calls the second Garret farm patrol. The first Garrett farm patrol is the one we are familiar with. Those were the 26 guys led by Lt. Edward Doherty, along detectives Everton Conger and Luther Baker, who tracked and killed Booth at the Garrett farm. All of those participants received a share of the reward money. After Booth’s body was transported by these men up to Washington, it was determined that a second patrol was needed to return to the northern neck of Virginia in order to retrace and determine Booth’s route through the region. This second Garrett farm patrol consisted of 20 Cavalry men of the 16th NY guided by detective Luther Baker, who had been present at Booth’s death. The soldiers were commanded by Lt. McNaughton.

The group was also accompanied by a reporter for the New York Herald, a man by the name of William N. Walton. How Walton managed to gain access to this detachment is unknown. Late on April 29th, the group set out from D.C., steamed south, and then headed overland to the Garrett farm. They arrived back at the Garrett farm just before sundown on April 30th. Several members of the detachment remained at the Garrett house overnight as did William Walton. During this time, Walton sketched the Garrett house and the remains of the burned down barn. These sketches would later be turned into woodcuts and published in the May 20 edition of Harper’s Weekly.

As the bulk of the second Garrett farm patrol rested at the farm, some men were ordered out in search of Willie Jett, the Confederate private who had dropped John Wilkes Booth off at the Garrett farm in the first place. Jett had originally been arrested by the first Garrett farm patrol. He was the one who led the soldiers from Bowling Green back to the Garrett farm where Booth was hiding out in the barn. Jett witnessed Booth’s death and then traveled northward with Luther Baker, a couple soldiers, and Booth’s body. However, during the trek north through Virginia, Luther Baker released Jett and allowed him to go home. When the party arrived in D.C., the Secretary of War was angry at Baker for releasing Jett and immediately ordered his arrest.

An arrest order for Willie Jett dated April 28th.

Recapturing Jett was a key part of the second Garrett farm patrol’s mission. Earlier on April 30th, Mr. Garrett had visited Willie Jett in Bowling Green and attempted to get Jett to sign a statement attesting that he had brought Booth to the farm under an assumed name. Jett had decline to sign the statement. When the troopers attempted to find Jett in Bowling Green, they discovered he had departed. Eventually they hunted him down to the home of his father in Westmoreland County and placed him under arrest.

Over the course of the next couple of days, the second Garrett farm patrol retraced Booth and Herold’s movements backwards. They spoke with several people who interacted with the fugitives during their escape and arrested several of them. They seemed to be especially keen on arresting folks with the first name of William. In addition to Willie Jett, the patrol rounded up William Rollins, the fisherman in Port Conway who had agreed to take Booth and Herold across the Rappahannock River before Jett and the other two Confederates arrived, William Lucas, the free Black man that Booth essentially evicted from his home after being turned away by Dr. Stuart, and William Bryant, the man who transported the fugitives from Mrs. Quesenberry’s to Dr. Stuart’s home of Cleydael. The group also interviewed Mrs. Quesenberry and her daughter who had spoken with David Herold after the pair made landfall in Virginia.

On May 3rd, the second Garrett farm patrol arrived back in D.C. and deposited their detainees in the Old Capitol Prison. They also passed along the information they had gained from their Virginia sojourn. The next day, William Walton published a lengthy article in the New York Herald documenting what he had learned about the escape route of John Wilkes Booth as a result of his trip with the second Garrett farm patrol.

From Walton’s article, it appears that the second Garrett farm patrol was very successful in establishing JWB’s escape route through Virginia. However, it was decided by the authorities in Washington that the second patrol had not done an adequate job in acquiring all of the witnesses that were needed. As a result, a third patrol of men from the 16th NY was quickly assembled in order to make a return trip. Detective Baker did not join this group and it was, instead, solely led by Lt. McNaughton who was now familiar with the territory. Reporter William Walton later wrote about this third trip but it’s difficult to tell if he was speaking from his own firsthand experiences with this third patrol or if he was relating things that were told to him by Lt. McNaughton, whom he appears to have befriended.

The third group of men from the 16th NY Cavalry departed D.C. late on May 4th. Rather than going to the Garrett farm, however, this detachment was tasked with finding and arresting Absalom Bainbridge and Mortimer Ruggles, the Confederate soldiers who ran into Booth with Willie Jett at the Rappahannock River. The posse traveled to Friedland, the home of Confederate General Daniel Ruggles, in King George County, Virginia. There they found and arrested Mortimer Ruggles, who was Gen. Ruggles’ son. Friedland plantation was also the home of Absalom Bainbridge as his mother and Mortimer Ruggles’ mother were sisters. Bainbridge was not at the home when Lt. McNaughton and his men got there but, according to Walton’s account arrived back about a half hour later. The two cousins were transported and placed on a waiting steamer while the group then traveled to Dr. Stuart’s home of Cleydael. While the second Garrett farm patrol had interviewed Dr. Stuart a few days earlier, they had not taken him into custody. This time, however, he was compelled to come with the men. On May 6, the whole detachment, with their three prisoners in tow, arrived back in D.C.

: Absalom Ruggles Bainbridge (1890)

: Mortimer Bainbridge Ruggles (1897)

: Dr. Richard Stuart

As stated, William Walton wrote about this third expedition for the New York Herald. You can read that article here.

Now that we have a handle of the different patrols of 16th NY Cavalry that visited Virginia, let’s return to the subject of Patrick Tighe and his alleged piece of wood from the Garrett house. As we have established, Pvt. Tighe was not one of the soldiers of the 16th NY Cavalry present in the first Garrett farm patrol that cornered and killed John Wilkes Booth on April 26, 1865. The third patrol which traveled into Virginia on May 4th did not stop at the Garrett farm but stayed in King George County the whole time. Therefore, the only way for this relic to be genuine and to have been personally acquired by Pvt. Tighe is if he was a member of the second Garrett farm patrol that arrived at the farm on April 30th.

The problem is, there’s no way to prove that Tighe was part of that patrol. The only reason the specific members of the original Garrett farm patrol are known is because of the fight for the reward money. Lt. Doherty made a list of the men under his command in order to ensure each one received their fair share. There are no rosters of the second or third group of 16th New Yorkers who traveled into Virginia during the subsequent visits. Patrick Tighe’s application for reward money is vague. He might have been with Lt. McNaughton and the second Garrett’s farm patrol, or he might have been with him at the arrest of Dr. Mudd or another part of the manhunt. Without more information, we can never be sure.

Patrick Tighe’s grave in Avon, NY.
The stone is incorrect. Patrick Tighe died on April 3, 1907.

While the relic being genuine is an intriguing possibility, I’ll admit that the size of the wood piece and the corresponding lot description gave me some pause. Why would the Garretts allow a solider to take such a sizable piece (13″ x 18″) of wood from their house, which was their main residence and undamaged from the fire that consumed their barn? The Garretts continued to reside in the farmhouse for decades after Booth’s death and while a sneaky soldier might be able to break off a small relic, it seems improbable that Tighe could have walked off with a large piece of the house without any of the Garretts noticing and objecting. The phrasing of the lot description is also confusing as it is refers to the relic as “barn wood” from the “Garnett [sic] house”. Why would the siding of the house be called barn wood?

It appears that there are some quality control issues over at this auction house. I zoomed into the small label affixed to the wood. It’s a bit pixelated as the original image isn’t all that big. Still, in my opinion, this label reads, “This barn siding was from the Garrett barn where John W. Booth was killed.”

The wood relic coming from the remains of the burned down barn makes more sense than a piece pried off of the Garrett house. I wish the auction house had more images of the wood piece. It would be interesting to see if it bears any evidence of having been charred or blackened.

At the end of the day, however, this lot is far too pricey for a centerpiece item whose authenticity is only a “maybe”. Two of the claims in the lot description, that Tighe was there when Booth was killed and that the wood came from the Garrett “house” have been disproven. While it’s still possible that the piece is genuine and something that Pvt. Tighe acquired as a member of the second Garrett farm patrol, without further evidence, such claims would be impossible to prove. Still, this relic served as an illuminating jumping off point to learn more about the different patrols of the 16th New York Cavalry that were sent into Virginia in order to retrace the steps of John Wilkes Booth. And, hey, if anyone wants to purchase the lot before it ends on August 27th, I certainly wouldn’t say no to a gift.

Many thanks to Carolyn Mitchell for making me aware of this auction item and to Steve Miller for sharing his picture of Lt. McNaughton and his expertise with the 16th NY Cavalry with me.

Categories: History, News | Tags: 16th NY Cavalry, Auction, Bainbridge, cleydael, Garrett farm, Garretts, Luther Baker, Quesenberry, Relics, Ruggles, Willie Jett | 23 Comments

Ben-Hur and John Wilkes Booth

Posted on July 30, 2023 by Dave Taylor

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In 1907, the first film adaptation of Ben-Hur was produced. Author Lew Wallace had written the highly successful book 15 years after he had served on the commission that tried & convicted the Lincoln assassination conspirators. Wallace had died in 1905 & early filmmakers usually ignored copyright laws anyway, so Kalem Company made their silent film without any approval or permission. While less than 15 minutes long, the film was a big success, largely due to the book’s ongoing popularity. You can watch it here:

The Wallace estate and the book’s publishers sued Kalem for copyright infringement. Surprisingly, the estate won their suit. This set the precedent still in place today that producers must acquire the film rights to copyrighted material before producing a movie.

But commissioner Lew Wallace as the source material is not the only connection the 1907 Ben-Hur film has to the Lincoln assassination. One of the co-directors of the film was a man named Frank Oakes Rose.

In 1869, a young Rose was a stock actor for John T. Ford in Baltimore. On Feb. 17, 1869, John T. Ford closed rehearsal early, beckoning a select few to follow him to an establishment behind the Holliday St. Theatre. While not invited, Frank Oakes Rose, along with fellow actor William Burton, scaled a fence and followed Ford & the others.

Rose & Burton found themselves among a group of about 25. They were all standing in Weaver’s undertaker shop, which was located behind the theater. There, the actors witnessed the final identification of John Wilkes Booth’s body which had just been shipped to Baltimore from D.C.

Rose observed as Joseph Booth helped to identify his brother using a gold plugged tooth in the skull of the remains. William Burton also volunteered that he had gone ice skating once with JWB. An investigation of the boot on the corpse’s foot had the same screw holes from the ice skate’s mounting. The same holes have been noted on the bottom of the boot on display at Ford’s Theatre.

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Frank Oakes Rose never forgot the experience. Years later, when charlatans like Finis Bates tried to pass off an itinerate painter named David E. George as John Wilkes Booth, Rose told his story and his certainty the body he saw in 1869 was JWB.

Most of the Booth family found claims that JWB escaped his death at the Garrett farm to be ridiculous. Sydney Barton Booth, the son of Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. and Wilkes’ nephew, heard about Rose. In 1905, Sydney wrote to Rose, asking for his help in countering Bates & his lies.

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I think it’s interesting that the movie that established the precedent for film rights was produced with stolen material from one the judges of the Lincoln conspirators and co-directed by a man who hopped a fence & stole a glance at the final identification of John Wilkes Booth.

Categories: History | Tags: Booth Family, John Wilkes Booth, Lew Wallace, Media, Sydney Booth | 10 Comments

William A. Howell and the Booths

Posted on June 2, 2023 by Dave Taylor

Old actors love to reminisce about the old days. They love to tell stories about great actors they acted alongside and the great one-time performances that they took part in. This is especially true of smaller actors who never rose to the level of fame themselves and instead spent their careers in supporting roles to the star attractions.

William A. Howell was one of those small time actors. Born in Philadelphia in 1831, Howell got his start upon the stage as a $10 a week supporting player at the Arch Street Theatre in that city. By 1860, Howell had been hired by theater owner John T. Ford to work in his Holliday Street Theatre in Baltimore. His career on the stage was relatively short lived and did not extend beyond the Civil War, but during his time, Howell had acted alongside many of the greats.

By 1879, Howell had relocated to San Antonio, Texas where he worked in the railroad industry. But his favorite thing to do while in San Antonio was to reminiscence about his hey day in the theater. In 1906, a series of four articles were published in the San Antonio Daily Express about the life and theatrical memories of William Howell. The veteran actor told stories about many of the great actors of the past including Joseph Jefferson, Edwin Forrest, Charlotte Cushman, and John McCullough. In addition, Howell had a lot to say about the Booth family.

William Howell got his acting training through a private group in Philadelphia called the Boothenian Dramatic Association. The Boothenian was little more than a slap-dash theater school run by a couple former stock actors that operated out of an abandoned building. The group had no connection to Junius Brutus Booth or his kin, but the operators of the association knew that the name of Booth would help attract paying customers who wanted to learn the basics of acting. The Boothenian was one of several such “schools” with others bearing the names of the “Forrestonian”, “Byronean”, and “Shakespearean”. Such schools usually had brief lifespans. Still, in his later years, Howell was always proud to say he had been educated in the “Boothenian” school, thus showing his admiration for Junius Brutus Booth and his family.

What follows are the portions of Howell’s 1906 Daily Express articles that deal with the Booths. The digitized editions of the Daily Express that I had access to are very poor. I tried my best, but several times I was unable to decipher what the text was meant to have said. At those instances I have inserted the word [illegible].

January 7, 1906

Stealing the Family Skeleton: Reminiscences of William A. Howell, the Veteran Actor – Tells About Traits of Character of Some of the Other Actors He Supported and Things They Did.

This was the first of four articles containing Howell’s memories, but aside from mentioning he acted alongside Edwin and John Wilkes, there is nothing in this article that is pertinent to the Booths. Still, if you’re interested the full article can be read by clicking the title above.

January 14, 1906

Duke Saved by Big Bass Drum: Howell, the Veteran Retired Actor, Resumes His Reminiscences of Former Great Actors and Actresses – Joe Jefferson Was Delicate – Met England’s Monarch – Was With Wilkes Booth.

“…To very large and extremely appreciative audiences John Wilkes Booth was playing at the Holliday Street Theatre in Baltimore in 1861 and I was a member of the stock company that supported him. [Note: Booth was not starring in Baltimore in 1861. At the end of May, JWB returned home to Baltimore after a less than stellar starring engagement in the Southern States in which he was accidentally shot. It looks like Booth performed a single night at the Holliday Street Theatre alongside William Howell on May 16, 1861, which may be where this exaggeration comes from.] From his distinguished father, Junius Brutus Booth, he had inherited much of his histrionic talent and genius, but I fear that from the same source he inherited the impulses that made him take the terrible and misguided steps that he did when he murdered the Martyr President, Lincoln. Both he and his father were of moody and gloomy dispositions and morbid temperaments. I was much attached to Wilkes Booth. He and I occupied a room together and he frequently had long conversations with me in which he spoke of his love of liberty and of his father’s patriotism. Even at that time he was endeavoring to raise a military company in Maryland to take to Virginia and place in the cause of the South but I do not believe that he had at the time any idea of undertaking the terrible tragedy which he enacted in the box of Ford’s Theatre in Washington several years later. From what I saw of him and his abstraction, I am entitled to the belief that his mind was unbalanced. His expression at the time of the tragedy – Sic semper tyrannus – was not appropriate or in any way applicable to Lincoln whom he had just slain, because Lincoln was anything but a tyrant. On the contrary, that President was one of the greatest exponents of liberty this country has ever produced. The expression showed the frame of mind in which Wilkes Booth was when he killed the President. The Shakespearian play in which the killing of Caesar is portrayed and which is a very strong one, was one of Wilkes Booth’s favorites. In all probability he had devoted so much earnest study to it that it unhinged his mental balance and made him feel that he was enacting the scene of slaying Caesar when he took the life of Lincoln.

In the course of my professional career I met quite a number of prominent and distinguished people. Among those [illegible line] was the present King of England. I was introduced to him in company with John Wilkes Booth at Barnum’s Hotel in Baltimore by the Mayor of that city. This prominent [illegible] was then merely the Prince of Wales and only the heir apparent to the throne of Great Britain. He was quite a young man then, probably about my own age. But I noticed that he was even then a man of quick discernment. I heard him observe to the Mayor of Baltimore that Wilkes Booth appeared to him to be a very fascinating man. On that remark the young Prince was then eminently correct, for Booth exerted off the stage the same fascination he possessed on it. The Prince did not long remain in Baltimore. The Civil War had broken out and it was thought best for him to get out of the country before getting into any diplomatic entanglements that might possibly be presented. [Note: As intriguing as this story is, there is no way that JWB made the acquaintance of the Prince of Wales in Baltimore. The Prince only spent about 24 hours in Baltimore on Oct. 8-9, 1860. On those dates, JWB was performing in Columbus, Georgia.] Excitement was very high, too, about that time, and there was a very tough element in and around Baltimore just about then, which was in a very ugly mood. This element was very properly called the plug uglies. The sudden entrance into Baltimore of federal troops stopped Booth’s movement of raising a Confederate company. Soon after the Federal troops took possession of Baltimore, I returned to Philadelphia on a wood boat. I found Philadelphia also ablaze with excitement and war preparations were in progress.”

January 21, 1906

Was Not Sunset But Burning Opera House: Howell, the Actor, Resumes His Reminiscences of Booth, McCullough, Barrett, and Other Eminent Actors

The text of this article is very faded, making it difficult to decipher. Despite the title hinting that there was to be more about Booth, I was unable to find anything in this article that seems relevant. But perhaps I just couldn’t read the applicable parts. The article can be read by clicking the title above.

January 28, 1906

Booth and Howell Were Going to War: Wilkes Booth was to Have Been the Captain and Howell the Lieutenant. Booth’s Confederate Friends Captured Cannon to Fire on New York Troops – Edwin Booth’s Sore Trial.

This is the fourth and final of Howell’s 1906 articles. It is almost entirely about the the old actor’s connection to the Booths. As a result the entire article is transcribed below. As with the other articles, you can view the original text by clicking the title above.

“William A. Howell, the veteran retired actor, being still in a reminiscent vein, was asked by me to continue his relations of incidents connected with the careers of the various prominent people with whom he had appeared in the stage and did so:

“Just after the fall of Fort Sumter,” he said, “and after Baltimore was fairly ablaze with excitement, as I was going down the street I met Joe Booth. He was the youngest brother of John Wilkes Booth, and the youngest of the Booth brothers, of whom Edwin was the oldest [Note: Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. was the eldest of the Booth siblings]. Joe had been serving in the army as a surgeon at Charleston under the Confederacy. He was a quiet, dreamy, indolent sort of a fellow, who was always planning for something out of the usual trend of events for his own special benefit. He was the finest architect and constructor of air castles that I ever knew. He was chockfull of romance. He, however, had not inherited any of the histrionic talent of his father, Junius Brutus Booth. By Joe’s looks and manners I at once discovered he had something he considered of great importance to tell me. He acted as though he were afraid to speak of it on the street, fearing that someone in Baltimore might overhear it. My impression was at once confirmed by his asking me to come with him to his room at Barnum’s Hall.

Joseph Booth

As soon as we entered the room Joe locked the door. After satisfying himself that one one was peeping or prying he opened his trunk. Then he exposed to my view such a heterogenous make of trophies of war as I had never seen or hardly dreamed of, many of them horrible to contemplate. They gave me an idea of what a horrible affair war is. Joe showed me balls of rifles, pistols, and even of cannon. He had shells, and fragments of them. He also had pieces of human anatomy, bones and parts of skulls and other gruesome and [illegible] objects of grim-visaged war before its wrinkled front was in anywise smoothed out. These he had secured from the battlefield after the fight at Sumter between the fort and the ships. [Note: The fall of Fort Sumter was not a bloody battle, therefore it is likely the pieces of anatomy Joe had with him were specimens from the medical school where he had been studying when the conflict broke out]

His mother has sent Joe to attend the medical college at Charleston. He was there when the hostilities commenced, and he was able to get on the medical staff. Soon after I met him in Baltimore, I lost sight of him, for he made his way to Philadelphia, where his mother lived.

Very soon after Joe had gone from Baltimore to Philadelphia, John Wilkes Booth, his brother, made his appearance in Baltimore. He knew that I was playing in one of the theaters there so he came around to the theater to see me. John Wilkes Booth and his brother Joe were entirely dissimilar in disposition, and in every other way. Joe was [illegible] stupid or counterfeited stupidity to such perfection that I never was able to learn that he was otherwise. Wilkes was one of the brightest and most intelligent men in the theatrical world. He was quick, impulsive, fiery, big-hearted, [illegible], and magnetic. You could not resist his captivating manners. His heart and soul seemed to beam out of his eyes. They lighted up every lineament of his countenance. His voice was seductive and his manners captivating. A more generous man I have never met. He was worshiped by his mother and sister to whom he was most kind and most women fancied him. But there was one instance in which his attentions to one of that sex met with a [illegible words].

Howell and Booth Went a Mashing

He and I, as long as we roomed together, were inseparable companions. At the time we were rooming together he was suffering from a knife wound he had received from a jealous girl who had stabbed him because she had caught him flirting with another girl. [Note: Fellow actress Henrietta Irving stabbed JWB on April 26, 1861 after witnessing him come out of her sister’s hotel room] We both boarded at the house of a family named Brown. On our way we had to pass the establishment of a [illegible] who had a very pretty girl working for her. She was really a very beautiful girl. Baltimore was famed for its beautiful women, and I believe is still, but this girl was unusually lovely. Wilkes and I both became smitten with her. We got in the habit of passing the place very often, and ogling her. We would wait on the street until she came out, and follow her. Finally, Wilkes said to me, ‘Howell, her bright eye has me still. We must contrive some way to be introduced to her.’

She would look at [illegible words] gave [illegible words] very great amount [illegible words]. Acting on Booth’s hint I questioned an old gentleman who was a reporter on one of the Baltimore papers, who seemed to know nearly everyone in Baltimore. From him we learned her name and that she was in the habit of attending the Methodist Church where she sang in the choir. Of course we went to the church and waited after the service for her to come out. As she gracefully descended the stairs Booth whispered in my ears.

‘See where my love appears
Darting pale luster
Like the silver moon
Through her veil of sorrow.’

To our chagrin as she reached the foot of the stairs, a group of young men who were also standing there formed a circle about her and walked away with her like a special and privileged bodyguard. To make the matter all the worse as they went off with her down the street I heard them tittering at us.

The next morning’s mail brought us an anonymous letter, It was addressed to ‘J. Wilkes Booth & co’ it read thus:

‘Sirs: Your impudent attention to and constant following of Miss Blank has been observed by a number of her gentlemen friends who will give you what you richly deserve in case you persist in trying to force yourselves upon the lady’s presence. A word to the wise is sufficient. HER FRIENDS’

While neither of us were frightened at the note or its writers we came to the realization that our attentions were annoying to the lady herself and she might have inspired its having been written to us. Booth was as gallant as he was handsome, and he never intended to do anything to annoy a lady. Both of us saw her afterwards only in our dreams, except a single time when she happened to come to the theater where we were both playing. She was [illegible]ly dressed and sat in a very expensive box. We feasted on her beauty but never annoyed her by our attention. I was in love with her almost as much so as I was with Charlotte Cushman when the latter kissed me. But Miss Cushman was then old, although a very handsome woman, while the beautiful Baltimorean was barely more than a slip of a girl, just budding into womanhood.

After a Yankee Regiment

While Booth and I were rooming together he belonged to a Confederate organization, that sallied forth one night and captured a lot of cannon that were at St. Timothy’s College. These they brought to Brown’s back yard, where our boarding house was, and secreted them and held them in readiness to carry out on the York road and fire them on the famous New York Seventh Regiment. This regiment was expected to pass through Baltimore on its way from New York to Washington. Sometimes the Yankees got wind of the project. At any rate, the purpose of the Confederates was thwarted the Seventh Regiment of Gotham going around by way of Annapolis instead of coming through Baltimore.

It is my impression that all of the sons of Junius Brutus Booth were born in Maryland where he owned a farm. I believed that at one time it was his intention of making farmers of all of them, but two of them at least, Edwin and John Wilkes, would not suppress the histrionic genius they inherited from him. I believe that they buried him on the farm when he died. But no matter where he sleeps I hope he rests gently and peacefully. He was one of the grandest actors I ever saw and his two sons possessed [illegible] of great talent as he did. Of them I was most intimate with his son John Wilkes than with Edwin because Wilkes was about my own age and was [illegible words] and companion. [illegible sentence] Wilkes was going to raise a company in Harford County where his father’s farm was and among the youth with whom [illegible words], and I was to have been an officer of the company. Wilkes was to have been in the service of [illegible] of the Confederacy. While we were waiting [illegible words] from Richmond [illegible words] Federal troops took possession of Baltimore and thwarted our patriotic plans. Often I have pondered on what would have [illegible words] had we gone into the [illegible]. Whether we would have won the [illegible words] in gray uniforms or slumbered under the [illegible] of a battlefield? Poor Wilkes came to a terribly tragic end so I have thought it would have been better for him to have been slain in battle not killed as he was. I am not one of those who believes that Booth escaped after killing Lincoln. I am convinced Booth was pursued and killed by troops in the barn, and that identification of his body at the time was complete. I have often read the stories of his survival and alleged subsequent death thirty years later but I knew they were fictions because I was so intimate with John Wilkes Booth that I know if alive he would have found a way of communicating with me and I would have gone thousands of miles to have been with him once more.

Edwin Booth’s Trying Time

It was not a great while after the terrible tragedy that Edwin Booth had to undergo a trying ordeal. I was not with him then and I get my account of him from John Marion Barrow [Barron], himself an actor of great power, who frequently appeared in the same plays with and supported Edwin Booth. This was the first night that Edwin Booth appeared on the stage in Philadelphia after the death of Lincoln. The play was Othello. Booth was cast for the part of Iago, and Barrow that of Roderigo. [Note: John M. Barron was a small actor at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia when Edwin Booth returned there in April of 1866. He did support Edwin in Othello but he did not play the role of Roderigo]

‘Before the curtain arose,’ Barrow said, ‘I found Edwin Booth literally quaking in his boots. He was standing in the wings waiting for his cue. The orchestra was playing, and I stood next to him. I had never seen Edwin Booth appear nervous before. I could not help [illegible] his condition. He said to me ‘Barrow, I don’t know whether I am going to get bricks or roses tonight.’

I assured him as best I could, although I had some misgivings myself. I told him that the people of Baltimore [sic] held him in high esteem and did not hold him responsible for his mentally unbalanced brother. I assured him they were as staunchly loyal to him then as they were before that unlucky Friday night. We had but a few brief moments to wait, during which the tension was great on Edwin. The music ceased; the curtain rose. The cue came and I went on the stage, going to the right while speaking my lines. In a moment, Edwin Booth followed. If the vast audience had possessed but a single voice it could not have shouted in more perfect unison. The men waved their hats and the ladies their handkerchiefs. Both shouted a loyal welcome while flowers fairly rained upon the stage.

Booth stood in the center of the stage. He removed his hat as only he could do – while the showering of flowers continued. The audience cheered and cheered again. Finally, from exhaustion it subsided. Booth had nerved himself and was himself again. Never did he act so grandly. Gratitude made him magnificent. The play had been splendidly cast. ‘The performance, I think,’ said Barrow, ‘was the grandest that I ever appeared in and the best that Edwin Booth ever acted and participated in. I know I never saw him to better advantage than upon that night.’

Edwin Booth’s Liberality

In the last interview I told you the hard luck of Tim Murphy and his companions when the opera house in which they were to play in Arkansas burned. It was a humorous thing. Now I shall tell you one of the most pathetic ones. I do not wish to name the actors connected with it. It occurred in Logansport, Ind. There an unfortunate theatrical troupe had stranded. One of its principal members had died. They had no funds to bury him nor any with which to return to Chicago, from whence they came, and whence they wished to return. The same John Marion Barrow [Barron] to whom I have just alluded was then with Edwin Booth and the latter company in the same place. Barrow went around among the members of Booth’s company and from them obtained donations in the amount of $[illegible]. He called on Booth last. He said to him, ‘Ned I want $5 or if you can spare it, $10.’

Booth handed him the largest amount and then asked Barrow what he wanted with the money. Barrow told him he wanted it to bury the dead man with. He told Booth the amount he had raised and from whom. Booth then said ‘John, you give that money, every cent of it, back to the members of this company. They need every cent they have themselves. I insist on it. You leave this whole matter to me. Let me know what it will not only cost to bury the poor fellow, but also what it will take in addition to carry the whole company back to Chicago.

Barrow returned the money to the actors who had raised the $[illegible]. Edwin Booth buried the dead one at his own expense and sent the live ones home with lots of gratitude and blessings.

This reminds me that poor Billy Williams is ill and hard up here in San Antonio and the newspaper men and others are getting up a benefit for him. I have not been on the stage for many years, but I would be willing to go to aid him and I would give money, too, if I had it. I tell you, though, I am of the opinion that the people who ought to do most for Billy in this his hour of trouble are those at Memphis. I have been told that Williams, during the yellow fever plague that was a terrible visitation to that city, being at that time in good financial circumstances, gave the Memphians many thousands of dollars. This being the case, I think it the duty of Memphis people to come to his relief now. They could come across with a couple thousand dollars and ought to do it. If they let him die here in poverty as he is apt to, and [illegible] aid only from generous San Antonians, it will be a reproach on Memphis. I believe that if they knew the condition that Williams is in here they would hasten to his aid. I hope they will. [Note: William “Billy” Williams was a minstrel performer who gave a great deal of money to aid in a Yellow Fever epidemic that struck Memphis in 1879. At the time of this article Williams was in poor health and living in San Antonio. The locals did a benefit performance for him and he eventually made his way North before dying in 1910]

All actors have their sorrows. I have had my share of them. When but a very young man I married one of the most loveable women on earth. After bearing me two children, a boy and a girl – she died and left me alone with them to look after which I have done as best I could. Her death broke my heart. It made me leave our home that had been so happy. That was the cause of my coming to Texas and intimately to San Antonio, to get away from the scene of my sorrow. I left and wound up here. I worked even as a day laborer on a railway. Finally I became crippled and unable to do hard physical labor but even now, in my old age, I am not idle. I earn an honest living and am as cheerful as possible and am oftener seen smiling than frowning or grieving for I don’t care to force my thoughts on anyone else. I believe as a great poet says:

‘Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep, and you weep alone.'”

As with most reminiscences, there is a fair amount of exaggeration and fiction in some of Howell’s stories regarding the Booths. But there are also some fascinating nuggets of truth in these memories of the assassin and his family. I especially appreciate Howell’s rebuttal of the “Booth escaped” stories that permeated Texas during his lifetime and beyond.

William Alexander Howell died in San Antonio on February 26, 1913. A member of the International Order of Odd Fellows for over 50 years, Howell was laid to rest in San Antonio’s IOOF cemetery. During a recent visit to San Antonio, I took the time to seek out Mr. Howell’s grave in the corner of the cemetery.

I’m grateful for William Howell’s memories of his time on the stage. While his stories need to be taken with a grain of salt, they still help us to flesh out the lives of John Wilkes, Edwin, and Joseph Booth. In appreciation, I’m going to end this post with a final Howell and Booth story.

On February 26, 1887, Edwin Booth made his first appearance in San Antonio. The celebrated actor performed a matinee of Richelieu followed by an evening performance of Hamlet. In the hours between his arrival in the city and the afternoon’s matinee, Edwin Booth did what everyone does when visiting San Antonio, he went to the Alamo where he “asked many questions” according to the papers. The later performances were well anticipated with ticket prices being raised for this one-time event.

Edwin was lauded by the San Antonians (though one critic thought Booth’s performance of Hamlet seemed a bit apathetic) and all were happy they managed to see the famous tragedian in what would surely be his only performance ever in the city. Booth, himself, complained of the struggle he had in the trip from San Antonio to the west coast making it seem a repeat performance would never occur. However, a year later, Booth was on tour once again. He needed funds for his fledgling social club, The Players. The group was looking to purchase a building somewhere in New York City. This need for money outweighed Edwin’s own discomforts in a national tour. As a result, he planned a return to Texas and scheduled two dates in San Antonio. This time Edwin was joined by fellow player Lawrence Barrett as a co-star. On February 22 and 23, 1888, the men performed in Othello and Julius Caesar. Prices were increased again with one newspaper lamenting, “It takes nearly ten dollars to take your girl to see Booth and Barrett tonight.” Still, the performances were completely sold out (though, again, critics felt that Booth may have been phoning it in). After these two dates, Edwin Booth departed San Antonio, never to be seen there again.

The reason I bring this all up is because there is an 1891 article that states while Booth and Barrett were in San Antonio they shared a dinner with their fellow veteran actor and friend, William Howell. According to the article the three men, “had a long chat…about the old times when they were all neophytes”. Then, according to the article, Edwin Booth stated to his host, “What a fool you were Howell not to have stuck to the stage. You would have been not only famous, but wealthy.” While the source of the article could only have been William Howell himself, I’m still willing to grant him the kindness of closing on the claim that Edwin Booth thought the veteran actor in San Antonio had the talent to have been a successful actor, worthy of the Boothenian name, after all.

Categories: History | Tags: Acting, Booth Family, Edwin Booth, John Wilkes Booth, Joseph Booth, Junius Brutus Booth, William Howell | 2 Comments

2023 Surratt Society Virtual Conference

Posted on April 18, 2023 by Dave Taylor

On this Saturday, April 22, 2023, from 2:00 – 4:00 pm eastern time, the Surratt Society will be presenting their 2023 Virtual Conference on the Lincoln assassination. After a short business meeting to elect officers, the Society will host talks by two authors of Lincoln assassination related books.

Dr. Kate Clifford Larson

The first speaker should be well known to students of the Lincoln assassination. In 2008, Kate Clifford Larson joined the ranks of esteemed assassination experts with the release of her book, The Assassin’s Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln. This biography about the only woman tried and executed as an conspirator in Lincoln’s death helped to bring the life of Mary Surratt back into the limelight, leading to the release of the 2010 film The Conspirator. Dr. Larson worked as a historical consultant on that film which saw Robin Wright in the role of Mary Surratt and James McAvoy as her attorney Frederick Aiken. Since the release of the book, Dr. Larson has been featured on several documentaries about Mary Surratt and the Lincoln assassination. In addition to her work in the Lincoln field, Dr. Larson is a noted expert on the life of Harriet Tubman. She was among the founders of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State and National Park. She has also released biographies on Rosemary Kennedy and most recently on activist Fannie Lou Hamer.

Dr. Larson’s speech for the virtual conference is entitled, “Civil War Memory and the Reimagining of Mary Surratt.”

Julian Sher

The second speaker will be Julian Sher, the author of the soon to be released book, The North Star: Canada and the Civil War Plots Against Lincoln. Mr. Sher is an award winning investigative journalist and author based in Canada. His 2001 book, Until You Are Dead: The Wrongful Conviction of Steven Truscott dealt with one of Canada’s most famous murder trials. The new evidence Sher publicized led to an official re-opening the 40-year-old case and, ultimately, the exoneration of Truscott. Mr. Sher has written books and produced documentaries about a number of hard hitting subjects including biker gangs, terrorism, drug trafficking, and the history of the KKK in Canada.

Mr. Sher’s talk will be on his upcoming book. The North Star tells the stories of several Canadians who took part in the American Civil War. His subjects consist of heroes like Edward Doherty who led the cavalry that hunted down John Wilkes Booth to the more clandestine agents in Montreal who may have contributed to Lincoln’s death. I was given an advance copy of Mr. Sher’s work and found it to be an excellent read with a truly varied cast of characters. You will definitely want to pick up a copy of The North Star when it is released on April 25.

With this line up, the conference on Saturday is shaping up to be a great one. Best of all, this virtual conference is open (and FREE) to all, regardless if you’re a member of the Surratt Society or not. Everyone is welcome to log on and watch the presentations. However, you must pre-register in order to receive the Zoom link to join the event on Saturday. In order to pre-register, visit the Surratt Society’s 2023 conference event page here or click on the image below.

I know this is a bit of a late notice. I only learned about the conference today, too! Still, I’ll definitely be clearing my schedule to watch these wonderful authors give their talks. I hope you’ll be able to join me and other members of the Surratt Society this Saturday to hear from Dr. Larson and Mr. Sher. I know it’s going to be very informative.

See you Saturday!

Categories: News | Tags: Books, Canada, Conference, Kate Clifford Larson, Mary Surratt, Surratt Society | 2 Comments

An Update

Posted on February 13, 2023 by Dave Taylor

Things have been a bit quiet here on LincolnConspirators.com. At the beginning of the year, I took a break from my daily Lincoln assassination tweets. I had completed a full year minus a few days at the end of April when I was busy getting married (excuses, excuses). Eventually, I will complete the monumental task of converting all of those tweets into plain text and images so that they can be housed here on my site in a more user friendly way. I’ll be working on that project in the future.

Of late, however, my limited free time has been devoted to researching Fort Jefferson and the time the convicted conspirators spent there from 1865 – 1869. Next month, my wife Jen and I will be camping at Dry Tortugas National Park. This will be my second visit to the island fortress. During my previous trip, I attempted to shoot some videos around the fort talking about what life was like for the conspirators imprisoned there. Unfortunately, I was not prepared for the strong winds and noise reverberating nature of the fort. This resulted in very poor audio and made those initial videos unusable. For this trip, however, I’ve invested in a wireless microphone and am lucky to have the assistance of my podcaster wife who will help make sure my audio is up to snuff.

In preparation for the trip, I’ve been reading many books, articles and NPS documents about the history Fort Jefferson, trying my hardest to determine what the ever changing Fort was like during the conspirators’ imprisonment. I’ve been aided by some of the documents and images digitized by the National Archives and the Open Parks Network. For example, here is a drawing from the NARA showing what Fort Jefferson looked like in 1867. It’s a large file so you will probably want to click to enlarge it & view details:

You may notice that the legend mentions that photographs of the Fort were taken this year to show the progress of construction. The drawing has two spots marked A and B on Front 4 of the fort (the southwest side of the fort) from which the photographs were taken. By going through the NPS’s digitized collection of images at the Open Parks Network, I was able to determine that these were the 6 photographs taken in 1867, right in the middle of the conspirators’ sentences:

These images provide a unique glimpse at the environment of post-war Fort Jefferson, just prior to when the Fort was struck by a Yellow Fever epidemic that claimed the life of conspirator Michael O’Laughlen and several soldiers.

I hope to be able to record informative and well researched videos while on Fort Jefferson and release them here after I get back (and do some editing). So, while things will likely continue to be quiet here, know that some big things are in the works.

Best,

Dave

Categories: News | Tags: Dry Tortugas, Fort Jefferson | 16 Comments

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Breakfast with Booth: Carrie Bean

Some Upcoming Events 2023

Lincoln and Booth: Live Music Played to Film

Smithsonian Booth Escape Route Bus Tour [led by American Brutus author, Michael Kauffman!]

The Rathbones of Albany The Tragic Story of John Wilkes Booth’s Last Victim

The Lincolns, the Booths, and the Spirits & The Forgotten Women of the Lincoln Assassination

History’s Greatest Mysteries: The Escape of John Wilkes Booth

A Genuine Garrett Farm Relic? Patrick Tighe and the Patrols of the 16th NY

Ben-Hur and John Wilkes Booth

William A. Howell and the Booths

2023 Surratt Society Virtual Conference

An Update

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