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Thumbnail
Tour
John
Wilkes Booth Escape Route
with Ed Bearss
- Click on images to enlarge -
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The largest manhunt up to that time, the 1865
search for Abraham Lincoln's assassin lasted two weeks.
How did John Wilkes Booth and his accomplice, Davy Herold,
elude local and military search parties? We learned who
helped them and why by following Ed Bearss through the dark
streets of Washington, the backwoods of Maryland, and the
watery shores of eastern Virginia. The story begins long
before that fateful April 14th date and ends near a little
farmhouse in northeastern Virginia.
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The Conspirators: John Wilkes Booth, John
& Mary Surratt, George Atzerodt, Davy Herold, and Lewis
Powell. Only John Surratt escaped death by hiding in Europe
for several years, even though his testimony would have
exonerated his mother, Mary, the only woman put to death
by the federal government. John Surratt was eventually
captured and tried, but there was not enough evidence to
find him guilty. After trying to make a living giving lectures
about the conspiracy, he died in 1916.
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We first travel to the Washington DC sites
associated with the assassination. At left is the U. S.
Treasury building next to the White House. Secretary of
State Seward had an office in the rear bay. On the night
of the assassination, Seward was attacked by Powell at his
three story brick home across Lafayette Square, where the
U. S. Court of Claims building is now located. Across the
Square at 712 Jackson Place was the home of Major Rathbone,
who attended the theatre with the Lincolns, accompanied
by his fiancee, Clara Harris. The Surratt boarding house,
where Booth hatched the plot to kidnap President Lincoln.
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Ed
explains that the current Box Office door was the entrance
of the original Star Saloon, where Booth built up his courage
before entering Ford's. The State Box at Ford's Theatre.
Today, the Washington portrait, the flags, and the sofa
are original artifacts. The President was taken across the
street to the Petersen boarding house where he died the
next morning. Ford's Theatre draped in mourning
crepe the next day.
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Back
door of Ford's, where 17-year-old stagehand "Peanuts"
Burroughs held Booth's horse. Booth struck him as he grabbed
the reins and quickly mounted, leading some to believe Booth's
leg was not broken at this point. He rode through Baptist
Alley behind the Theatre and into the Washington night.
We follow in hot pursuit via tour bus across the 11th Street
Bridge into Uniontown (now Anacostia), and past Davy Herold's
green-roofed house, where he lived with his mother and 7
sisters. We arrive at Booth's first stop, Surratt's Tavern
in Surrattsville (now Clinton, Maryland).
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The National Park Service's map of the Booth
Escape Route. By this time, Booth and accomplices have been
identified. The Surratt Museum's Laurie Verge tells us that
the Surratt's ran a post office and wayside inn at this
location. In order to make ends meet, Mrs. Surratt sublet
the business and moved to the District. Our group enters
to begin the house tour.
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Our guide explains how the post office and
inn operated. Note the playing cards printed without numbers
because many could not read. We tour the living quarters.
Breakfast cost 37-1/2 cents, supper 37, and a night's stay
was 25 cents. Customers ate at a communal dining table.
Why don't the cups have handles? Working class dishware
did not have handles so that it could be shipped more easily.
Instead of using handles, a hot drink was poured into a
high rimmed saucer called a "cup plate" to cool,
and sipped from there.
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But we digress. Mrs. Surratt's employee, John
Lloyd, testified that she came to the tavern the day before
the assassination and asked him to hold guns and supplies
until called for. Lloyd hid them in the attic alcove where
they were accessible by pulley. Booth arrived the next day
to collect these things, while bragging that they had killed
the President and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. This testimony
led to Mrs. Surratt's conviction in the conspiracy. We move
on to the restored Samuel Mudd farmhouse.
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The room where Booth was treated by Dr. Mudd.
Reportedly, Booth wore a disguise and was not recognized.
This has since been discounted, and it is known that Dr.
Mudd had met with Booth many times to discuss plans to kidnap
President Lincoln. The original Samuel Mudd tombstone.
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The fugitives moved on to Rich Hill, where
they were fed and aided by Southern sympathizers Samuel
Cox and Thomas Jones. Booth constantly asks Jones for recent
newspapers--why? In order to read the "reviews"
of his performance at Ford's. Booth writes in his diary
how disappointed he is to find that even the Southern papers
condemned the assassination.
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Jones sees Booth and Herold across the Potomac
where they expect a heroes' welcome. They stop at Cleydael,
home of the wealthy Stuart-Calvert family. Fearing association
with Booth, they refuse all aid. A wry note from Booth acknowledging
this is later used by Stuart to prove that he did not help
the assassins to escape. In anger, Booth invades a nearby
slave-cabin owned by the Lucas family and spends the night.
Booth and Herold later find a place to stay in the Garrett
family's barn. Unknown to them, their movements have been
reported and a select group of Union army sharpshooters
are arriving onshore. Under orders not to fire, they approach
the barn and burn it.
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Booth is shot by Sgt. Boston Corbett. Paralyzed,
Booth asks to see his hands and mutters, "useless,
useless," before dying. The reward money is divided
among the men and officers. Ed Bearss stands at the site
of the Garrett farmhouse, which collapsed in the 1930s.
He answers our questions, and pensively reflects on the
events that occurred here, which marked the end of the search
for the murderers of Abraham Lincoln and the beginning of
a new chapter of our history.
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text & modern photos by Susan Dennis
used with permission; others courtesy National Park Service,
Library of Congress and National Archives collections.
revised
6-20-03 sad
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