1865
The death of John Wilkes Booth
Having shot Abraham Lincoln on the night of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth fled into hiding. While his fellow conspirators were being rounded up, Booth and accomplice David Herold headed south into territory where he might expect Confederate sympathizers to aid him. He paused at the house of Dr. Samuel Mudd to have his broken leg, suffered when he jumped to the stage at Ford’s Theatre, bound and set. (Mudd would later suffer imprisonment for this assistance.) The reward of $100,00 for his capture caused Booth and Herold to be extremely cautious because by now their identity was known and widely broadcast. Nonetheless, Booth was helped along his way by die-hard Confederates who provided shelter and horses.
On April 24, the fugitives reached the Virginia tobacco farm of Richard H. Garrett where the news of Lincoln’s death had not yet been learned; their plan was to make their way to Mexico but federal cavalry were hot on their trail. On the night of April 26, pursuers surrounded the barn where Booth and Herold slept and demanded their surrender. Herold quickly gave up but Booth announced his intention to fight on. The troops set the barn alight and fired into it, hitting Booth in the neck. He was dragged out of the barn and died on the porch of the farm house; his last words were “useless, useless!”
