Sunday, April 19, 2015

Booth Killed

APRIL 27TH, 1865: The body of John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's assassin, and David E. Herold, who had accompanied Booth in the escape from Washington and was with the actor when he was shot, were delivered on board the monitor USS Montauk, anchored in the Anacostia River off the Washington Navy Yard.

Booth had been slain and Herold captured at John M. Garrett's farm three miles outside Port Royal, Virginia, in the early morning hours of the previous day.  While the body was on board the monitor, an autopsy was performed and an inquiry conducted to establish identity.

Booth's corpse was taken by boat to the Washington Arsenal (now Fort McNair) where it was buried in a gun box the following day.  Herold was incarcerated  in the hold of the Montauk which, along with the USS Saugus, was being utilized as a maximum security prison for eight of the suspected assassination conspirators.

--Old B-Runner

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