Booth's Body Transferred Back to Washington for Autopsy-- Part 2

As word spread of the assassin's body being on board the USS Montauk, the scene aboard the ship and nearby river bank  took on a circus-like atmosphere as hundreds of  curiosity seekers jostled for a glimpse of Booth's remains.

Aboard the Montauk, an inquest was held, and the corpse, already in the initial stages of decomposition, was carefully examined.  Friends and acquaintances of Booth were summoned to identify the body.   Dr. John Frederick May, a surgeon who had removed a cyst from Booth's neck in 1863, quickly recognized and identified the unusual scar left by the operation.

The federal government was determined to keep Booth's remains out of reach of both those  who wished to desecrate them and those who wished to sanctify him as a martyr.

That night, under cover of darkness, the body was taken by rowboat  to nearby Greenleaf's Point, where it was wrapped in an army blanket, placed in a wooden gun box and secretly buried in the basement of the Washington Arsenal.  It remained there until 1869, when the Booth family was finally granted permission to rebury John Wilkes in an unmarked grave in the shadow of  his father's impressive obelisk in Baltimore's Green Mount Cemetery.

--Old B-Runner