On April 14, 1865, shortly after the last official day of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln went to see Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater. On that fateful night, just past 10 p.m., actor John Wilkes Booth shot the president and fled the scene. Lincoln passed away the following morning.
Booth's escape followed a path to southern Maryland and then on to a small farm in Virginia where Union soldiers eventually caught up with him. Strict orders were given to take Booth alive, but Sergeant Thomas P. "Boston" Corbett would take matters into his own hands. Corbett shot "without order, pretext or excuse" and fatally wounded Booth, who would die three hours later. Corbett's official statement is that Booth "raised his pistol to shoot." He would later explain his actions by claiming that "God Almighty directed me."
Corbett was placed in Andersonville prison. Five months later, however, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton ordered his release, remarking, "The rebel is dead. The Patriot lives." For a short time, Corbett became a hero and enjoyed a period on the lecture circuit as the self-styled "Avenger of Blood." Following that, Corbett eked out a living as a preacher in New Jersey until 1878, when he moved to Kansas.
Prior to the war, Corbett was a New York hatter and street preacher. Considered strange by other soldiers, he had actually castrated himself with a pair of scissors because he was tempted by prostitutes. After his release from Andersonville his behavior became even more erratic, including an incident where he was arrested for pulling a gun on "sinners" who were playing baseball on a Sunday. Despite his colorful history, he was able to cash in on his notoriety and secure a position as a doorkeeper for the Kansas House of Representatives. As a still-new employee, he overheard some pages and clerks mocking the Legislature's opening prayer. Again brandishing a revolver, he chased them out of the office. At that point, he was declared criminally insane and committed to an asylum in Topeka.
On May 26, 1888, after fifteen months in the asylum, he escaped. He showed up at the home of an old army buddy in Neodesha, Kansas, appearing haggard, dirty and sick. After a short visit, he left... and was never seen or heard from again.
It is ironic that Booth's death bed explanation for Lincoln's assassination would echo Corbett's claim that God guided his actions. "Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment."
-Professor Walter
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.