Assassination of Abraham Lincoln - Flight and Capture of The Conspirators

Flight and Capture of The Conspirators

Within half an hour of his escape on horseback from Ford's, Booth crossed over the Navy Yard Bridge and out of the city into Maryland. David Herold made it across the same bridge less than an hour later and rendezvoused with Booth. After retrieving weapons and supplies previously stored at Surattsville, Herold and Booth went to Samuel A. Mudd, a local doctor who determined that Booth's leg had been broken and put it in a splint. Later, Mudd made a pair of crutches for the assassin.

After spending a day at Mudd's house, Booth and Herold hired a local man to guide them to Samuel Cox's house. Cox in turn took them to Thomas Jones, who hid Booth and Herold in Zekiah Swamp near his house for five days until they could cross the Potomac River. On the afternoon of April 24, they arrived at the farm of Richard H. Garrett, a tobacco farmer. Booth told Garrett he was a wounded Confederate soldier.

The information relayed to Dr. Todd's brother by his letter of the 15th tells us rumors flew about Washington D.C. regarding Booth's whereabouts and status.

"Today all the city is in mourning nearly every house being in black and I have not seen a smile, no business, and many a strong man I have seen in tears - Some reports say Booth is a prisoner, others that he has made his escape - but from orders received here, I believe he is taken, and during the night will be put on a Monitor for safe keeping - as a mob once raised now would know no end"

During the Union manhunt for Booth, four of his pursuers drowned during patrol duty on April 24. Their small barge, the Black Diamond, collided with the steamer Massachusetts on either the Rappahannock River or the Potomac River. There were at least 50 fatalities, including passengers from the Massachusetts, Union soldiers who were recently exchanged and paroled former prisoners of the Confederacy.

Booth and Herold remained at Garrett's farm until April 26, when Union soldiers from the 16th New York Cavalry arrived at the farm. The soldiers surrounded Booth and Herold in the barn. Herold surrendered, but Booth refused to come out when the soldiers called for his surrender, stating boldly, "I will not be taken alive!" Upon hearing this, the soldiers set fire to the barn. Booth scrambled for the back door, brandishing a rifle in one hand and a pistol in the other. He never fired either weapon.

A soldier named Boston Corbett crept up behind the barn and shot Booth, severing his spinal cord with the bullet wound being in "the back of the head about an inch below the spot where his shot had entered the head of Mr. Lincoln". Booth was carried out onto the steps of the barn. A soldier dribbled water onto his mouth. Booth told the soldier, "Tell my mother I die for my country." In agony, unable to move his limbs, he asked a soldier to lift his hands before his face and whispered as he gazed at them, "Useless...Useless." These were his last words. Booth died on the porch of the Garrett farm two hours after Corbett had shot him.

Powell was unfamiliar with Washington, and without the services of his guide David Herold, wandered the streets for three days before finding his way back to the Surratt house on April 17. He found the detectives already there. Powell claimed to be a ditch-digger hired by Mary Surratt, but she denied knowing him. They were both arrested. George Atzerodt hid out in a farm in Germantown, Maryland, about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Washington, but was tracked down and arrested on April 20.

The rest of the conspirators were arrested before the end of the month, except for John Surratt, who fled to Quebec. There he was hidden by Roman Catholic priests. In September, 1865, he boarded a ship to Liverpool, England, staying in the Catholic Church of the Holy Cross in the city. From there, he moved furtively through Europe, until he ended up as part of the Pontifical Zouaves in the Papal States. A friend from his school days, Henry St. Marie, discovered him in the Papal guard during the spring of 1866 and alerted the U.S. government. Surratt was arrested by the Papal authorities but through suspicious circumstances, he managed to escape. He was finally captured by a U.S. government agent in Egypt in November 1866.

Surratt stood trial for Lincoln's murder in Washington in the summer of 1867. The defense called four residents of Elmira, New York who did not know John Surratt but said they had seen him there between April 13 and 15. Fifteen prosecution witnesses, some who knew him, said they saw a man they positively identified, or said resembled, the defendant in Washington on the day of the assassination or traveling to or from the capital at this time. In the end, the jury could not agree on a verdict. Surratt was released and lived the rest of his life, until 1916, a free man.