Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1884-04-18
Distorieal sketrb,
HOW WILKES BOOTH
CROSSED THE
POTO Nj A G.
By GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND.

unrelated interval. The actor John
Wilkes Booth shot President A Abraham
Lincoln about ten o'clock Friday night
April 14th, 1865. Near midnight he
ss4.a Els nnintvrestins Is"a pilot.
David +. Herold. called at Surrat's
tavern, about ten miles south east of
Washington, and obtained the arms,
field glass. etc, previously prepared
for them there. Saturday morning
they were 1T DIR. Samuel A. Mudd's.
twenty miles farther on, " here Booth 5
broken ankle WAS set and crulch
made for him: and that evening the
two iugitives were guided in round
about way to the gate of Samuel Cox,
prosperous Southern sympathlzer,
about fifteen miles southwest.
The last witness in Maryland ended
nere. The Government. in It's pro
Fecution Of the couspirators, took up
The fugitive next AT the crossing Of
the Raprahanuock River in Virginia,
on the >4tn Of April, having failed to
t-ace Booth single step farther IN
Maryland although he did not cross
the Potomac until Saturday night,
April 221. A whole week remains
unaccouuted Tor; and for the first time
the missing links Of the conr4 elton are
here made public. Probably not half
dozen people are alive who have ever
hard the narrative iulIy told
j When Anrap lis was a greater plac,
than Baltimore. and the PatuXent
Valley rha most rorulous part Of
: Maryiand, the mi'n roads ard ierrles
to all Powerful Virginia were on the
lover Potomac. instead Of being. as
now. above Washington city. Tie
most important Of thc,e ferries crossed
at narrow part of the river, " here 1t
lis from two or tree miles wide, near
stream on the Maryland side called
+ Pope's Creek. just below this srot,
l and not far above il, there are deep
tindentations from the river which
ra7:ow the open around over which
hts banks are. \ railroad, built since
lths war, for this reason has its ter
minus at Pope's Creek. About five
miss north Of the terminus is Cox 5
Station. whiCh is about SIX miles south
] Of The old courthouse village Of Fort
( Tobaeeo. A short distance east Of
tox's Station is Samuel Cox's house ;
short distance wsst of Cox 5 Station
#Ierfars two or three miles is the I'D
. Catholic manor house of ST. Thomas 5.
by an sncicnt church which gives the
name 20 Chapel Point. Here the
Potomac sends up Port Tobacco River,
q bread tidal stream, naturally indl-
Gated at the beginning Of the war as
The nearesr safe point for spies and 60
hctwstns To reach bread water from
Washington. Matthias Point. on the
Virginia side, makes high salient an
. clc into the waters Of Maryland here,
and is almost in the direct line from
I Washington TO Richmond.
In this old region Of The Calvert
+ Catholics. u civilization existed at the
close Of the last century probably
fcomparable with that of tobacco, and
| large landed estates. with slaves, were
features Of tie high bluff country,
which WAS rlen,ifully watered with
running streams amidst the hills o'
clav and gravel But the Revolution
emancipat,d the Catholic worship
I Originally planted on the lower Poto.
mae by the founders of Mary land, and
Ia curious English society teok root, with
/ lis little churches surmountrd hy the
cross, its slaves atte ndants upon mass
aud confession; and much of the
country. originally poor, was covered
with decaying estates, old fields grown
up in small pines. and deep gullies
penetrating to the heart Of the hills
The malaria almost depopulated The
little towns and hamlets, toba, co be
came an uncertain crop, slavery kept
the people poor, and intercourse tel
off with the rest OF the world, possibl
excepting some Of the old counties s il
Virginia in Washington's "Northerr
/ Neck"
Soon after the year 1920 MIR. Co,
was born in the district below Por
Tobacco, and his mother dying, h,
was put to nurse with Mrs. Jones, The
wife of plain man, possibly an over
seer, who Inhabited the house Sh'
had son, Thomas A. Jones, wh'
grew up with young Cox; they wer'
playmates and attended the same log
school house, and Cox, as life pro
gressed; had the ruling influence owe
Jones, no was C, OF, brave man, bu
without the self assertion of his com
rade. who soon developed into one o
the most energetic men in that region
A portrait of Samuel Cox shows hin
to have b, en- of an indomitable Will
} strengthened by that consumptiv
tendency which often gives desperation
to men fond of life. At the breakin;
out of the war Mr.. Cox had thirty t
forty slaves, plenty Of land, larg
house with out buildings, negro quart
ers, woodlands, and superior appear
ance for these parts. He became tn
captain of volunteer company, whicl
he drilled at Bryantown, "a small set
tlem,nt in the eastern part Of tn
county, here the lands were unusu
! ally good and the neightors plentiful
in slaves. Hardly one of them a
original secessionist, the course c
events forced most of those slave holder
into sy ympathy with the South, if nc
through their sensitiveness about thei
slave property, yet from the tact tha
+, their sons often hasten to cross tn
n Potomac into the Confederate arm,
), while in many cases their negroes sliI
:. :. ped eff ia the oppisite direction With
&, the Feuefal lines. i ne resi- lOnSlOllll