Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-03-06
BODY OF WILKES BOOTH
ANOTHER DENIAL or THE STORY
or IT'S DISPOSAL IN TIL
POTOMAC RIVER.

Editor of the Army and Navy journal: /
Springfield Armory, Mass, Feb. 20.
In the Journal Of Saturday last Isl
note a letter from Olive Ennis Hite,a
in which she rebates story told her
by an officer of the navy as to the dis
position made of the body of Wilkes
Booth, in which it is stated. as q fact
never having been disputed, " that
the body of Booth in a gunny sack
was taken aboard the Montauk in the
Potomac river and cast overheard at a
point below Indian Head. ~.
How such story could have origi-
mated fail to understand, and that it
may not be accepted without dispute,
let me state the following After the
assassination of President Lincoln and
the arrest Of the conspirators, the lat
/ ter were tried in the old Washington
penitentiary building; and after their.
i execution they were buried just out
side the walls of the building. When
these buildings with the exception OF
/ the warden's and deputy warden's
quarters as well as the surrounding
i walls, were torn down, these bodies
were taken up and buried in one OF the.
| storehouses at the Washington arsenal
! in a locked room and underneath a
stone tagging, and by their sides were
placed the bodies of Wirtz, the Con-
federate jailer, and also the body OF
Booth, the latter having been deliy-
cred at the arsenal in gunny sack at
! the little boathouse off the Washing
ton arsenal grounds. The place OF bur-
4 ial was marked so as to identify where
i the bodies were placed Z
1 Just before Andrew Johnson's term
as president expired, Edwin Booth APP
piled to him for permission to have
4 Wilkes Booths body exhumed and
4 turned over to him for burial at Balti,
more. The president gave instruc,
lions, through the secretary OF war,
Ito Gen. George D. Ramsey, the com,
/ manding officer Of Washington ARISEN.
4 al, to exhume this body and satisfy
. himself there having been several
y stories about that Booth had never
!, been killed and had been seen here,
there and elsewhere--that the remains
turned over were those of ]. Wilkes
Booth. The commanding officer Of the
4 arsenal directed me to personally SUI;
perintend the transfer Of these re
mains. With a. party of enlisted men,
the remains were taken up in my pres.
ence, the lid Of the box removed and
| the remains of Booth positively identi-
4 fed beyond any question. The black
hair, the shape of the skull, the color
and condition Of the clothes, the rid
4 ing boots, and the remains Of the boot
cut off at the ankle, all indicated
without doubt that the body was that
of Booth. In addition to this identii-
cation, a dentist in Baltimore had pre-
yiously stated that he could identify
Booth anywhere by a tooth, the cavity
of which he had filled and built up,
4 1t being SO unusual that he could iden-
fifty Booth anywhere by this tooth.
This identification, understand, was
B subsequently made.
Later on, the friends of the other
conspirators Mrs. surratt, Paine,
Harold. Atzerott, and also Of Writ,
the Confederate jaiIer applied for and
4 received similar permission, the bodies
being removed under my personal su-
pervision, the lids Of the boxes being
removed in each case 81.
Frank Fl. Phipps,
Col, Ord. Dept, q. s. A.