The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-07-24
THE LOST SLAYER OF BOOTH.
Cases of Boston Corbett, Who Went
to Kansas, Then Vanished.

town, Concordia, Kan, vaunted it.
self upon the possession of wild
man. The wild mans name was Bos-
ton Corbett, though he wasn't a prize
fighter at all, and he had the further
distinction of having killed John W.
Booth. the assassin of Abraham Lin
coin. Also he was a dead shot with
an army revolver, wore his hair long
and suffered under the delusion that
he was a much-wronged man.
To begin at the beginning, how
ever, which was a good many hun
dred miles from Concordia. When the
Civil war broke out Corbett, who was
33 years old and a halter, joined the
18th New York Calvary regiment
Corbett was converted by a street
preacher in Boston before he Joined
the army; all during the war ne
spent much of his leisure time at
tempting to evangelize his fellow
troopers.
Then, before the war was over,
came the assassination of Lincoln
and Booths fight On horseback south
through Maryland. Corbett, who had
been promoted to the rank of ser
geant for bravery during the war,
was one of the twenty-five troopers
who went south on Booths trail un-
der command of Lieutenant Edward
P. Doherty. There are good many
different versions of what really hap
peded after Booth was surrroundered
in a barn near Bowling Green, but
none Of these versions has ever dis
puted the fact that it was Corbett
who shot Booth.
The actor, supporting himself upon
a rough crutch, was standing in the
middle of the barn floor, refusing to
surrender, and he held carbine,
with which, in the growing light OF
the barn which two civilian detectives
had set on fire, he took aim at Do
herty. Boston Corbett, who had been
standing guard at a small opening in
the side of the barn, saw the move,
thrust the nuzzle of his revolver
through the aperture and fired,
wounding Booth at the base of the
skull. Both was carried outside and
died two hours later.
Now, it had been no part of the
army officers who had set out after
Lincoln's slayer to have him shot
down there in Maryland. They want
ed to bring him back to Washington
and have him hanged in due state,
and many people who knew Corbett
afterward, say he was practically
drummed out of the army because
he killed Booth.
At any rate, Corbett always felt af-
terward he was much wronged man.
He had slain Booth therefore, it was
only right that he should have a
large part of the $4,000 reward
that had been offered by congress for
the capture of Booth, alive or dead.
Instead, he got only S2,545 of the
money, and before he had a chance
to spend any of that, he was held up
by footpads and robbed of the whole
roll.
Congress granted him a trifing
pension, and he went to Camden, N.
j., and applied for the job of assist
ant postmaster there, was refused,
and made up his mind to come west.
He came to Concordia and applied at
the land office there for claim.
Eighteen miles from Concordia
there was a little hillside "eighty' of
no especial value to any one, and
there Corbett built a cabin. He
trenched his cabin, and there
were loop-holes in the walls out
of which he might shoot. Some
had told him that Booth. had
belonged to secret oredr, and
that the members of the order had
taken a VOW to avenge his death. :.
Mounted on a pony and riding his
old army saddle, he spent his time
wandering about aimlessly enough,
now and again coming to town, but
generally suspicious and keeping to
himself. Judge Sturgis, one of Con-
cordias pioneers, is one of the men
now living in the town who knew the
strange little soldier.
"Often enough, as l was driving
along" he says, Il have seen this
Boston Corbett slip quickly off his
horse as he caught sight of me and
lie motionless in the grass, his long
revolver in one hand, waiting to see
what was coming. He never made
any attempt to hurt me, or, indeed,
to hurt any one but he was ALWAYS