New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-04
20r 01x1Me> TRA11 TODAY OF LINCOLNS ASSASSIN
Kindred of Those Who Figured i'm Booths
T1ioht Fifty Years Ago Still Dwell i'm Un-
chameed Country Between Potomac
and Patuxemt Rivers.

further than that, the landscape is e,.
changed. Many of the old houses which Booth
knew are there dwell in by the children and
grandchildren of the men and women who
knew him. The road for miles leads through
pines and woods, and where II does not the
somber pines can be seen to the right and left
of the clearings.
When the Surratts moved to a crossroad.
ten miles from Washington, they opened
tavern, and this gave to the crossroads the name
of Surrattsvile blacksmiths shop was also
there. The tavern and that blacksmith shop
are still there, the latter a ruin, and two stores
have been built sine the great war. The tay.
ern was bought quarter OF century ago by
a n.ighboi hood .ar-n'. 1t was foreclosure
sale and the house was dilapidated Il has
been improved and is maintained neat and trim
as roadside inn. The bell on ST. Mary's al
Piscataway, where the Surratts worshipped,
still tolls. and meI who were their neghbors
answer its call, but church has been built at
Surratts Vile anj man. OF those who formerly
attended St. Mary's worship at the new Sur.
rattsville church. St. Johns.
Dr. Mudds house has not changed since
Booth was there His son, Samuel A. Mudd,
inherited the place, and farms the same fields
his father did. The pines in which Booth and
Herold lay concealed were chopped down for
cord wood several years ago, and tobacco is
being planted OF the land this spring. Jones's
house still stands.
A LANDSCAPE OF YELLOW ROADS,
RAIL FENCES AND CEDAR TREES.
Some of the roads down there have been
improved, but most of tkcm are as the people
of 1861 -65 knew them. They are generally Of
yellow clay, with some stretches Of yellow
sand. Beside them grow cedar trees and along
them run rail fences often broken down and
usually overgrown with vines. The yellow
road, the row of cedar trees and the line Of
rail fence are the dominating note Of the land
scape in the Booth country. In the fields are
the tobacco barns. These are never painted,
but take on picturesque gray from years OF
weathering.
The landmarks of Booths fight after cross
ing the Potomac River, through King George
County, Virginia, across the Rappahannock,
and into Carolina County to the farm Of Rich
ard Garrett are numerous. 1t was at the Gar
rett farm that Booth and Herold took shelter
in tobacco barn, IN on the twelfth day after
the murder they were surrounded by a detach-
ment of the 10th New FORK Cavalry.
Herold surrendered. Booth hesitated ard
through a crack in the barn match was struck
to hay that lay in corner. While the inside
of the barn was alight Boston Corbett, ser.
geant in the 10th New York saw Booth
leaning on crutch with carbine in his hand.
Thinking that Booth was about to shoot at
officers standing on the other side OF the burn
ing barn, Corbett fred his carbne, the ball
striking Booth at the base of the skull. When
Booth fell officers and men rushed into the
burning barn and dragged him out He was
laid on the porch of CARROTS farmhouse and
died at o'clock in the morning. two hours
after the shooting and without regaining con-
seriousness, SO far as accounts 60 His body
was wrapped in troopers blanket, tied TO
plank with ropes and was hauled in farm
wagon to the Potomac River at Belle Plains,
forty miles below Washington. 1t was taken
to the navy yard, laid out on the deck OF a
monitor moored there, and an autopsy was
performed between midnight and dawn, ana
the body was buried under the stone paving
of cell in the old Washington Pententiary
which stood in the grounds now occupied b.
the Engineer Barracks and the War College.
Several years later, at the instance of Edwin
Booth, the actor, a brother of Wilkes Booth,
the bones were t-ken up and renterred in n
Booth family lot in CIR 'enmount Cemetery,
Baltimore.