Evening star., 1927-10-30

| burial lot in Greenmount Cemetery.
Baltimore.
| Let me tell YOU little more of this
story For 10 days after the assaSsl-
nation, April IA, 1865. the whereabouts
of Booth perpeXed the Government.
| 1t was a mystery to All except perhaps
| half a dozen men. Maryland and Nir-
ginia were searched almost house Ivy
| house. Hundreds OF persons whom de.
| tectives and soldiers thought might
know something of the fugitive were
arrested and taken to priSon-thc Oid
| Capitol Prison. Booth clues by the
! thousand were picked up and found
false. 1t seemed that Booth. in spite
of his fractured ankle, caused by his
fall in jumping from the Presidents $
box TO the stage of Ford's Theater.
which fall was caused by one of his
spurs catching in the flag which
draped the Presidents box. had made
his escape. The belief grew strong
that Booth had made his way to Can
ada or some other country.
With some detectives there was the
belief that Booth was not far from
Washington. Traces of him had been
found in southern Maryland. one
boot. cut from his injured foot and
leg by DR.. Samuel A. MuGd on the
morning after the murder had been
found in DR.. Mudd's house, Is miles
southeast of Washington. in Charles
County. Md. A lame man and a com
panion. whom the detectives believed
to he Booth and Dave Ilero!d. had
been seen by several men. But the
trail for long time ended with the
finding of the boot. The country
around Or. Mudd's. including Xakiah
swamp. had been gone through, the
detectives thought, foot by foot.
The first suspicion of those who knew
Booth and IIerold was that they had
ridden out of Washington after the
murder on Good Friday night 1865.
and had gone to lower Maryland.
The country lay between Washington
and Chesapeake Bay, the Potomac and
PatuXent Rivers. and was without
railroad or telegraph line. Booth had
visited a number of places in that
region.
Two horsemen. 10 minutes apart,
had been halted by the guard-Serct.
Silas 7. Cobb-at the Navy Yard
Bridge over the Eastern Branch. and
had been allowed to pass on saying
that they were returning to their
homes in Charles County. Md. The
war being over. the restrictions on
passing the bridges at Washington
were relaxed. The chief Of Washing
ton police-Mai. A. G. Richards-told
the military authorities that he he.
lieved Booth had gone to southern
Maryland, but il was 12 hours after
the crime that detectives and Cavalry
were sent that way. BY sunset of
Saturday-the day after the murder
1000 troops. mainly Cavalry. were
securing the fields. woods. pines and
marshes in that part of the country.
X X X
WHEN Lincoln was shot during
w performance of Our American
Cousin" by Laura Keen and her com
pany at Ford's the 18th New York
Cavalry was in camp at Vienna, Va,
Il miles west of Washington. On Sat
urday it was ordered to patrol roads
and scout in that part of Virginia
with the hope of picking up the as
sassin and his accomplices. Later. a
detachment of that regiment, under
Lieut.. Edward Doherty. was ordered
on the man-hunt in southern Mary
land. Sergt. Corbett was of that de-
tarhment. About 10 days after the
murder Mai. James r. O'Beirn, in
charge of detectives in the Booth
hunt reported that Booth had been
seen in King George County, Va.
across. the Potomac River from
Charles County. 1t was on April "a.
1865, that Col Lafayette c. Baker,
provost marshal of the War Depart
ment, talked this report over with
Gen. Hancock, and the latter directed
Gen. Sweitzer to have a detail of 25