Evening star., 1927-10-30
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gTreda Circulated land dnnye

harm and then Booth is said to have
made the request that the soldiers be
withdrawn Is ,,aces and give him
chance for his life Booths com
panion wanted to surrender. lie
thrust his hands through the barn
door, was seized and pulled out. 1t
was q youth who proved to be Dave
HeroId, and h, died on scaffold in
the arsenal grounds in the following
August with Mrs. Surratt, Payne and
Atzerodt. Booth would not surrender.
There was hay in one corner of the
barn. n rcke:y structure with many
cracks between the warped boards. \
match was touched to this hay. Some
say Col. COnger started the fire and
others that 1t was done by the civilian
detectives. The interior of the barn
was soon bright and red. Inside
through the cracks could be seen Il
man standing, resting on a crutch and
with carbine in his hand. shot
was fired and the man on the crutch
dropped to the barn floor.
Sergt. Corbett at the back of the
| harn--the side opposite the door
around which the officers stood-saw W
this man with the Carbine. thought he
was about 10 shoot ut the officers. and
shot him. Tho bullet struck Booth
at the base OF the skull. Officers and
/ soldiers rushed in the burning barn
/ and dragged out Booth and for some
moments he lay on the grass hefose
the burning barn. Then he was taken
! to the porch of the Garrett house and
/ n physician sent for The doctor said
the wound wastmortal and ut { O'Clock
| that morning Booth was dead
! There is disagreement as to what
! Booths last words were. Doherty
| said that Booth uttered no intelligible
words except Hands. hands" and
"Uselessi useless" Doherty said that
when Booth said family. Hands,
| hands" he thought Booth wanted him
to lift his hands, and when he did this,
Booth said, Useless. useless
/ Corbett had fired without orders.
/ lie was charged with firing contrary
/ to orders. 1t was desired to take
/ Booth alive. But the fact that Corbett
/ believed that Booth was about to fire
at the officers was n circumstance that
! favored him. Corbett had been
/ thought "sOrt OF a queer fellow" by
/ others in the regiment. but he was
considered good soldier. After the
! killing OF Booth Corbetts mind
seemed to grow weak and he seemed
! to he overcome with fear of Booth
/ avengers" lie went to Kansas and
was sent to the Kansas Insane
I Asylum. He escaped from that place
| in 1855. The last man reported to
! have seen COrbett was a farmer near
| NcodeSha in southern Kansas. He
was travelling alone toward Mexico
and said he was going there. Corhett
| was marked dead" in the records Of
! the Pension Office, but when inquiry
was made about this matter q mum
ber of years ago the information was
that no notification had been received
from any person who knew Corbett
He was marked dead" from lapse of
time and non-receipt of his pension.
| COrhett was an Englshman. natural
! Zed an American. He had been Il
! halter by trade in New York. Camden
| Boston Corbett. but there was a story
| that he chose the name Boston" be-
| cause he had been converted at re-
| Viyal and made new man" in that
| city. In the 10th New York Cavalry
| he gave good deal of time to re-
! ligious eXhortation.
States and cities offered rewards foi
| the capture of Lincoln's murderers
| Congress offered q reward of SIS 900
| For one reason or another all offers al
reward We're withdrawn except that
authorized by Congress. Corbett be
! licved that all these rewards should
| have come to him. There were tive
sergeants in the 10th New York detail
and each received as his share of the
congressional reward s2.545. That
| was all that went to Corbett and j;
was stolen from him soon after he got
| lit. On his discharge he resumed his