Volume 44 - No. 15
April 17, 2014
by Gary L. Womble
Detective Lafayette Baker had obtained information that led he, Detective Everton Conger and a detachment from the 16th NY Cavalry to the Garrett farm in Caroline County, Virginia. There they threatened to hang Richard H. Garrett unless he told them where the assassin John Wilkes Booth was hiding. To save his father Garrett’s son pointed to the tobacco barn where Booth and an accomplice named David E. Herold were holed up. Lt. Edward Doherty, who led the detachment of the 16th NY Cavalry, and the two detectives talked with Booth inside the barn for some time. They made a significant effort to convince him to come out and surrender. Herold quickly surrendered, was searched for weapons and then tied up. Booth, however, told them from inside the barn he would never surrender, and “to prepare him a stretcher and put another stain on the glorious banner.”
Chief of Detectives Baker was in charge of the Union Intelligence Service having taken over from the Pinkerton Agency. Subsequent to this mission he would go on to become a brigadier general. He also received a generous portion of the reward offered for the capture of the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln. Baker though died a mysterious death in 1868, which was found more than a century later by Professor R. A. Neff of Indiana State University to have been caused by arsenic poisoning. After Lafayette’s death his wife produced Booth’s diary, but eighteen crucial pages were missing. Baker’s wife said the War Department was behind her husband’s death. Even today, some Lincoln conspiracy theorists believe Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was somehow involved.
Just as Detective Conger set fire to the barn, Sgt. Boston Corbett, watching Booth through a large crack in the wallboards, saw him aim his rifle. Sgt. Corbett, fearing that Booth would injure or kill a member of his detachment, The Paper - 760.747.7119
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took aim and shot Booth in the back of the head. The wound was almost exactly in the same place where Booth had shot President Lincoln. Though mortally wounded Booth did not die immediately but rather was pulled from the burning barn by Lt. Doherty. Booth lived for a little over two hours after Sgt. Corbett shot him. When shot, Booth’s belongings included a diary, a rifle, two pistols, a compass, a bowie knife, and a draft on Canada for 60 pounds. It had been twelve days since John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. The massive manhunt that took place for that twelve-day period saw
multiple arrests of co-conspirators and encompassed several states. In a way the diminutive Sgt. Corbett had saved John Wilkes Booth from the agony of a fiery death inside Garrett’s burning barn. His intent though was not to save Booth from anything, but rather to prevent a member of his unit from injury or death in Booth’s final act of vengeance. Later in a letter to the New York Times Sgt. Corbett stated that he believed it was “Providence that directed his hand that day.”
Thomas P. “Boston” Corbett was born in 1832 near London, England. His family immigrated to Troy, New York, in 1840. Corbett became a hatter at a young age in Troy, New
York, and practiced his trade for many years. Hatters used mercuric nitrate daily in their profession to form animal fur into felt hats. Mercuric nitrate has been found to cause dementia and erethism. Erethism is characterized by psychotic reactions, hallucinations, excitability, and or delirium. The phrase “mad as a hatter” had been in common use since the early 1800’s, and was comically depicted in the book Alice In Wonderland written by Lewis Carroll. Corbett was married while he lived and worked as a hatter in Danbury, Connecticut, but his wife died giving birth to a stillborn daughter. After losing his wife Thomas Corbett moved to Boston to continue working as
The Mad Hatter Continued on Page 2