John Wilkes Booth, a name forever linked with tragedy in American history, is infamous for his assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. While his act at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865, is well-documented, the details surrounding John Wilkes Booth’s cause of death are equally compelling and reveal the dramatic conclusion to his escape.
Born into a family of renowned actors on May 10, 1838, in Bel Air, Maryland, Booth initially followed in his father’s footsteps. He gained recognition as a talented performer, gracing stages along the East Coast. However, his passion for acting was overshadowed by his fervent political beliefs. Booth was a staunch supporter of slavery and the Confederacy, deeply resenting the Lincoln administration and its policies. This political extremism ultimately led him down a path of conspiracy and violence.
Booth’s hatred for Lincoln intensified during the Civil War. Originally plotting to kidnap the President, his plans escalated to assassination. On that fateful night at Ford’s Theatre, Booth, with his theatrical background aiding his movements, slipped into the presidential box. Firing a single shot into the back of Lincoln’s head, Booth then leaped to the stage, reportedly breaking his leg in the process. His infamous cry, “Sic Semper Tyrannis!” echoed through the theater as he made his escape from Washington D.C.
The aftermath of the assassination triggered a massive manhunt for Booth and his accomplices. Despite his injury, Booth managed to evade capture for several days, aided by Confederate sympathizers. He journeyed south, crossing the Potomac River into Virginia on April 23rd. However, the relentless pursuit by Union forces was closing in.
On the morning of April 26, 1865, Union cavalrymen from the 16th New York Cavalry cornered Booth and his fellow conspirator, David Herold, at Richard Garrett’s farm near Port Royal, Virginia. Herold surrendered, but Booth refused, barricading himself inside Garrett’s barn. The soldiers, under orders to capture Booth alive if possible, initially surrounded the barn.
As tensions rose and Booth remained defiant, the decision was made to set the barn ablaze to force him out. As the flames engulfed the structure, Sergeant Boston Corbett, a member of the pursuing unit, positioned himself to observe Booth. Accounts vary, but Corbett claimed to have seen Booth raise his carbine. Believing Booth intended to fire, and potentially disobeying orders to capture him alive, Corbett fired his revolver through a crack in the barn wall.
The bullet struck John Wilkes Booth in the neck, severing his spinal cord. This single shot resulted in immediate paralysis. Dragged from the burning barn, Booth was taken to the porch of Garrett’s farmhouse. As his life ebbed away over the next three hours, he was reportedly given water and his final words, uttered as he gazed at his hands, were a poignant “Useless, useless.”
John Wilkes Booth’s cause of death was therefore a gunshot wound to the neck, inflicted by Boston Corbett. This act, whether justified or not in the heat of the moment, brought a definitive end to the life of Lincoln’s assassin. Booth’s body was later buried in an unmarked grave in the family plot at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, a final, somewhat secretive chapter in the dramatic and tragic story of John Wilkes Booth and his role in American history.
