Autopsy on an Ironclad: the Medical Evidence Proving John Wilkes Booth Was Killed
By James H. Sterling
Illuminated against the flames, Booth limped toward the door with a crutch under one arm and a carbine in his hands. Watching through an open slat in the burning barn wall was Sergeant Thomas H. "Boston" Corbett, a deeply religious cavalryman who raised his Colt revolver and fired. Corbett later testified that Booth appeared ready to shoot his way out, prompting him to pull the trigger despite explicit orders from Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to take the assassin alive.
The conical bullet struck the right side of Booth's neck, almost precisely matching the trajectory of the bullet Booth had fired into Lincoln's cranium twelve days prior at Ford's Theatre. The projectile tore through the cervical vertebra, severing the spinal cord and driving bone fragments deep into the canal. Soldiers dragged the limp actor from the fire onto the Garrett home's open porch.
Booth survived for nearly three hours in complete agony. He could move nothing below his chin, repeatedly whispering requests for water and begging the officers to lift his hands so he could look at them. Looking down at his limp palms in the morning light, he muttered his final words: "Useless, useless." He died shortly after 7:00 a.m. on April 26.
James Sterling reports on renewable energy developments, climate policy, ecological conservation, and green tech innovations around the globe.
