How John Wilkes Booth Died: Everything to Know About the Historic Capture
By Alexander Ross
Lieutenant Colonel Conger was furious that Booth had been shot. The War Department had issued explicit commands that Booth was to be taken alive so he could be interrogated about broader Confederate plots. When Conger demanded to know who pulled the trigger, Sergeant Boston Corbett stepped forward and saluted, famously declaring, "Providence directed me."
Corbett was initially placed under arrest for disobeying orders, but Secretary Stanton quickly dropped the charges, declaring the soldier a national hero. Corbett was awarded his share of the $75,000 government bounty (receiving $1,653.84), though his later years were marred by worsening religious mania, paranoia, and confinement to an asylum.
Booth’s corpse was sewn into an army blanket, loaded onto a wagon, and transported back to Washington via the gunboat USS Montauk. After a meticulous autopsy conducted by Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes and formal identification by multiple acquaintances, the assassin was buried beneath the floor of the Old Capitol Prison arsenal before being released to his family in 1869 for reburial in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore.
Alexander Ross has covered the video game industry for a decade, writing deep dives on game design, esports tournaments, VR developments, and gaming culture.
