NPC group gets close look at escape route of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth

Some 35 NPC members and guests got a close-up look at the escape route into Maryland of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth on the Club's annual Civil War trip on Saturday, July 23.

Led by expert guide Dave Taylor, the group departed DC with a drive-by of the home of convicted conspirator Mary Surratt at 604 H St. NW, now a Chinese restaurant. Taylor was attired in the same black wool outfit worn by Booth, an acclaimed stage actor, when he shot Lincoln at Ford's Theatre the night of April 14, 1865.

The tour followed the route taken by Booth into Maryland, over the 11th Street Bridge and along what is now Good Hope Road in Anacostia. Booth eventually met up with David Herold, an accomplice in the plot, and pair briefly stopped at Surratt's Tavern in Surrattsville, MD, around midnight. The group visited the Tavern, where Booth and Herold picked up weapons and supplies that had been stored there. Now the Surratt House Museum, NPCers were given a thorough tour of the restored tavern by knowledgeable members of the volunteer group, the Surratt Society.

From there the group traveled to the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd, now a museum, where Booth and Herold arrived about 4 a.m. on April 15. Booth needed medical help for the broken leg suffered when he leaped from the balcony of the theatre after shooting President Lincoln. After touring the Mudd home, the group visited Rich Hill, where Booth and Herold stopped at the home of Samuel Cox and hid out in a nearby pine thicket, and the Potomac River location where the pair eventually crossed by boat into Virginia. The stops were broken up with a pleasant lunch at a restaurant overlooking the Potomac.

Booth had thought that as a supporter of the Southern cause he would be welcomed in Virginia. But guide Taylor explained that wasn't the case. "Once he gets into Virginia it was a game of hot potato," he said. "Nobody wants to hold onto to him for very long." Booth was shot and killed by Union forces on April 26. Herold was captured, put on trial, convicted, and hanged in Washington July 7 along with convicted conspirators Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell and George Atzerodt.

The trip was hosted by the Civil War Trust pursuant to a reciprocal arrangement with the Club. The Surratt Society, with which guide Taylor is affiliated, provide Booth escape route tours in April and September. It was the first non-battlefield tour in the 11-year history of the Club’s annual Civil War trip.