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"How Booth Crossed the Potomac"

by "Gath" (George Alfred Townsend)
Article appearing in The Century Magazine, April, 1884

For nearly twenty years after the assassination, it was not known how Booth had managed to get across the Potomac and his whereabouts were largely unaccounted for from the time of his leaving Dr. Samuel Mudd's house to his arrival in Virginia nearly a week later. Noted Civil War correspondent, George Alfred Townsend, who went by the nom de plume of "Gath" took an interest in this unsolved mystery and began making enquiries, which soon enabled him to unravel the whole story. As it was then too late for the truth of endanger any of the principals, Townsend published his findings, first in a series of short newspaper articles in 1883 and finally in a larger article in The Century Magazine in April 1884

Prior to finishing this article, "Gath" had a few interviews and some correspondence with Thomas A. Jones, the chief Confederate signal corps agent on the Maryland side of the Potomac, who had sheltered Booth and Herold for several days in the woods.

While Townsend had given careful attention to detail in researching his new revelations about Booth's experiences on the Maryland side of the river, his coverage of Booth's route on the Virginia side was sketchy and full of errors. This may be excused based on the fact that this was the first major investigative article written on the subject. The inaccuracies have been footnoted in the extract below.

About Booth's stop at Cleydael, Townsend wrote the following:

"Bryan the next day took them to the summer house of Dr. Rivhard Stewart (sic) which is two or three miles⁽¹⁾back in the country. This Dr, Stewart was the richest man in King George County, Virginia and had a very large brick house at Mathias Point on the river but on account of the malaria and heat he went in summer to a large barn-like mansion back in the woodlands, a queer, strange house two stories high, with a broad passsage. He was entertaining friends just returned from the Confederate service⁽²⁾, and much annoyed to find that on his place were the assasins of President Lincoln, after the war was all over⁽³⁾. The men were not invited into the house, but were sent to an out building of some kind, either the Negro quarters or the barn⁽⁴⁾; and Booth was so much chagrined at this welcome to Virginia that he took the diary which was found on his dead body and wrote a letter in lead pencil to Dr. Stewart, sorrowful rather than angry, saying he would not take hospitality extended in that way without paying for it and sending three dollars⁽⁵⁾.

Booth procured a conveyance or one was procured for him, from Dr. Stewart's⁽⁶⁾ to Port Conway; it was driven by a Negro named Lucas. He probably spent Sunday in Bryan's house, and got to Dr. Stewart's house, it is said, on Monday, where he asked for breakfast⁽⁷⁾, and the same day reached the Rappahannock River and went cross with Captain Jett. This crossing was made on Monday the twenty-fourth of April."

Notes:

1. Going the back way, from Mrs Quesenberry's on Upper Machodoc Creek, the distance to Cleydael is actually about 6 to 7 miles.

2. Dr. Stuart was not merely "entertaining friends just returned from Confederate service" but rather had a full house of his children, including his married eldest daughter, Rosalie and her husband, Sholto Turberville Stuart (a cousin) and Robert Waterman Hunter, fiancee of his daughter Margaret. Both the younger Stuart and Hunter had indeed served in the Confederate army and had been recently paroled. Also in the house at the time were Dr. Stuart's wife, Julia (nee Calvert), their two other surviving daughters, Ada (b. 1839) and Caroline (b. 1844), and Ada's young son from her marriage to Col. Willliam Wellford Randolph, 2nd Va Infantry (Col. Randolph was killed the year before in the Battle of the Wilderness). It is possible that Dr. Stuart's other son in law, Dr. Eusebius Jones, widower of the Stuart's second daughter Julia (b. 1839, d. 1861) may have been present as well, as some accounts refer to his sons in law (plural) being present. On the other hand, this may merely be referring to the fact that Robert Hunter became a son in law a few months later.

3. Other accounts do not suggest that Dr. Stuart knew at first that these were the assassins of Lincoln. In fact, Dr. Stuart in his own testimony, which is largely paraphrased in the Kimmel book, refused to listen when Booth tried to tell him who they were. However, this could well be a case of "methinks he doth protest too much", given Dr. Stuart's vulnerability to arrest because of his past involvement with the Confederate supply line from Washington to Richmond, which also suggests that he may have known of the original kidnapping plot (as had other agents like Jones on the Maryland side) and figured out who Booth was when he arrived on his doorstep. At Booth and Herold arrived after dark and were outside the door of his office, it's likely he didn't recognize the until they came inside. However, it is hard to believe that he didn't recognize them at once. Dr. Stuart was a co-owner of the National Hotel, where Booth actually lived when he was in Washington. Furthermore, he was of the social class likely to go to the theatre in Washington, Baltimore and Richmond. Booth was a popular matinee idol and his carte de visite was displayed for sale to fans at many photographers studios. John Wilkes Booth was not only a "household name" to those with any cultural pretensions, he was also a "household face".

4. The statement that they were "sent to an out building of some kind, either the Negro quarters or the barn" is somewhat true, but is misleading. They were not sent to the barn or the "negro quarters" of the Cleydael slaves, but were instead sent from Cleydael to the home of Mr. Lucas, the free black wagonneer, who was in fact a tenant of Dr. Stuart's but as he rented his property as a free man, his house would not normally be considered a mere "outbuilding" of Cleydael. In Thomas A. Jones' 1890 book (qv) he refers to Booth and Herold having been sent to a barn on the Cleydael property and this may be where Townsend got this idea or vice versa.

5. Townsend is rounding up here. The exact figure was $2.50

6. Dr. Stuart did not "procure the conveyance" to take them to Port Conway, nor was it procured from his property. Instead, Booth and Herold went to the Lucas's home, where they asked for Lucas or his son Charlie to take them to Port Conway. When Lucas initially refused, Booth pulled a knife on him and threatened to commandeer their wagon. Booth and Herold slept in the Lucas cabin that night but the family stayed outside, afraid to sleep in the same room with the desparados. "I always was afraid of a knife," the elder Mr. Lucas reportedly said. The accounts of this dialogue truly bring out Booth's racism at this stage in his life, ironic in that he had literally been saved on three separate occasions on his escape route by African Americans and had had a number of black friends when growing up on his father's farm, Tudor Hall, in Bel Air, Maryland. Herold was considerably more polite and made friends with the Lucases and managed to smooth things over, and eventually persuaded Lucas to allow his son Charlie to take them to the ferry the following morning.

7. "He probably spent Sunday in Bryan's house, and got to Dr. Stewart's house, it is said, on Monday, where he asked for breakfast" This statement is full of inaccuracies. Booth arrived at Mrs. Quesenberry's the night of April 22, and according to most accounts spent that night at Mr. Bryan's. He arrived at Cleydael on the evening of Sunday, April 23, around 8 p.m., after the family had just finished having tea. Booth did not "ask for breakfast", but was instead fed a rather hasty dinner, possibly in the dining room of the main house rather than in a kitchen outbuilding as some have speculated. It is hard to tell whether the present dining room was the original dining room, or whether it's twin across the hall was. It depends on whether the chair rail mouldings in the current dining room are original to the house. If we can determine which was the dining room, it might aid in finding the location of the origianl summer kitchen. The current kitchen extension (ca. 1900) was obviously not there in 1865 and the dining room would have been served by the summer kitchen outbuilding, the former location of which is not yet known.

"How Booth Crossed the Potomac"

by "Gath" (George Alfred Townsend) Article appearing in The Century Magazine, April, 1884

Notes:

by "Gath" (George Alfred Townsend)
Article appearing in The Century Magazine, April, 1884