Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1889 — THE SLAYER OF BOOTH. [ARTICLE]

THE SLAYER OF BOOTH.

A Man Who Knew Ronton Corbett Tells of His Habits an<l Manners. The ■writer (R. B. Hoover, in the North American Review) had a personal acquaintance with Boston Corbett, who avenged the death of President Lincoln in so tragic a manner on the night of April 26, 1865. During the year 1875, while attending a soldiers’ reunion of blue and gray at Caldwell, Ohio, I first met Mr. Corbett. The town was small and an immense crowd had gathered, Gen. Sherman, among others, being present. Corbett and I were assigned to the same room for the night. I found him a nervous, excitable man, always the center of attraction, with a keen, but wild, look in his eyes, and an interminable restlessness of body and limb. He was then a preacher, regularly ordained, I think. He led a prayermeeting in the church while there. He was always well armed, in self-defense, as he explained, and his experience while at Caldwell showed that he had some reason to fear violence. He got into an exciting argument with several men one afternoon over the question as to whether Booth had really been killed at all. Hot words ensued, a rush was made toward Corbett, and in an instant the gleaming barrel of his revolver Hashed in the faces of his opponents. It was with considerable difficulty that they were separated and peace restored. Corbett claimed to those of us whom he considered his friends that he had been hounded for years by men who were high in authority in "Washington at the time of the assassination, and that they caused him to lose several important positions after he went into civil life, and had refused to shake hands with him or to answer his salutation on the streets. The onlv reason he assigned for this was that his bullet had deprived the Washington authorities of an opportunity to make a grand display in the execution of Booth.

Be this as it may, it is certain that Corbett was always on the watch for bodily harm from some source. During the night I shared the bed with him this was exemplified. It was a close, hot night. We slept 09 the ground floor with the window raised. Corbett walked the floor for ten minutes after I was in bed. He would frequently clasp his hands and exclaim: “The Lord have mercy on my soul!” At last he knelt down and offered a fervent prayer, after which he placed a large revolver under his pillow and went to bed. He then told me the whole history of that dark night in Virginia. He said no words could express the resigned hatred, and yet heroic look, of Booth’s face as it was lighted up by the flames of the tobacco barn in which he had taken refuge from his pursuers. To the call for surrender, Booth hurled back words of scorn and defiance, and turned his back on the troops in derision. Corbett said he could stand it no longer, and although his orders were to take Booth alive, if possible, he raised his revolver and fired. The wound in Booth’s head was said to have been within half an inch of the location of Lincoln’s fatal wound. Corbett -went to sleep, and I followed later on, with a restless, troubled sleep, in which I dreamed of something which made me awaken Corbett. He sat up in bed, drew out his pistol and covered me with it. I assured him it was all a dream, and he calmed down again. For several years afterward I received occasional letters from Mr. Corbett, and he finally drifted to Kansas, where, through the aid of some friends, he was appointed door-keeper of the House of Representatives during the winter of 1887. While there his mind became seriously affected, and he suddenly appeared in the House one morning with a revolver in each hand, and attempted kill the Speaker and others. He was promptly removed to the Insane Asylum.