Everything about Boston Corbett totally explained
Thomas P. "Boston" Corbett (1832 –
presumed dead 1894) was the
Union Army soldier who shot and killed
Abraham Lincoln's assassin,
John Wilkes Booth. He
disappeared after 1888 and is believed to have died in
Minnesota in 1894, but this is unproven.
Early life
Corbett was born in
London,
England. His family emigrated to
New York City in 1839. He eventually took on the trade of a
hatter in
Troy, New York. There has been speculation that the use of
mercury as part of the hatter's trade was the cause of Corbett's later mental problems.
Corbett married, but his wife died in childbirth. Following her death, he moved to
Boston, and continued working as a hatter. He became a born-again evangelical
Christian and changed his name to Boston. Trying to imitate
Jesus, he began to wear his hair very long. On
July 16,
1858, in order to avoid the temptation of prostitutes, Corbett
castrated himself with a pair of scissors. Afterward, he ate a meal and went to a prayer meeting, before going for medical treatment.
Enlisted in the Union army
Corbett joined the Union army at the outbreak of the
American Civil War. He re-enlisted three times and eventually obtained the rank of
Sergeant in the
16th New York Cavalry. He was captured by the
Confederate Army on
June 24,
1864, and was held captive at
Andersonville prison. He was eventually exchanged and returned to his unit. He later testified for the prosecution in the trial of the commandant of Andersonville, Captain
Henry Wirz.
Assigned to pursue John Wilkes Booth
On
April 24,
1865, Corbett was one of the cavalrymen sent to pursue
John Wilkes Booth, who had assassinated Abraham Lincoln and was still at large. On
April 26, they surrounded Booth and his accomplice,
David Herold, in a tobacco barn on the
Virginia farm of Richard Garrett. The barn was set on fire to try to force them out. Herold surrendered, but Booth remained inside. Corbett was positioned by a large crack in the barn wall. He saw Booth moving about inside and shot him with his
Colt revolver despite Secretary of War Stanton's desire that Booth be taken alive. Booth was struck in the neck, the bullet injuring his
spinal cord, and he died a few hours later.
Corbett was immediately arrested for disobeying orders, but the charges were later dropped by the
Secretary of War,
Edwin M. Stanton. Later, Stanton said, "The rebel is dead. The patriot lives." Corbett received his share of the reward money, amounting to $1,653.84.
In his official statement, Corbett claimed he shot Booth because he thought Lincoln's assassin was getting ready to use his weapons. This was denied by other witnesses. When asked later why he did it, he said that "God Almighty directed me."
Civilian life after the Union army
Shortly after being discharged from the army, Corbett returned to his trade of being a hatter, first in Boston, and later in
Connecticut and
New Jersey.
His later life involved increasingly erratic behavior. In 1875, he threatened several men with a pistol at a soldier's reunion in
Caldwell, Ohio. In 1878, he moved to
Concordia, Kansas, where he lived in a hole dug into a hillside. In 1887, he was appointed assistant doorkeeper of the
Kansas House of Representatives in
Topeka, Kansas. Overhearing a conversation in which the legislature's opening prayer was mocked, he jumped to his feet, pulled out his revolver, and waved his gun. No one was hurt but Corbett was arrested, declared insane, and sent to the
Topeka Asylum for the Insane. On
May 26,
1888, Corbett escaped from the asylum. He went to
Neodesha, Kansas, and stayed briefly with Richard Thatcher, a man he'd met during his imprisonment at Andersonville in the Civil War. When he left, he said he was heading for
Mexico. Corbett possibly settled in the forests near
Hinckley, Minnesota and died in the
Great Hinckley Fire that took place there on
September 1,
1894. There is no definitive proof of his demise, but the name "Thomas Corbett" appears on the list of the dead and missing.
There is a Boston Corbett roadside monument just outside of Concordia, Kansas.
Further Information
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