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, but circumstantial evidence suggests that he died in the Great Hinckley Fire in 1894, although this remains impossible to substantiate.
Early life
Corbett was born in London, England. His family emigrated to New York City in 1839. He became a hatter in Troy, New York. It has been suggested that the fumes of mercury used in the hatter's trade caused Corbett's later mental problems.[1]
Family and "rebirth"
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, the name of the city where he was reborn. In an attempt to imitate Jesus, he began to wear his hair very long.[2] On July 16, 1858, in order to avoid the temptation of prostitutes, Corbett castrated himself with a pair of scissors.[3] Afterward, he ate a meal and went to a prayer meeting, before going for medical treatment.[3]
Military career
Enlistment in the Union army
Sgt. Boston Corbett, Union Army.
In April 1861, early in the American Civil War, Corbett enlisted as a private in Company I of the 12 Regiment New York Militia. He was discharged in August, at the end of the regiment's 3 month enlistment. Corbett re-enlisted in September 1863 as a private in Company L, 16th New York Cavalry Regiment. Captured by the Confederate Army on June 24, 1864, he was held captive at Andersonville prison until he was exchanged. When he returned to his company, he was promoted to sergeant. Corbett would later testify for the prosecution in the trial of the commandant of Andersonville, Captain Henry Wirz.[4][5]
His assignment 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 in an attempt 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 Edwin McMasters 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 violation of orders, but Stanton later ordered the charges dropped. Later, Stanton said, "The rebel is dead. The patriot lives." Corbett received his share of the reward money, amounting to $1,653.84.[6]
In his official statement, Corbett claimed he shot Booth because he thought Lincoln's assassin was preparing to use his weapons. This claim was denied by other witnesses. When asked later why he did it, Corbett said that "Providence directed me."[7]
His later years: The known details
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 in a gully.
Madness
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 and brandished a revolver. 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 had met during his imprisonment at Andersonville in the Civil War. When he left, he said he was heading for Mexico.[8]
His presumable death
Corbett is believed to have settled in the forests near Hinckley, Minnesota and may have died in the Great Hinckley Fire that took place there on September 1, 1894. There is no conclusive proof of his demise there with certainty, but the name "Thomas Corbett" appears on the list of the dead and missing.
The monument to Corbett
In 1958, Boy Scout Troop 31 of Concordia, Kansas constructed a roadside monument to Corbett located on Key Road in Concordia. A small wood sign was also constructed to mark the hole Corbett once occupied.[9]
Further reading
References
- ^ Walker, Dale L.; Jakes, John (1998). Legends and Lies: Great Mysteries of the American West. Macmillan. pp. 159. ISBN 0-312-86848-0.
- ^ Kauffman, Michael W. (2004). American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies. Random House. pp. 310. ISBN 0-375-50785-X.
- ^ a b Swanson, p.329
- ^ Chamlee, Roy Z.; Chamlee, Roy Z., Jr. (1989). Lincoln's Assassins: A Complete Account of Their Capture, Trial, and Punishment. McFarland. pp. 289. ISBN 0-899-50420-5.
- ^ Chipman, Norton Parker (1891). The Horrors of Andersonville Rebel Prison: Trial of Henry Wirz, the Andersonville Jailer; Jefferson Davis' Defense of Andersonville Prison Fully Refuted. Bancroft Co.. pp. 40.
- ^ Swanson, p.358
- ^ Swanson, p.340
- ^ Johnson, Byron Berkeley (1914). Abraham Lincoln and Boston Corbett: With Personal Recollections of Each; John Wilkes Booth and Jefferson Davis, a True Story of Their Capture. B.B. Johnson. pp. 52–53.
- ^ "He Killed Lincoln's Killer, Then Lived In A Hole". http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/16178. Retrieved 2008-10-11.
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