J. Wilkes Booth

By Thomas Jones

J. Wilkes Booth: An Account of His Sojourn..., first published in 1893, is the straight-forward account of the doomed escape of John Wilkes Booth following his assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The book was written by Thomas Jones, a Confederate agent who helped Booth evade the authorities for five days by hiding the assassin near his house in Maryland. Illustrated with 18 pen and ink illustrations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: Nov 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9781839740510

Thomas Jones

Thomas Jones is a Bible teacher and speaker with a calling to equip the body of Christ with a clear perspective and uncompromising boldness for God’s Word. Tom and his wife Courtney are the founders of WORLDVIEW and REASON MINISTRIES. Their ministry helps Christians navigate the relationship between cultivating the mind and walking in the authority and power of the Holy Spirit. With an urgency for the harvest that is imminent, Tom and Courtney have a passion to reach a world fallen away from the Truth of God.

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Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

J. WILKES BOOTH

An Account of His Sojourn in Southern Maryland after the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his Passage Across the Potomac, and his Death in Virginia

By

THOMAS A. JONES

The only living man who can tell the story

ILLUSTRATED

J. Wilkes Booth was originally published in 1893 by Laird & Lee, Publishers, Chicago; reprinted in 1955 by the Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco, Inc.

• • •

Foreword by the Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco, Inc.

During the eighteenth century the village of Port Tobacco was the county seat and the business and social center of Charles County, in Southern Maryland. Nearby were the estates of such famous patriots as John Hanson, first President under the Articles of Confederation, Dr. Gustavus Brown, personal physician to George Washington, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, signer of the Constitution, Thomas Stone, signer of the Declaration, and Dr. James Craik, Surgeon General of the Revolutionary Army. Washington was a frequent visitor, the town being on the shortest route from Mt. Vernon to Walkefield and Williamsburg.

During the Civil War, the residents of Port Tobacco were in sympathy with the South. Toward the end of the war there was a well-formulated plot, headed by John Wilkes Booth, to kidnap President Lincoln and spirit him across the Potomac, using boats hidden by Port Tobacco residents in a nearby creek. Thomas A. Jones, the author of this book, tells in his own words the gripping story of his part in Booth’s escape through Charles County.

In the early nineties when the little volume first made its appearance, the Court House at Port Tobacco was burned to the ground by incendiaries during a bitter political feud. With few exceptions, the town’s early buildings disappeared after a new Court House was erected in La Plata, several miles distant.

The Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco, Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to the reconstruction of so much of this pioneer colonial village as is practicable. In the interest of Charles County history, this book has been beautifully reintroduced by the Society sixty-two years after the original, now a rare book, was published.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Foreword by the Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco, Inc. 4

TABLE OF CONTENTS 6

I. INTRODUCTORY 7

II. MY CONNECTION WITH THE CONFEDERATE MAIL 12

III. THE ABDUCTION PLOT AND ASSASSINATION 17

IV. BOOTH IS PLACED IN MY CHARGE 30

V. I AM OFFERED $100,000 TO BETRAY BOOTH, BY CAPTAIN WILLIAMS 38

VI. I CONDUCT BOOTH TO THE POTOMAC 44

VII. MY ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT 50

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 57

I. INTRODUCTORY

In writing this little book, it is my intention to tell the reader of the part I performed in the great war between the States, and my connection with the flight of the criminal whose deed closed the bloodiest chapter in our country’s history.

No act ever committed has called forth such universal execration as the murder of that great and good man, Abraham Lincoln.

Today I speak of the murdered President as great and good; thirty years ago I regarded him only as the enemy of my country.

But now that the waves of passion stirred up by the storm of war have all subsided and passed away forever, and I can form my opinions in the light of reason instead of the blindness of prejudice, I believe that Lincoln’s name justly belongs among the first upon the deathless role of fame. I can now realize how truly he was beloved by the North, and what a cruel shock