William Mc Daniel in King George, VA

[Dave Taylor]

As I stated earlier in this thread, the only reference I had ever seen about Booth and Herold stopping at the McDaniel home for food was the unsourced line in Come Retribution. John mentioned that he had heard the story from the McDaniel family.

Here's a bit more support for it, though this mention is not referenced either. In Victor Louis Mason's article "Four Lincoln Conspiracies" published in the Century Magazine in April of 1896, he gives a good description of the Booth escape route. Similar to Oldroyd, Mason seems to have walked the escape route, took pictures, and talked with the people that encountered Booth. He mentions McDaniel:

"On the way to the [Rappahannock] river Booth and Herold stopped that noon at Office Hall, the home of Mr. William McDaniell, where they took dinner..."

Mason could still be basing this off of local King George County lore, but at least it's another, older reference to McDaniel.