Booth, the Garretts and an Invitation to Tea

[Linda Anderson]

I found a fascinating article in the 4/17/1977 edition of the Richmond-Times Dispatch titled "Some Still Remember John Wilkes Booth."

The author, Robin Gallaher, interviewed the Garretts' neighbor Sue H. Christie who was 84 in 1977. Gallaher writes:

"As many as 40 persons may have been witnesses as history was made at 3 a.m. beneath foul-smelling ailanthus trees. There was a detachment of 27 soldiers and two detectives, out for the $175,000 reward. Routed from bed by the angry contingent demanding the assassin and Herold was Richard Henry Garrett a farmer in his nightshirt. His teen-age daughters, Annie [18] and Katherine [22], his sons, Jack and Willie, other children and perhaps some black farm hands watched in a silence disturbed perhaps only by the neighing of frothing horses."

Mrs. Christie says that "'there is no way in the wide world I can authenticate this, but it was told me all my life.
"'One thing that isn't recorded is that my family did give Booth a pitcher of water. My Grandfather Gibbs had a tavern in town - it was simply called The Inn -where Booth stopped after getting off the ferry. He wanted something to eat. My grandfather had closed it since he'd heard that Booth was headed this way and he didn't want anything to do with him.
"'My Grandmother Elizabeth said she never believed in letting people suffer for want of a drink of water - she knew who he was - so she told the colored woman to give him a pitcher. My grandfather came back in a rage and said they'd been picking up people all along the way. 'Do you want to get hung?' he yelled. My grandmother said, 'If they want to hang me for helping a crippled man, then they can.' Those old Southern women were tired of seeing so many hurt people,' Mrs. Christie said."

Mrs. Christie said that after the soldiers arrived at Garrett's farm:

"Everybody got up. Miss Lucinda Holloway was the girls' governess because Mr. Garrett wouldn't let them go to public school. Miss Lucinda was a great person for sewing, and when she dressed she very carefully put on her sewing apron, which had her scissors.
"Miss Annie and Miss Kattie [Garrett's daughters] were allowed to dress. The soldiers pulled up their coat tails and looked at their legs. They were pinched and pushed around and felt insulted forever. Neither one ever married,' Mrs. Christie said."

After Booth was shot Gallaher writes, "The soldiers dragged him out and carried him the 100 yards to the veranda."

[Mrs. Christie said] "'Miss Lucinda sat on the front porch, Booth's head on a pillow on her lap. The body was paralyzed. He looked at his hands and asked that they be raised. He said, 'Useless, useless,' and died.
"'Miss Lucinda reached into her pocket and took out the scissors and snipped off a curl. She had it in a locket and I saw it many times, though I never saw her wear the locket,' Mrs. Christie said."

Gallaher writes, "The Garrett family over the years was besieged by relic hunters. So many had to be chased away, even in the act of pulling up the porch floor, that the blood-stained planks were stored in the attic."

"'We'd be playing in the attic,' she [Mrs. Christie] remembered, 'and one of the boys would come waving a board and scare us like mad.'"

Gallaher also interviewed "The Reverend Ralph E. Fall, rector of St. Peter's Church and two other county churches...Painstakingly, he has researched the trail testimony, much of it conflicting, and the newspaper accounts and synopsized a coherent account."

Gallaher writes, "Next door to the rectory, in Port Royal and separated by a ravine is the old John B. Lightfoot house. The currant of the Rappahannock was powerful and the poled ferry, with the conspirators, Confederates and probably the usual assortment of livestock, and country travelers, was pushed downstream of the usual dock."

[Mr. Fall said] "'Mr. Lightfoot had two teen-age daughters. From what we know about girls, we know they get excited about anything coming down the river. Even now, the only excitement is this town is what's happening there. The ferry was way out of place. These little girls, Miss Harriet and Miss Sally, ran to the terrace and invited the five men to have tea. The men declined and went into the village with Booth riding on one of the horses,' Mr. Fall said."

Bill Richter has informed me that Lighthouse was a Mosby Ranger who had supper with Booth and Herold at the Garretts on Tuesday night.