Booth, the Garretts and an Invitation to Tea

[Dave Taylor]

Bill,

I hope you didn't take offense to my remarks. I just have a hard time taking Lightfoot at his word and that certain passage of Come Retribution is supposition, which I have a problem with. I'm a firm believer of Ockham's Razor when it comes to a lot of this stuff. Come Retribution sees suspicion in Lightfoot's assertion that he had already been paroled at Appomattox when in fact he did not receive his parole until May 2nd at King George Courthouse. They then go into the hypothesis that Lightfoot "may" have been up there to protect the route and "may" have been sent to Garretts to see if Booth was alive or dead. Come Retribution hears the hoof beats from Lightfoot's claim and imagines zebras, while I see far more mundane horses instead.

To me, the most logical scenario, and the one that follows Ockham's razor by making the least assumptions, is that Lightfoot, who made this claim circa 1920, either forgot when he received his parole or lied and said Appomattox because everyone after the war wanted to say they surrendered honorably with Lee at Appomattox. Nothing strange or suspicious about it to me.

Laurie,

I'm not sure how I feel about Rev. Fall's claim that the ferry boat landed down river at the Lightfoot home instead of the landing. Jim Thornton, the ferryman, did tell Oldroyd that the wind was bad that day and that he only made the one crossing. However, I always thought the ferry between Port Conway and Port Royal was a rope or cable ferry, in which the ferryman used a long pole or stick to push the ferry across the rope line to the other side. I know this is what the ferry eventually turned into as we have later pictures of it. If it was like this in 1865, I don't really see how the ferry could have gone that far off course. If it was not that sort of ferry in 1865, Rev. Fall's claim could be true.