New Garrett Farm Marker to be Replaced

[BettyO]

This article was on the Fredericksburg.com site this afternoon regarding the Booth/Garrett Farm Marker on Route 301 -

http://www.fredericksburg.com/news/local...f3113.html

Virginia OKs new marker for Lincoln assassin's death site in Caroline County
STATE WILL INSTALL NEW SIGN ON NORTHBOUND U.S. 301 TO SHOW WHERE LINCOLN KILLER WAS SLAIN


BY CLINT SCHEMMER / THE FREE LANCE–STAR

An absent testament to Caroline County’s most famous historic event—indeed, one of the best-known in American history—will be put back in place, a Virginia agency announced today.
The state will replace a roadside marker near the death site of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, actor John Wilkes Booth, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources says.
The dramatic actions there ended what was (perhaps until the hunt for Osama bin Laden) the biggest manhunt in United States history.
The previous black-and-silver metal marker, made in 1937, was stolen last October from its spot along northbound U.S. 301 about 2 miles south of Port Royal. It noted the location where U.S. cavalrymen captured and mortally wounded Booth.
VDHR said the sign’s replacement, titled “Assassin’s End,” will read:
“This is the site of Locust Hill, Richard Henry Garrett’s farm. Early on the morning of 26 April 1865, a 16th New York Cavalry detachment cornered John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, and his co-conspirator, David E. Herold, as the two men slept in Garrett’s tobacco barn.
“Herold gave himself up, but Booth refused to surrender. The barn was set on fire, and Sgt. Boston Corbett shot the assassin, still inside. Booth was laid on the porch of the Garrett house and died about sunrise. The house and barn stood a short distance from this spot.”
The old marker, No. EP– 27, had read: “This is the Garrett place where John Wilkes Booth, assassin of Lincoln, was cornered by Union soldiers and killed, April 26, 1865. The house stood a short distance from this spot.”
The Virginia Department of Transportation will determine the site for the new marker, said Randall B. Jones, spokesman for the Historic Resources Department. It may not be erected where the old one was, he said.
The new marker is being sponsored by the Surratt Society in Clinton, Md. The volunteer group interprets the history of the Surratt House, the 1852 farmhouse and tavern of John and Mary Surratt. Mary Surratt, convicted in Lincoln’s assassination and hanged at the Washington Arsenal Penitentiary with three co-conspirators, was the first white women executed by the U.S. government.
The Garrett barn site, the Surratt House (now a museum) and other sites along the route of Booth’s flight from Washington after the assassination on April 15, 1865, are popular stops today on periodic John Wilkes Booth Escape Route tours periodically conducted by historians, private groups and the Smithsonian Associates.
The Surratt Society paid the manufacturing cost of the marker, as is required by the state program.
The replacement marker and eight new markers were approved by the state Board of Historic Resources, appointed by the governor, during its quarterly meeting in December.
The Virginia highway marker program, begun in 1927 with installation of the first historical markers along U.S. 1, is considered the oldest such program in the nation.
Virginia marker program: dhr.virginia.gov Booth escape route map: civilwartraveler.com/maps Online tour: civilwarstudies.org/tours-booth.shtm Mary Surratt: surrattmuseum.org