JW Booth and Quinine

[RJNorton]

(03-05-2015 07:44 PM)wpbinzel Wrote:  In that bit of dialogue and what follows, John Wilkes Booth boasts of smuggling quinine (and possibly other drugs) to the Confederacy. Has there been research (or even a past discussion that I am unable to locate) about whether Booth actually engaged in smuggling quinine south?

Hi Bill. In his Surratt Courier article author Dave Keehn writes, "Henry C. Higginson, a prisoner at Andersonville, said he was told by Confederates that Booth helped the South and had been shown a Dec. 1863 letter signed by 'J. Wilkes' regarding loads of medicine shipped through Kanawha Valley."

The entire Higginson affidavit can be read on p. 349 of Kimmel's Mad Booths of Maryland.