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L Verge · (This post was last modified: 06-18-2015 03:14 PM by L Verge.)

(06-18-2015 12:08 PM)Wild Bill Wrote: Thank you, Balsiger and Sellier

You beat me to saying that, Bill. I got slightly nauseated reading Gene's speculation because it is all too familiar - and not in a pleasant way.

If the Garretts were like most tobacco farmers, they would have been diligent about keeping their barn in good shape since proper ventilation is the key to curing tobacco. After the war, Virginia converted their curing to flue-cured techniques; but I think that the Garrett barn still had vertical weathboards with hinges to open and close as necessary.

Saying that, I have often wondered why the troops didn't drive him and Herold crazy by positioning men who could open the slats four or five at a time so that Booth wouldn't know where to shoot when.

Even if the Garrett barn had deteriorated during the war, a well-built barn is very sturdy and not that easy to break out of. Members of the Surratt Society will get a lesson in Maryland tobacco production with their July newsletter since July and August are the main months of the growing season. Part of the barn construction in Maryland was locust wood and oak because of their strength. The name of the Garrett farm was Locust Hill, which should indicate that the Garretts had sturdy wood easily available.

(06-18-2015 12:39 PM)Jim Page Wrote: Gene, I've seen old tobacco barns, too, and you're right about the boards not being tight against one another. In the case of the barn in question, I've read somewhere that some of the Garrett's neighbors had furniture and stuff stored in that barn, and that clutter may have hindered Booth had he tried to kick some boards loose and scoot out of there.

I'm willing to bet that the man shot there was JWB, but I still wonder if he and Herold had saddlebags, and, if so, what was in them.

--Jim

Many tobacco barns in Southern Maryland and the Northern Neck have been vacant now since the tobacco buy-outs, so if you never visited one before 1970, you are not getting a true idea of sturdy barn construction. In Maryland, our remaining barns are on the National Register of Endangered Historic Sites - considered a dying breed of examples of life and culture during the first 200 years of our country.

Also, in their original design, air space is built in between the vertical weatherboarding to allow some circulation even when the moveable panels are closed.

My mother managed two tobacco farms (each dating back in our family to the 1700s) when I was a child, so barns - as well as stables, cornhouses, and even smokehouses and summer kitchens - are very familiar to me. The Southern Maryland tobacco culture is near and dear to my childhood memories (no matter its evil effects) and part of my cultural identity.

(06-18-2015 01:32 PM)Gene C Wrote: I agree Jim.

I do wonder about Booth's physical condition before he was shot. At the autopsy they remarked how quickly the body was decaying, possibly due to the physical stress he had been under, but he seemed to have been in good spirits and moving around fairly well after he crossed the Potomac. Did anyone who saw him shortly before he was killed indicate he was in an emaciated or sickly condition?

I just remember the comment about how bad his leg was. Either Ruggles or Bainbridge made reference to it being in bad shape. However, he slept in the same room with the Garrett boys, so Dave Taylor may know if they noticed anything.

Frankly, I think my corpse would be in bad shape at the end if I had been dragged and dumped unceremoniously on the ground, dragged again and plopped on a porch, wrapped in an army blanket and thrown face down in a farm wagon that jostled over country roads for miles to reach a damp ship that would take my body upriver and transferred to a monitor. And, we won't get started on what the weather conditions might have contributed to the decay.