Boston Corbett

[maharba]

The fabulous (fake) narratives of Corbett have him a brave exemplary soldier. The facts are that he was courtmartialed one or two times, and sentenced to be shot, but which was never carried out. I tend that Boston Corbitt enlisted once or twice for the sign-up money. Corbett clearly shot the man in the back whether he aimed for his foot or whatever other claim. It was extraordinarily cowardly. He lied to Stanton that he had to shoot Booth who would otherwise have shot him. He lied about Booth/Boyd going to shoot another soldier. And Corbett, the supposed born-again Christian had no compunctions about lying, even claiming that God directed him to shoot, and that the bullet had the same path (behind the left ear) as Lincolns wound. I think there is a term for a supposed Christian who both lies about a murder and who switches the blame to 'the will of God'. Where have we heard a long pious speech where a man "blames it all on the will of God and not his fault at all"? I have old scrapbook clippings with conflicting on the murder weapon. One man in Kansas bought Corbet's pistol for $5. Another in VA claims to have located the rifle that Boston Corbet shot Booth with. When Corbett went missing in action, and was captured by John Singleton Mosby, he supposedly fought it out to the last before giving up --shooting 12 times with a rifle...but hitting nothing. When Corbett had his last (known) mayhem episode in Topeka at the statehouse, again he supposedly shot 12 times, and again missed every time. After the Booth debacle, I believe Corbett's weapons were immediately taken from him, and he was brought back to DC expecting to be court martialed and likely hanged. That when he was released, he likely was given his weapons back to him. The same ones, or did someone realize the value of the Booth/Boyd murder weapon and give Corbett similar weapons back? Corbet was robbed later of both his weapons and his reward money. The equally unbalanced Ed Stanton ran the investigation almost like the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain, with closing comments similarly off-hand and bizarre, The rebel is dead, the patriot lives. Stanton appropriated the rocking chair in which Lincoln was shot. I wonder if Stanton also saw the intrinsic historical value of Corbett's murder weapon and secured that for his odd relics collection? If not, why not. And we still do not know the murder weapon --pistol or rifle-- that Corbet used in back-shooting the man on crutches there in the barn.