Mosby's Men in Southern Maryland

[Wild Bill]

The Mason Article, "A True Story of the Capture and Death of John Wilkes Booth," Northern Neck Historical Magazine, 13 (Dec., 1963), 1237-39, refers to what Booth's leg looked like, the order in which the escapees rode to Garrett's, and the turn of Booth in the wagon, with his injured foot hanging out for ll to see. He was dismissed by the Yanks to onlookers as a dead deserter. See Last Confederate heroes, Part V, Into Virginia, "Across the Rappahannock to Port Royal," and Part VII, Epilogue, "Back to the Rappahannock." Wellford Mason had a parole from Appomattox and could travel pretty much at will without fear of recapture. I surmise that he was to contact Mosby men and they were to find Booth and kill him before the Yankee cavalry could capture Booth and question him about Lincoln's assassination.