Time for a memorial honoring Boston Corbett?

[John Fazio]

Friends:

I agree with Laurie, et al: He did nothing meriting a monument and it is a near certainty that Booth did not commit suicide. In the circumstances in which he found himself, it is beyond belief that he would have put a gun to his neck, irrespective of how he held it, and sent a bullet on a downward path through that part of his anatomy. There is entirely too much uncertainty about inflicting a fatal wound in that manner, which, if we assume an intent to self-destruct, he would not risk, but would, rather, put the issue beyond chance by putting the bullet through his temple or into his mouth, more likely the former, because that is the way almost all suicides do it when they use a gun. I grant that he had said he would "bullet himself first" before he would surrender, doubtless because he would not wish information that would implicate others squeezed out of him, especially superiors who met with him, encouraged him, counseled him, directed him and financed him. So said the Confederate agent "Johnston" in the letter quoted by the Union agent in Paris who wrote the May 10, 1865, letter to a fellow agent in the States (see The Lincoln Assassination, p. 727). But when push came to shove, either his courage left him or Corbett beat him to it.

John