My Journey on Lincoln's Assassination

[mikegriffith1]

Someone said that Corbett did not disobey orders when he fired at Booth. But Conger certainly believed Corbett had disobeyed orders. He put him under arrest and hauled him before Stanton. But, oddly enough, rather than being furious at losing the chance to interrogate Booth and put him on trial, Stanton brushed aside Corbett's alleged action with the comment that the rebel was dead and so the "patriot" should go free.

As a 21-year Army veteran, I was very surprised and intrigued to learn that when Conger, Baker, and Doherty supposedly tried to determine who had shot the man in the barn, they didn't conduct the long-recognized and effective procedure of checking the chambers and barrels of the soldiers' weapons; instead, they merely asked each man if he had fired the shot. When they asked Corbett, he said he'd fired the shot, yet, amazingly, they didn't confirm this by checking the chamber and barrel of his weapon.

I can tell you right now that Conger, Baker, and Doherty's failure to conduct this quick, standard, and effective procedure raises a big red flag for me and indicates that they were not really trying to find out who had fired the shot.

I suspect that if they had checked the chambers and barrels of the soldiers' weapons, they would have discovered what Conger probably already knew, namely, that none of the soldiers fired the shot. This would have proven either that some outsider snuck up within sniper range and shot the man in the barn or that Conger, Baker, or Doherty fired the shot.