Garrett Farm

[Troy Cowan]

(08-27-2013 08:36 AM)hannahrozesmom Wrote:  Hello Everyone! I am a newbie to this forum and have only been reading and studing the assassination of Lincoln a few months. I am totally addicted and have so many questions! I'm sure this has been discussed on this forum previously but can someone please direct me to a thread regarding why Booth and Herold decided to stay at the Garrett farm when they were offered transportation to leave?

Most people believe the statements of John Garrett and Willie Jett. But, those statements were made while under the thumb of Edwin Stanton. Their life depended on pleasing Stanton. There are additional statements in disagreement made by other people when they believed it safe to do so.
One of the most important statements about Booth's survival is from William Garrett. William's statement came forty years after Stanton's death at a time when he felt safe to tell the true story. Even at this late date, his statement couldn't be allowed to go unchallenged, because if believed, it would mean the end of the government cover-up. This statement and others like must be discredited, and all people claiming to have seen Booth after incident at the Garrett barn must be shown to be mistaken or a liar.

William Garrett’s Statement

One evening a while before dark, a couple of men on horseback
and in Confederate uniforms came to our place, having with them
another young man who had no uniform but had a sore leg. They
wanted the crippled young man taken in until arrangements could be
made to get him to a place of safety. At first father didn’t want to do
it, but the Confederate officers said they would see that he got into
no trouble, so the young man was taken in and the two cavalry men
paced off to keep picket and give warning if any federals came up, so
the crippled man told us. He stayed in the kitchen that night where
brother Jack and I sleep. The next evening when the crippled man
was in the front yard on the grass the two cavalry men came up as
fast as they could, said something about they must get to the woods,
so one of them took the crippled man on the horse and they started
toward the heavy woods this side of the Port. One of the cavalry men
started toward Bowling Green. They were in such a hurry that they
didn’t say good-bye or if they would come back. That night brother
Jack and I kept awake much of the time thinking the men might
come back, and father told us not to let any more strangers stay
there. A while before day when it was as dark as charcoal outside I
heard someone tap on the back door. I crawled out of bed without
making any fuss because I didn’t want to wake father and mother
who were asleep upstairs. So I opened the door but it was so dark I
could only see that there were two of them and one was larger and
seemingly older by his voice, but the younger one done most of the
talking. He said they had come a long ways on foot and was going
to some court house but was too tired to go any farther without rest,
and they wanted a place to stay. I told them father didn’t want to let
any strangers stay there, but if they would be careful and not wake
the folks they could stay awhile. They said as they might want to
leave at any moment they would prefer some outhouse or crib, so
they could go there without disturbing the “old folks” as they called
them. I told Jack to not for anything wake father and mother and the
men would be gone so they needn’t know they had stayed there. So
I showed the strangers to the crib. It was so dark you could not see
your hand before you, but I knew the place so well I found the crib
door and let them go in where there was hay and cornstalk blades for
them to rest on. I stopped around awhile to see that they didn’t take
the horses as they had none. Pretty soon I heard noise at the house
and hurried there where a lot of men in Union uniforms and one of
them an officer had the door open demanding that a light be lit and
“damn’d quick.” Just then I heard mother raise the upstairs window
and ask who was there and what they wanted. “No matter who we
are—we want a light.” Then I heard father coming downstairs and
he lit a candle and when he went to the door another officer came
up and said “You have someone in here and we want him.” Father
tried to tell the new officer that there had been a man there but he
wouldn’t let him. “We are not going to listen to any of your excuses,”
said the officer. “Where is he?” Then father told him they had gone.
“Gone where?” said the officer, and father told him to the woods.
Then brother Jack began ransacking the house to see if the crippled
man had come back. But the officer grabbed father and pulled him
on the porch and called for a rope and said he would swing him
to one of the sycamore limbs. I then told them not to harm father
and I would tell them. “Father is scared. He don’t know,” I said. I
was grabbed by the arm like all savage and I saw I had to tell them
something, so I told them, “They went to the crib. I’ll show you
where they are.” One of the officers took the candle and we went to
the crib, but it was dark as could be in there and not a sound. Pretty
soon there was a rustle in the fodder and the officer said I must go in
and tell the man in there to give up his arms and surrender. I didn’t
want to go but he said I must, and he called to the man in there that
he would send me in for the arms and he must surrender. Just then
there was whispering, showing that there was more than one in there.
One of them said to the other he could “go and be damned; I don’t
want you here anyway.” As soon as I got in the man inside snatched
up something I thought was a gun and told me to get out, that I had
given him a cold deck, or something, and I rushed back to the door
and told them the men in there were armed to the teeth and would
shoot me. I was let out and the officer again called for surrender or
there would be a bonfire and a shooting match. But one of the men
in the crib said, “There is a damned young fellow in here who wants
to give himself up. As for me—I want time to study.” The officer
told him he could have just two minutes. Then one of the men inside
told the other to “go, you damned coward! I don’t know you! You
have betrayed me and I don’t want you to stay.” He kept cursing him
to the last. About this time someone set fire to some hay and poked
it through a crack and almost as if it was a powder house the whole
inside of the crib was ablaze, and for the first time the men inside
could be seen, although they could see those outside. One of the men
at once began running from one side to the other looking for a way
to get out or a crack to pop anyone who got in the way. The door
was broke open and one of the men grabbed the young man and
piled on top of him and was dragging him out when someone shot
through a crack and the other man inside bounded toward the door
and fell on his face. In an instant one of the officers was on him and
his clothes was afire. The young man was taken outside and tied to a
tree, and the other man was taken out before he burned and carried
to the porch and put on some planks with an old coat and a pillow
for his head.
“Who was it got shot?” asked the young man who had
given up.
“You know well enough who it was,” answered the officer.
“No, I do not know who it was.”
“Yes, you do,” said the officer. “You know it is Booth.”
“No, I tell you I don’t know it was Booth,” said the young man.
“He told me his name was Boyd.”

William Garrett

(William Garrett’s statement given in the presence of the town’s
postmaster, W. P. Carneal)

Captain Dougherty was the officer in command at the Garrett’s
barn. During the trial of David Harold, Dougherty confirmed William
Garrett’s statement about Boyd. Dougherty testified that the following
conversation took place:
Harold asked, “Who had been shot?”
Dougherty replied, “Booth.”
Harold said, “It was not Booth, but Boyd.”

Other confirmation comes from a letter written by John A. Hopkins Jr. of Winchester, Ky.
"My father, the late John A Hopkins, served in Stonewall Jackson's division of Lee's army. He was wounded at Appomattox and paroled after Lee surrendered, but before he went to his home in Virginia, he spent several days at the home of Mr. Garrett.
He has told me many times that old man Garrett told him that the man killed in the building on his farm was not Booth....
Garrett said the army troops surrounded his premises and began a siege....they set fire to the barn and shot the poor man by the glare of the fire. It was a cowardly murder, and it was done in the hopes of passing the body off for that of Booth and getting the reward."