A Man On The South Side Of The Capitol

[Dave Taylor]

(07-23-2014 10:15 PM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  Thanks again, Dave. So "the citizen who made this report [who] was not named" was probably John Fletcher and, as you say, "the assumption that one of these unnumbered "men" [that Fletcher mentions] is Booth appears to be incorrect."

It seems to me that the unnamed man who reported seeing "Booth" at the south side of the Capitol is actually the man or men that told Fletcher they had seen Herold.

I believe Fletcher is being honest in his April 23rd statement when he said that someone told him that they had seen HEROLD ride by FOLLOWED by another man. At the trial, Fletcher's testimony is a bit ambiguous. He only stated that someone told him to the affirmative that "men" had been seen riding by the Capitol. He did not specify at the trial that Herold had been seen first and then the other man and was not asked to elaborate. It appears that authors like Roscoe read Fletcher's ambiguous trial testimony and decided that one of the men seen by the south side of the Capitol was Booth followed by Herold. This assumption would be incorrect, however, based on Fletcher's initial statement as to the order.

Trusting Fletcher's initial statement and the write up by Foster, we can say for a fact that Herold was seen by the south side of the Capitol and was followed by another rider going fast. In order for this second man to be Booth, Herold had to deviate from the optimum route to the Navy Yard bridge, hence giving Booth considerable time to pass him and reach the bridge first. Perhaps Davy stopped somewhere to pick up Booth's hat and revolvers.

The line of reasoning leads to either the above scenario or to the conclusion that Booth was not the second man seen by the same group who observed Herold.

There is still the chance that Booth was seen by the south side of the Capitol, however, it would have to come from a completely different source than Fletcher.