Booth in Boston April 1865

[Steve]

(02-07-2017 06:49 PM)JMadonna Wrote:  I think Booth went directly from Washington to Montreal based on two reports.

Henry Hogan's wrote that "John Wilkes Booth played a short engagement under the Buckland management, preliminary to the regular opening". This makes sense because Buckland owned the Theatre Royal in Montreal and Booth played for him the winter before. Hogan also said that
"He was here just a week or ten days before the assassination of Lincoln".

That puts Col. Gordon's recollection in a new light. He said "I grasped the hand in friendly farewell that would soon be stained with the blood of an assassinated President. Nor do I think he had such thought at that time. IN A FEW DAYS, I was shocked at the report of Lincoln’s death by the hand of John Wilkes Booth.”

Tidwell admits that the timing is not clear as to what date Gordon was talking about and made the assumption that it was his trip in March since there was no evidence of another.

However, Atzerodt said he went to Canada and if you put Hogan and Gordon's account side by side they seem to confirm each other. There is no other sighting of Booth (that I know of) until April 4 in Newport.

According to Loux, Booth met with John McCullough at the Metropolitan Hotel in New York and talked about a possible summer engagement in Montreal on April 2. Loux's source for this is a June 21, 1865 letter from McCullough to John T. Ford located in the Ford papers. Do you think it's possible that McCullough could've persuaded Booth to go to Montreal for a quick engagement with Booth then returning to New York because of preexisting plans to travel to Boston with his female companion? It's the only explanation I can think of to explain the circuitous route if he did go to Montreal. Does anybody know what McCullough's letter actually says?