The Spur Question

[JMadonna]

(03-16-2024 12:05 PM)Tom Bogar Wrote:  

(03-16-2024 08:03 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(03-16-2024 07:58 AM)Steve Wrote:  Roger, do you know if Tom Bogar has any sources on what Booth was wearing and if they saw him was wearing spurs?

Steve, I will try to find out.

It's always been my contention that he was wearing spurs, because (a) that was simply a given when one was to ride, much less race away at top speed on, a horse in those days, and (b) the spur found in the booth. But I admittedly have no cold hard proof. I will check with Terry Alford, whose Fortune's Fool I consider the definitive word on all things JWB.

In those days there were no rest stops. If you had to relieve yourself, you did it on the road. This is where the rule of thumb 'DON"T SQUAT IN YOUR SPURS' came from. It's still advised today.

I'll bet you that the myth of the flag and the spur came after Booth said he broke his leg in his diary some 2 years after the event, in order to bring the hand of God into the situation. None of the eyewitnesses saw the spur grabbing the flag. Neither do I believe that the person who 'found the spur' was ever identified.

Yet this has become an 'accepted truth' much like the 'shots from the grassy knoll during the Kennedy assassination.