Booth's visit to the Surratt Boarding House after the assassination

[Rick Smith]

John,

If you study enough photographs of the time period, you will see that men's coats, and the rest of their clothing, with the exception of the vest, were cut large to provide a rather generous fit. Even so, I think that a gunbelt, even with "hog leg" style holsters which were less bulky, as opposed to the typical military holster of the time, worn under the coat would show.

At Garrett's, Booth was found to have on his person two hand guns; a Colt 1860 Army model .44 caliber & a Colt 1851 Navy .36 caliber. Loading these weapons is a time consuming process. During the war in Missourri, Confederate Bushwhackers would customarily carry several extra, pre-loaded cylinders to save time loading and give them the advantage of extra fire power. The loads were either pre made paper & ball cartridges, and were ignited with small caps which were fitted onto a nipple at the back end of each cylinder chamber or were made up by pouring powder into each cylinder followed by wadding, then loading a ball and putting a cap in place. These were known as cap & ball pistols.

I have no idea about laws regarding the carrying of firearms in the city.

It still makes sense to me that the hat & pistols were picked up at Surratt's town house after the assassination. This stop would have taken a matter of a few minutes at most and there was no organized pursuit till much later.

Rick