Booth, the Garretts and an Invitation to Tea

[Linda Anderson]

I found a fascinating article in the 4/17/1977 edition of the Richmond-Times Dispatch titled "Some Still Remember John Wilkes Booth."

The author, Robin Gallaher, interviewed the Garretts' neighbor Sue H. Christie who was 84 in 1977. Gallaher writes:

"As many as 40 persons may have been witnesses as history was made at 3 a.m. beneath foul-smelling ailanthus trees. There was a detachment of 27 soldiers and two detectives, out for the $175,000 reward. Routed from bed by the angry contingent demanding the assassin and Herold was Richard Henry Garrett a farmer in his nightshirt. His teen-age daughters, Annie [18] and Katherine [22], his sons, Jack and Willie, other children and perhaps some black farm hands watched in a silence disturbed perhaps only by the neighing of frothing horses."

Mrs. Christie says that "'there is no way in the wide world I can authenticate this, but it was told me all my life.
"'One thing that isn't recorded is that my family did give Booth a pitcher of water. My Grandfather Gibbs had a tavern in town - it was simply called The Inn -where Booth stopped after getting off the ferry. He wanted something to eat. My grandfather had closed it since he'd heard that Booth was headed this way and he didn't want anything to do with him.
"'My Grandmother Elizabeth said she never believed in letting people suffer for want of a drink of water - she knew who he was - so she told the colored woman to give him a pitcher. My grandfather came back in a rage and said they'd been picking up people all along the way. 'Do you want to get hung?' he yelled. My grandmother said, 'If they want to hang me for helping a crippled man, then they can.' Those old Southern women were tired of seeing so many hurt people,' Mrs. Christie said."

Mrs. Christie said that after the soldiers arrived at Garrett's farm:

"Everybody got up. Miss Lucinda Holloway was the girls' governess because Mr. Garrett wouldn't let them go to public school. Miss Lucinda was a great person for sewing, and when she dressed she very carefully put on her sewing apron, which had her scissors.
"Miss Annie and Miss Kattie [Garrett's daughters] were allowed to dress. The soldiers pulled up their coat tails and looked at their legs. They were pinched and pushed around and felt insulted forever. Neither one ever married,' Mrs. Christie said."

After Booth was shot Gallaher writes, "The soldiers dragged him out and carried him the 100 yards to the veranda."

[Mrs. Christie said] "'Miss Lucinda sat on the front porch, Booth's head on a pillow on her lap. The body was paralyzed. He looked at his hands and asked that they be raised. He said, 'Useless, useless,' and died.
"'Miss Lucinda reached into her pocket and took out the scissors and snipped off a curl. She had it in a locket and I saw it many times, though I never saw her wear the locket,' Mrs. Christie said."

Gallaher writes, "The Garrett family over the years was besieged by relic hunters. So many had to be chased away, even in the act of pulling up the porch floor, that the blood-stained planks were stored in the attic."

"'We'd be playing in the attic,' she [Mrs. Christie] remembered, 'and one of the boys would come waving a board and scare us like mad.'"

Gallaher also interviewed "The Reverend Ralph E. Fall, rector of St. Peter's Church and two other county churches...Painstakingly, he has researched the trail testimony, much of it conflicting, and the newspaper accounts and synopsized a coherent account."

Gallaher writes, "Next door to the rectory, in Port Royal and separated by a ravine is the old John B. Lightfoot house. The currant of the Rappahannock was powerful and the poled ferry, with the conspirators, Confederates and probably the usual assortment of livestock, and country travelers, was pushed downstream of the usual dock."

[Mr. Fall said] "'Mr. Lightfoot had two teen-age daughters. From what we know about girls, we know they get excited about anything coming down the river. Even now, the only excitement is this town is what's happening there. The ferry was way out of place. These little girls, Miss Harriet and Miss Sally, ran to the terrace and invited the five men to have tea. The men declined and went into the village with Booth riding on one of the horses,' Mr. Fall said."

Bill Richter has informed me that Lighthouse was a Mosby Ranger who had supper with Booth and Herold at the Garretts on Tuesday night.

[J. Beckert]

Great find, Linda!

[Dave Taylor]

I literally just photographed that article at the Port Royal museum a couple weeks ago. Ms. Christie isn't perfect in her recollections, but it's still a good article.

[Linda Anderson]

Thanks, Joe.

Dave, have you heard of The Inn that was run by Grandfather Gibbs? The part that interested me is that supposedly Mrs. Christie's grandparents had heard Booth was coming. I know the Garretts had to protect themselves by claiming ignorance, but wouldn't they have also heard that Booth was in the area?

I remember reading about boys chasing girls around with the bloody planks, maybe in an interview with Maude Motley.

[LincolnMan]

Apparently word of mouth had traveled in advance of Booth?

[BettyO]

I, too have heard of the "bloody planks" being used to chase the kids. Wonder whatever happened to those planks - and wonder if they were left in the attic when the Garrett family sold the place. I think it was sold sometime during the First Great Depression?

A wonderful old article, Linda.....


Found this info regarding Pvt. William Bernard Lightfoot -

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi...=15018349&

His father was John B. Lightfoot - and they owned Riverview Plantation in Port Royal -

Here is his tombstone in Shockoe Cemetery, Richmond, VA

       

Here is the plantation where he was born:

   

   

No photograph of him, yet....

[Dave Taylor]

Linda,

Ms. Christie's account follows the standard folklore around Port Royal that something was known about Booth's impending arrival. However, all of the accounts of that nature come way after the fact and there is no way to substantiate them.

The death of Booth at the Garrett farm was a defining moment for the residents of Port Royal All the residents were impacted by it and talked about for days, months, years, even decades after. Over time the older generation started putting themselves into the action more and more because no one could remember it accurately enough to correct them. Ms. Christie is merely recalling these twisted versions of the story. It is possible that Booth et. al. got a drink from her grandfather's tavern, but it is more likely that that whole story was made up or, at the very least, the drama of it was heightened.

Also, William Lightfoot did not have a meal at the Garretts with Booth. The Garretts make no mention of additional visitors to the house during Booth's time there (aside from Davy and the brief return of Ruggles and Bainbridge) and William Lightfoot himself says nothing to this effect when he was interviewed by Lloyd Lewis for his book "Myths after Lincoln". He states only that he was at home when he heard that someone was shot at Garretts and that he rushed up there, witnessing the death of the assassin: https://archive.org/stream/mythsafterlin...1/mode/2up

I believe Lightfoot left another recollection in which he states he had a meal with the Garretts, but this is suspect because in the one I link to, he makes the assertion that he "never saw Booth in real life".

[L Verge]

The scenario of the boys chasing girls around with the bloody planks from the Garretts' porch is exactly what Miss Maude Motley used to describe to those on our Booth Tours. She was a grand, Southern lady who had known Lucinda Holloway, and she bragged that her grandfather was considered the handsomest man in Mr. Lee's army. She took several of us to her home one time, and Gen. Motley's portrait was hanging in all his glory. I would have followed that man anywhere -- even if he had been a Yankee! Miss Maude's basement was a Confederate museum in its own right.

I believe that the Lightfoots gave the Garrett boys several hundred acres of their farmland to cultivate after they were released from prison and because so much of their crop and possessions had been destroyed by the soldiers. Another Port Royal neighbor, James Coghill hired Joseph Bradley to represent the Garrett boys and then gave them each $100 when they were released. Bradley would play a role in the upcoming trials.

Dave, do you believe the version that has the ferry floating past its original moorings?

[Wild Bill]

On my "erroneous" assertions W B Lightfoot, see Tidwell April 65, p. 192 and THG, Come Retribution 477-78. I incorrectly called him a Mosby man , but he was from 9 Va Cav (like Jett) and Tidwell thought him to be there to a certain whether Booth and Herold were dead or alive so that those awaiting his arrival south of there could disperse.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks for the photos, Betty!

[Dave Taylor]

Bill,

I hope you didn't take offense to my remarks. I just have a hard time taking Lightfoot at his word and that certain passage of Come Retribution is supposition, which I have a problem with. I'm a firm believer of Ockham's Razor when it comes to a lot of this stuff. Come Retribution sees suspicion in Lightfoot's assertion that he had already been paroled at Appomattox when in fact he did not receive his parole until May 2nd at King George Courthouse. They then go into the hypothesis that Lightfoot "may" have been up there to protect the route and "may" have been sent to Garretts to see if Booth was alive or dead. Come Retribution hears the hoof beats from Lightfoot's claim and imagines zebras, while I see far more mundane horses instead.

To me, the most logical scenario, and the one that follows Ockham's razor by making the least assumptions, is that Lightfoot, who made this claim circa 1920, either forgot when he received his parole or lied and said Appomattox because everyone after the war wanted to say they surrendered honorably with Lee at Appomattox. Nothing strange or suspicious about it to me.

Laurie,

I'm not sure how I feel about Rev. Fall's claim that the ferry boat landed down river at the Lightfoot home instead of the landing. Jim Thornton, the ferryman, did tell Oldroyd that the wind was bad that day and that he only made the one crossing. However, I always thought the ferry between Port Conway and Port Royal was a rope or cable ferry, in which the ferryman used a long pole or stick to push the ferry across the rope line to the other side. I know this is what the ferry eventually turned into as we have later pictures of it. If it was like this in 1865, I don't really see how the ferry could have gone that far off course. If it was not that sort of ferry in 1865, Rev. Fall's claim could be true.

[Linda Anderson]

(10-12-2014 01:02 PM)Wild Bill Wrote:  On my "erroneous" assertions W B Lightfoot, see Tidwell April 65, p. 192 and THG, Come Retribution 477-78. I incorrectly called him a Mosby man , but he was from 9 Va Cav (like Jett) and Tidwell thought him to be there to a certain whether Booth and Herold were dead or alive so that those awaiting his arrival south of there could disperse.

Bill, I made the error of calling Lightfoot a Mosby man. You told me that Lightfoot's son "was at Garrett's to pick up Booth for Mosby" and I assumed that Lightfoot was a Mosby Ranger.

Page 192 from Tidwell's April 65 is available on Google Books. Also, on p. 191, "As an old man, W. D. Newbill, of Mosby's G Company...told how he and two other Rangers had eaten supper at the Garrett farm with Booth and Herold."

http://books.google.com/books?id=jMK-y-_...ot&f=false

The pages you refer to in Come Retribution are also available on Google Books.

http://books.google.com/books?id=MDNdbLv...ot&f=false

[L Verge]

Regarding the ferry, the new owners of Belle Grove plantation on the Port Conway side of the Rappahannock either told me last year or have on their website that the ferry actually belonged to Belle Grove, not to Champe Thornton. I had never heard that either.

As for the beautiful Riverview Farm of the Lightfoots in Port Royal, it had a rather famous owner in the 20th century that few people today have even heard of. However, he never got to live in the home. His name was Richard Halliburton, and he was a well-known travel writer and world adventurer in the 1920s and 30s. He died in 1939 - lost at sea while trying to sail a Chinese junk across the Pacific Ocean. Interesting fellow - google him.

[Linda Anderson]

There's an interview with W. D. Newbill in the April 7, 1929 Evening Star in which he says that he and and "two companions" were sharing a "rather slim meal of cornbread, salt pork and greens" at a table on the lawn when Booth, who was called "Boyd," hobbled up. He said Booth spoke little and refused Garrett's offer of a bedroom for him to rest in saying "that a soldier would not know how to rest in a bed anyhow."

The Garretts say they refused to let Booth stay in the house a second night.

[Dave Taylor]

(10-12-2014 02:10 PM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  There's an interview with W. D. Newbill in the April 7, 1929 Evening Star in which he says that he and and "two companions" were sharing a "rather slim meal of cornbread, salt pork and greens" at a table on the lawn when Booth, who was called "Boyd," hobbled up. He said Booth spoke little and refused Garrett's offer of a bedroom for him to rest in saying "that a soldier would not know how to rest in a bed anyhow."

The Garretts say they refused to let Booth stay in the house a second night.

Exactly, Linda. This is just another case of an account that came long after the fact and gets the basic details wrong. I always judge an account based on whether or not they get the timeline correct. Booth spent two nights at the Garretts, the first of which was in the house without Davy. If a source doesn't get this right, then it is likely fictitious or second/third hand.