In nearly everything that I have read about John Wilkes Booth’s escape route, there is a line that says “No one is certain which route Booth and Herold took from Surratt’s Tavern to Dr. Mudd’s farm.” Kieran McAuliffe’s seminal map (and the State of Maryland) has them going down modern-day Route 301 to Mattawoman Beantown Road to Poplar Hill Road, and past St. Peter’s Catholic Church. The Surratt Society tours go through T.B., down Brandywine Road, past the Horsehead Tavern, then south on Horsehead Road.

Has anyone done research on the late-1864 stage coach route(s) between Washington and Prince George’s and Charles Counties, and/or how closely the present day roads mirror the “roads” that existed in April 1865? The stage coach route may be the key to resolving the debate on whether Booth and Herold’s ride to Dr. Mudd’s took them past the Horsehead Tavern or St. Peter’s Church.

If it is true that Booth rode that stage on at least three occasions in late 1864 between Washington and Bryantown (and I believe it is), then it is highly likely that he was attentive to route traveled. I have not seen evidence that prior to those trips that Booth was otherwise familiar with the roads in Prince George’s or Charles Counties, Maryland.

As demonstrated by his familiarity with Namjemoy Creek and John Hughes, David Herold knew his way around western Charles County. However, the impromptu stop at the home of Oswell Swann and his engagement as a guide would indicate that Herold was not familiar with the northeastern portion of the county and that he may not have known the route from Surrattsville to Dr. Mudd’s.

It is speculation on my part, but it would seem likely that Booth took the route he learned from his rides on the stage coach. Area taverns served as stage coach stops. I have seen Surratt’s Tavern and the Bryantown Tavern cited as stage stops. While I would surmise that the Horsehead Tavern was also a stop in between Surrattsville and Bryantown, I have not seen written confirmation of it.

That’s why I am interested in whether someone has researched the stage coach route (or routes?). Whatever it was, I am inclined to believe that the stage coach route was the same route used by Booth and Herold.

This is an excellent point, and one that I never remember mention of before. I also never remember seeing an exact stage route mentioned - just that it ran from D.C. to Leonardtown and back on alternating days, except Sunday. We know there were stops at Surrattsville and T.B., and my gut reaction is to keep going straight towards Horsehead. I say this because Booth supposedly spent at least one night at the tavern there. Many years ago, there was said to be a ledger with his name in it, but like so many things, it has disappeared. Did he arrive there by horse or by stagecoach that time?

According to the old-timers, my grandmother (b. 1874), the main road was the one that ran to Horsehead and on. The one that was the forerunner of Rt. 5/301 was a newer road. That road is the one that led to the Huntt family plantation at Mattawoman, but not exactly the way the modern road does.

Let me do some checking to see if there is a listing of stage stops or a map. I remember doing an article on the mails at Surrattsville about thirty years ago. I just have to find it.

A GOOD source for this information would be the Historical Society in Leonardtown. I have been there, and they have all the newspapers from the 1860's and each paper had the Stagecoach Schedule. Shows the stops and the time of arrival etc. I don't believe that they show the exact road, but you would be close by knowing the stops being made. (The lady in charge is a GEM. Very helpful and pleasant) .

Please allow me to welcome Bill! It's wonderful you joined! I had the pleasure to meet him on the Mosby bus tour in March, and enjoyed very much to benefit from his vast knowledge on all topics. Thanks, Bill!

I found the article on the stage run that I did centuries ago. It is now part of the training manual that we give to our guides. The mail route from 1860-64 was as follows:

"Leave Washington three times a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7 am, via Silver Hill, Surratt's, T.B., Beantown, Bryantown, Charlotte Hall, Chaptico, to Leonardtown by 10 pm the same day.

"Leave Leonardtown three times a week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 4 am to arrive in Washington by 7 pm the same day." I never pursued the route into 1865, because the Surratts were no longer on the route and running the post office at that time.

Every one of those towns still exists with the exception of Beantown. A few remnants of it were still around when I was a child, so I know where it was. That is the one place that could make it go either way, but my inclination is to say that, IF BOOTH FOLLOWED THE STAGE ROAD, he did not do the old (and I think longer) route via Horsehead.

HOWEVER, by going that way, he would have had to double-back to get to Dr. Mudd's from Beantown unless he knew a shortcut through the fields. Getting to Beantown would put him within spitting distance of Bryantown also, which had been closely monitored during the war and would be one of the first places that the Union forces would think of going.

We know that Herold was familiar with families that lived along the route from Surrattsville to Horsehead and further because I believe that he mentions them in his statement in the War Department files. Louise Mudd Arehart always swore that her family claimed that the riders came from the direction of Horsehead. Good luck figuring all this out.

BTW: Some of the history of mail service during the mid-1800s is quite fascinating.

Just a thought. When Booth purchased the horse from Gardiner and rode it back to Washington in 1864, didn't he get lost after leaving Bryantown?

Since, in in my very first post, I offered a point or perspective that is new for Laurie, does that mean that I will be spared the "rookie" hazing initiation???

And, thank you, Eva for your kind comments and welcome.

THANK YOU, Laurie, for all you do. I am relatively new to this field (am a retired attorney), but virtually everything I have read that has been written in the past 20 years on Lincoln's assassination contains and acknowledge to Laurie Verge. You are a rock star!

And, thank you, Laurie, for saving me a trip down to Leonardtown (not that it isn't lovely this time of year...) to the Historical Society (an excellent suggestion, SSlater) to find the stage schedule in the local paper(s) of the time.

So, if my unproven speculation is right that Booth and Herold followed the stage route, then they would have gone past St. Peter"s. It's likely that they would have turned left from Mattawoman Beantiown Road on to Poplar Hill Road (It seems unlikely that they would have gone first to Beantown because, as Laurie pointed out, it would have required them to backtrack to Dr. Mudd's, at least if the current roads mirror those that existed in 1865).

(Personally, I would have preferred the route to Horsehead. It's a much more tranquil route and you get the feel of what the mid-1860s Maryland countryside was like. On 301/5, the only feeling you get is terror trying to avoid getting run over by the pickup trucks wizzing by at 85 mph, but I digress...) And, Laurie, you are correct: the Horsehead route is longer.

I am not sure the St. Peter's route can yet be declared the clear "winner," but I am inclined to give it greater credibility than I was when I first posted the hypothesis.

As for his escape I can't get this question off my head: Why did Booth (in your opinion) give his real name and destination to Sgt. Cobbs instead of giving him a red herring?
Thanks for any comment!

In my opinion, Booth was still full of bravado and intense pride in what he had done by that early point in his trip south. A witness (Ferguson) stated that Booth actually stopped briefly on the stage, shook the knife and said "I have done it!", before resuming his exit from the theater. Then he meets Cobb and is very calm and reassuring with him. He may not have broken his leg by that point or if he did, wasn't in that much pain. He is rather cocky with Cobb, but Cobb is a Union soldier who has no way of knowing what just happened a short time earlier. Then on to Surrattsville, where he tells Lloyd - ""I'll tell you some news, if you want to hear it". Lloyd is hungover/ still drunk at that point and says tell me if you think it's prudent. Booth then boasts - "We have killed the President and the Sect'y of State". It goes downhill from there and by the end of his journey Willie Jett asks him to tell him about the assassination. By then Booth has read all the papers have had to say for 10 days and simply replies - "It was nothing to brag about".

I agree completely with Joe. Booth was riding on a high ego at that point and was certain that his deed would be acclaimed by many. Miss Maude Motley, owner of the sliver of the crutch, who used to meet our tour buses in Virginia, would recount something to the effect that, when the news of the assassination was heard at the Garrett home, Booth made a comment as to wondering why someone would kill Lincoln. I believe it was Lucinda Holloway who replied, "Oh, for notoriety's sake, no doubt." For someone expecting accolades, "notoriety" is a put down, IMO.

Back to the escape route: When I first met James O. Hall in 1975, he was surprised by two things - one, I not only knew where T.B. was, but had grown up there and pretty much knew where things were in the village in 1865; two - I also knew where a place in Charles County was called Patuxent City.

In the case of the latter, he had found reference to David Herold having lived for part of his life in Patuxent City. I don't think he ever found the exact location of the home or the name of the family. The Patuxent City that I know had only 2-3 structures that could have dated back to the Civil War, but I never pursued it.

The point of my bringing this up is a supposition on my part (and after my last experience of "supposing" something, I need to be careful). If the fugitives had taken the old route to Horsehead, but stayed straight (instead of bearing right), they would have gone through the village of Woodville (now Aquasco), where there was a doctor well-known to Confederate sympathizers, and then continued on to Patuxent City. At that point, they could have turned right and headed in the direction of modern-day Hughesville and on to the area where Burtles, Swann, Canter, and Cox were located.

Or, they could have turned left and headed for Benedict and the Patuxent River and then into St. Mary's County. I mention this last route because when Thomas Jones was finally able to get them on the move to the shores of the Potomac, I believe it was because he had gotten word that the Union troops were headed in the direction of Chaptico and the river because two men had been spotted crossing in St. Mary's County. Those two men were very likely Thomas Harbin and Joseph Baden, the two underground operatives who had been trying to locate Booth and Herold and help get them to safety. So many routes, so many choices...

If it had been me, I would have avoided Benedict and St. Mary's County. Benedict was home to Camp Stanton, one of the training camps for the U.S. Colored Troops. Shortly after entering St. Mary's County, especially if following the Patuxent River shores, one would come to what had been the grand plantation (The Plains) of Col. John Sothoron, who had made a serious mistake of killing a Union soldier when a raiding party came earlier in the war to "recruit" the colonel's slaves for military duty. Col. Sothoron and his son were in hiding in 1865, and The Plains had become a government farm -- meaning that the Union had confiscated it and placed contraband there to till the soil to produce food crops for the good of the cause. Union soldiers were their overseers. Best to avoid it.

However, there is an account of a skirmish near there on the day of April 15. Gen. Tidwell had found evidence to suggest that some of Mosby's men were in the area and clashed with a Union troop. I think John Stanton has tried to follow up on this with different results. Just some random thoughts.

Thanks for the cue, Laurie, I'm on. Mosby was in "his Confederacy" and he had called all his Troops to him _ they had been wintering on the Northern Neck - so his men were either with him or on the way to him, to get ready to do their thing. So, it next to impossible to have been Mosby.
However, the Rebs had just established a new NAVY PARTISAN GROUP in King George County, and it was their mission to move into Maryland and do as much damage as they were able. Their compensation was set on how much damage they were able. This Partisan Group seems to be the only available Rebs, of any size, or organization to mount a skirmish.
I would suspect that any troops to be assigned to "protect" the ex-slaves , would have been the "Walking Wounded", or the Veteran Corps, and would not have been a fearsome fighting unit. If the NAVY guys could have captured a few dozen ex-slaves -it would have been money in their pocket.
I was going to write this up for The Courier, but decided it wasn't Lincoln Related enough, to put in the Courier.

Good Grief, Jonathan - the Courier accepts pertinent articles to the Civil War in Southern Maryland, Victorian life, etc. in addition to assassination material. Get thee busy on that article!

Thank you, Laurie, and all, for your comments. One of the main reasons I am inclined to think that the stage route may be a factor in determining the route taken to Dr. Mudd's was the relative unfamiliarity of both Booth and Herold with the roads in that part of Maryland. The support for that supposition of unfamiliarity was the need to engage Oswell Swann as a guide to the home of William Burtles in the vicinity of St. Mary's Church on the night of April 15. While Booth probably knew that route through Bryantown, it appears that neither knew the way around Bryantown. However, if as Laurie suggests, Herold lived part of this life in Patuxent City, then perhaps my supposition of unfamiliarity with regard to Herold is not quite as strong. A bit more research into that part of Herold's life may be in order....

When one reads the statement made by Herold to Bingham on the 27th of April while on board the Montauk at the Navy Yard, he throws out many names of people in the areas around Surrattsville, Piscataway, Port Tobacco, and others -- even today, I can take you to where these people lived -- Burch, Edelen, Parker, Griffith, Gregory.

He had likely been hunting with most of these men as a child with his father or later on; but it's possible that he followed them and didn't really know the various routes once off the main roads. And, during their wanderings from Mudd's until reaching up with Swan, he and Booth were literally in the dark (after 9 pm at night). Even today (for me at least) the countryside takes on a different, somewhat confusing feel at night.

I'm resurrecting this thread because I'm stuck in a research quandary. My question is this, how could John Wilkes Booth have returned to Washington after visiting Charles County in November of 1864?

We know that Booth rode the stage that goes from Washington, D.C. all the way down to Leonardtown in St. Mary's County, Maryland on Friday, November 11th. During this trip he got off at Bryantown and spent the night of the 11th at the Bryantown Tavern while he sent word to Dr. Queen that he had a letter of introduction for him. On Saturday the 12th, Joseph Queen picks Booth up from Bryantown and brings him to his father's house. Booth spends that night with the Queen family. The next morning, Sunday the 13th, Dr. Queen, Booth, and John Thompson all attend mass at St. Mary's. Thompson states that he introduces Booth to Dr. Mudd for the first time here but that Booth returns back to Dr. Queen's home. On the next day, Monday the 14th, Booth has made his way back to Washington. We know this because he writes a letter (recently on the auction block but failed to sell because the starting price was too high IMO) to the son of the owner of Bryantown Tavern from Washington on November 14th.

So my question is, how did Booth get from Bryantown on Sunday the 13th to Washington on Monday the 14th? According to the information Laurie posted earlier in this thread, the stage went southbound on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, and northbound on Tuesday, Thursdays, and Saturdays. According to Laurie there was no service on Sundays. If this is all true then Booth could not have taken the stage back from Bryantown to Washington and be in the city on the 14th. But he was!

Either he borrowed a horse from someone (possibly the Queen family) or we are mistaken about the stage schedule.

Any thoughts?