Identification of Booth's body

[L Verge]

(10-02-2018 03:09 PM)Warren Wrote:  Thanks, Roger! That supplies some more information, but it appears that Alexander Gardner appears in both of the sketches I linked above, yet they appear to have been done by different artists (at different times?). Most of the same people are in the both sketches and it appears they were drawn minutes, if not seconds, apart, based on their positions. The bottom sketch, above, from Baker's book, I think draws the deck of the Montauk more accurately, as it appears to have iron plates in a pattern to prevent the effects of plunging fire. Most of the photos of monitors I was able to look up have similar iron plate (as opposed to plank) decking. The Montauk did have planking like the top sketch, but it was below decks. Because of that, and for some vague recollection, I think the barrels were used to support the autopsy board, and it wasn't a fold-up table like in the top sketch.

If the the two sketches were by different artists, then I wonder who the other one was? Probably just another reporter present, I guess. No evidence of a camera being present in either drawing, though.

There were scores of spectators on shore who had some view of the "inquest" (a more proper term - also post-mortem examination- than "autopsy"). Some talented sketch artists could have made drawings also. And, I doubt that the details of the ship's construction were as important to the public as the drawing of the inquest and the folks involved.

I just remembered also that we left out one very important point in the identification of Booth's body -- the stick pin that was found holding together a tear in his undershirt. That stick pin had been a gift from Booth's friend, Dan Bryant, and was so engraved. If that body was not Booth's, then how did his piece of jewelry get on that undershirt?