Escape speculations

[Jim Page]

Gene, I've seen old tobacco barns, too, and you're right about the boards not being tight against one another. In the case of the barn in question, I've read somewhere that some of the Garrett's neighbors had furniture and stuff stored in that barn, and that clutter may have hindered Booth had he tried to kick some boards loose and scoot out of there.

I'm willing to bet that the man shot there was JWB, but I still wonder if he and Herold had saddlebags, and, if so, what was in them.

--Jim

[Gene C]

I agree Jim.

I do wonder about Booth's physical condition before he was shot. At the autopsy they remarked how quickly the body was decaying, possibly due to the physical stress he had been under, but he seemed to have been in good spirits and moving around fairly well after he crossed the Potomac. Did anyone who saw him shortly before he was killed indicate he was in an emaciated or sickly condition?

[L Verge]

(06-18-2015 12:08 PM)Wild Bill Wrote:  Thank you, Balsiger and Sellier

You beat me to saying that, Bill. I got slightly nauseated reading Gene's speculation because it is all too familiar - and not in a pleasant way.

If the Garretts were like most tobacco farmers, they would have been diligent about keeping their barn in good shape since proper ventilation is the key to curing tobacco. After the war, Virginia converted their curing to flue-cured techniques; but I think that the Garrett barn still had vertical weathboards with hinges to open and close as necessary.

Saying that, I have often wondered why the troops didn't drive him and Herold crazy by positioning men who could open the slats four or five at a time so that Booth wouldn't know where to shoot when.

Even if the Garrett barn had deteriorated during the war, a well-built barn is very sturdy and not that easy to break out of. Members of the Surratt Society will get a lesson in Maryland tobacco production with their July newsletter since July and August are the main months of the growing season. Part of the barn construction in Maryland was locust wood and oak because of their strength. The name of the Garrett farm was Locust Hill, which should indicate that the Garretts had sturdy wood easily available.

---

(06-18-2015 12:39 PM)Jim Page Wrote:  Gene, I've seen old tobacco barns, too, and you're right about the boards not being tight against one another. In the case of the barn in question, I've read somewhere that some of the Garrett's neighbors had furniture and stuff stored in that barn, and that clutter may have hindered Booth had he tried to kick some boards loose and scoot out of there.

I'm willing to bet that the man shot there was JWB, but I still wonder if he and Herold had saddlebags, and, if so, what was in them.

--Jim

Many tobacco barns in Southern Maryland and the Northern Neck have been vacant now since the tobacco buy-outs, so if you never visited one before 1970, you are not getting a true idea of sturdy barn construction. In Maryland, our remaining barns are on the National Register of Endangered Historic Sites - considered a dying breed of examples of life and culture during the first 200 years of our country.

Also, in their original design, air space is built in between the vertical weatherboarding to allow some circulation even when the moveable panels are closed.

My mother managed two tobacco farms (each dating back in our family to the 1700s) when I was a child, so barns - as well as stables, cornhouses, and even smokehouses and summer kitchens - are very familiar to me. The Southern Maryland tobacco culture is near and dear to my childhood memories (no matter its evil effects) and part of my cultural identity.

---

(06-18-2015 01:32 PM)Gene C Wrote:  I agree Jim.

I do wonder about Booth's physical condition before he was shot. At the autopsy they remarked how quickly the body was decaying, possibly due to the physical stress he had been under, but he seemed to have been in good spirits and moving around fairly well after he crossed the Potomac. Did anyone who saw him shortly before he was killed indicate he was in an emaciated or sickly condition?

I just remember the comment about how bad his leg was. Either Ruggles or Bainbridge made reference to it being in bad shape. However, he slept in the same room with the Garrett boys, so Dave Taylor may know if they noticed anything.

Frankly, I think my corpse would be in bad shape at the end if I had been dragged and dumped unceremoniously on the ground, dragged again and plopped on a porch, wrapped in an army blanket and thrown face down in a farm wagon that jostled over country roads for miles to reach a damp ship that would take my body upriver and transferred to a monitor. And, we won't get started on what the weather conditions might have contributed to the decay.

[Gene C]

Sorry Laurie, next time I go way out on a speculating tangent I'll try to include a link for discount coupons on dramamine and barf bags.

http://www.dramamine.com/coupons/

I see Maryland is right up there in tobacco production, slightly behind the top eight on the list, while my home state of Kentucky is only ranked 2nd. I do live in a slightly rural area of the state where agriculture is a key part of the local economy. http://www.statista.com/statistics/19202...us-states/

Regarding the condition of Garrett's barn, I never was impressed with the condition of the Garrett's house based upon the photo's I've seen. Not sure the barns would have been in better condition.

I'll pass on commenting on corpses.

Other than that, I'm on the same page as you.

[Jim Page]

Funny about those old barns in the South; some that I thought as a kid were on the brink of falling down are still in much the same condition. Oddly enough, old houses in the same areas seem to deteriorate and fall in on themselves rather quickly when uninhabited.

I swear this is true, but I don't understand it.

I'll bet the Garrett tobacco barn was one of the few Southern barns without "Mail Pouch" or "Visit Rock City" painted on the sides or roof! That's really why they burned it.

--Jim

[L Verge]

(06-18-2015 05:08 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Sorry Laurie, next time I go way out on a speculating tangent I'll try to include a link for discount coupons on dramamine and barf bags.

http://www.dramamine.com/coupons/

I see Maryland is right up there in tobacco production, slightly behind the top eight on the list, while my home state of Kentucky is only ranked 2nd. I do live in a slightly rural area of the state where agriculture is a key part of the local economy. http://www.statista.com/statistics/19202...us-states/

Regarding the condition of Garrett's barn, I never was impressed with the condition of the Garrett's house based upon the photo's I've seen. Not sure the barns would have been in better condition.

I'll pass on commenting on corpses.

Other than that, I'm on the same page as you.

Maryland used to be in the top 5 or 6, I believe, but it has always been hampered because about one-third of the state is rocky and mountainous - and cold. The Eastern Shore had to share with seafood production and truck farming (especially tomatoes - lots of canning factories over there) and huge chicken farms. On the Western Shore, St. Mary's, Charles, Calvert, Prince George's, Anne Arundel and the southern part of Montgomery Counties were the tobacco producers for generations. Points any farther north were too rocky, mountainous, and cold for good tobacco production. That's one of the reasons that Maryland was a divided state. The northwestern portions didn't need slave labor for the most part.

On your chart, I was surprised to see Pennsylvania and Ohio in the top eight. Then I thought that their climate levels might be the same as Maryland's. I also realized that both of those states probably have a fairly good amount of Amish and Mennonites? Those religious groups are still the main tobacco producers in Maryland because they refused the government buy-out - based on their belief that they should not accept subsidies from the government in order to survive. My kind of people.

One last thought: I have never considered the production in North Carolina and Kentucky, but I bet that the farmers there can't be bought either since most of the tobacco manufacturers are concentrated in that area. Don't bite the hands that are feeding the state's economy. I wonder how fast Cuban cigars are wending their way to America now that our ban has been lifted?

[SSlater]

(06-18-2015 12:39 PM)Jim Page Wrote:  Gene, I've seen old tobacco barns, too, and you're right about the boards not being tight against one another. In the case of the barn in question, I've read somewhere that some of the Garrett's neighbors had furniture and stuff stored in that barn, and that clutter may have hindered Booth had he tried to kick some boards loose and scoot out of there.

I'm willing to bet that the man shot there was JWB, but I still wonder if he and Herold had saddlebags, and, if so, what was in them.

--Jim

Some years ago I found a request from Richard Garrett to the United Sates Government, asking for payment for all the stuff that was burned in the Bar, and the junk is itemized The Government agreed to pay him IF - he could prove that he had been loyal to the Union throughout the war. Of course he couldn't and would not take the oath. So, he didn't get paid. That request was in a file called the "Congressional Information System". My copy of the request in in the Surratt Library.

[L Verge]

Somewhere, we were discussing the condition of Booth's leg by the time he reached the Garretts. I have to tell the story of one of our Surratt volunteers who right now is not able to work because his doctors have grounded him until his leg heals.

This gentleman is a train enthusiast and took a son and granddaughter to an antique train attraction in West Virginia on the Memorial Day weekend. While visiting the site, one of the personnel asked if they would like to ride a hand cart - that little "flatbed" machinery that is powered by two men pumping what I would describe as a seesaw.

As our volunteer started to mount the contraption, he tried to position his camera under his arm to protect it, and in the process, he banged his head on the handlebar of the machine - naturally causing heavy blood flow like one gets from most head wounds, no matter how slight. That injury caused one of his legs to slip off of the machine and scrape along his shinbone. It wasn't until after his head wound was stapled that he realized his leg was hurting. He pulled up his pants' leg and saw a nasty bruise starting, but no broken flesh. He thought nothing about it until about 24 hours later when the bruise was very impressive.

He came on home to Maryland and just stayed off of it for about ten days - refusing to go to the doctor even though it really started looking dangerous. When he could barely walk and the leg was swollen badly with lesions starting to form, he finally decided that his wife might be right that medical attention was needed.

He ended up in the hospital with a very serious infection and stayed there for a week. Even though the skin was never broken except for the infection-induced lesions, the doctors told him that any further delay in treatment might have cost him his leg.
He's now at home, but home nurses come by every other day to check on his progress and yelled at him because he wasn't resting enough with the leg elevated. The injury happened on May 23, and he's still home bound.

When he first called me with the news about June 1, all I could think of was Booth's broken leg. If my friend's bruise could turn so serious, I kept wondering what a broken bone being jostled around was doing inside Booth's leg for twelve days. I believe there is also a reference somewhere about the leg being rather sloppily wrapped and not really getting support. I tend to believe the soldier's statement that Booth's leg looked quite bad by the time he got across the Rappahannock River.

[Gene C]

(06-18-2015 07:26 PM)L Verge Wrote:  When he first called me with the news about June 1, all I could think of was Booth's broken leg. If my friend's bruise could turn so serious, I kept wondering what a broken bone being jostled around was doing inside Booth's leg for twelve days. I believe there is also a reference somewhere about the leg being rather sloppily wrapped and not really getting support. I tend to believe the soldier's statement that Booth's leg looked quite bad by the time he got across the Rappahannock River.

Thanks Laurie, that's the kind of information I wanted to know.

Hope your friend will be doing better soon.

[BettyO]

Hope the volunteer is much better, Laurie!

I'd live to hear what Blaine would say about this situation as well as if such could have impacted Booth's limb.....

[BettyO]

Quote:Gene, I've seen old tobacco barns, too, and you're right about the boards not being tight against one another. In the case of the barn in question, I've read somewhere that some of the Garrett's neighbors had furniture and stuff stored in that barn, and that clutter may have hindered Booth had he tried to kick some boards loose and scoot out of there.

I agree with you both and Laurie. Old tobacco barns or curing sheds have spaces between the horizontal wall boards to aid the air ventilation curing. My uncle grew tobacco for years and he had two tobacco barns on his property - same concept....they had wide spaces between the slats for drying. There was furniture from neighbors stored in Garrett's barn - NOT tobacco as it was early spring and it would not have been harvested yet. Supposedly the neighbors were afraid of Union raiding parties and had stored their "valuables" there for safe keeping in case their farms and homes were raided - nothing as to what would have happened IF Garrett's home had been raided; and it most definitely was!) I would imagine that Booth's body had deteriorated quickly, much as any corpse lying out in the open even though Booth's was covered. Flies and other organisms have a way of getting into things no matter what. Rigamortis would have set in within two hours, I believe.

[L Verge]

Also, many of the residents who lived along the banks of the Rappahannock had had their homes used for target practice by Union patrol boats and were trying to save heirlooms, etc. by storing them with sympathizers inland.

Question for our doctors out there -- how long does rigor mortis last? For some reason, I have always thought that the body relaxes itself after a few hours. Also, would the movement of fluids within the body soon after death have accounted for any change in composition?

[Houmes]

(06-19-2015 11:50 AM)L Verge Wrote:  Question for our doctors out there -- how long does rigor mortis last? For some reason, I have always thought that the body relaxes itself after a few hours. Also, would the movement of fluids within the body soon after death have accounted for any change in composition?

Rigor mortis is the result of chemistry and anatomy. After death the body is initially flaccid, although metabolic processes at a cellular level continue until acid production from early decomposition locks chemical bonds in the muscle proteins. Eventually, with further decomposition changes, the chemical bonds break down, and the body again becomes flaccid.

Under average conditions in temperate climates, rigor starts within 30 minutes to one hour, increases to a maximum within 12 hours, remains about 12 hours, and progressively disappears within the following 12 hours. Small muscles (hands, mouth, eyelids, neck) are involved first, before large muscles (thighs and arms). Some authors note rigor mortis can average as short as 6 hour intervals.

Several factors affect the cycle of rigor mortis, no matter what you may see on the CSI television shows. Factors influencing the approximate timing or presence of rigor include: body mass (rigor is not always present in children or frail adults, particularly those who suffered from starvation), prior exercise, seizures before death, fever or hot environment (high temperature exposure may shorten the entire rigor cycle to 9-12 hours), dehydration, electrocution, drugs in the body (strychnine hastens the process, carbon monoxide poisoning slows it), and diseases such as renal failure. Hypothermia and cold environments (as opposed to heat) slow the process, unless the individual died with extreme (below zero) exposure and are frozen.

Rigor mortis also produces some normal but odd findings. Most strands of body hair have tiny muscles which can be affected by rigor, producing "goose flesh." In combination with the dehydrating effect of embalming fluid, this may make the hair appear to have grown after death.

[RJNorton]

(06-18-2015 07:23 PM)SSlater Wrote:  Some years ago I found a request from Richard Garrett to the United Sates Government, asking for payment for all the stuff that was burned in the Bar, and the junk is itemized The Government agreed to pay him IF - he could prove that he had been loyal to the Union throughout the war. Of course he couldn't and would not take the oath. So, he didn't get paid. That request was in a file called the "Congressional Information System". My copy of the request in in the Surratt Library.

Many thanks to Blaine for sending these images along with this note:

"The Garretts were nothing if not persistent. See this letter from 1905."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++