The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes BoothTownsend, George Alfred
History
The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth
Townsend, George Alfred
Assassins -- United States -- Biography; Booth, John Wilkes, 1838-1865; Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Assassination
These officials were ordered to visit Colonel Ingraham's office and
examine the little evidence on hand. They and their tried officers
formed a junction on Sunday afternoon with the large detective force of
Provost-Marshal Major O'Bierne. The latter commands the District of
Columbia civil and military police. He is a New-Yorker and has been shot
through the body in the field.
The detective force of Young and Murray consisted of Officers Radford,
Kelso, Elder, and Hoey, of New-York; Deputy-Marshal Newcome, formerly of
THE WORLD'S city staff; Officers Joseph Pierson and West, of Baltimore.
Major O'Bierne's immediate aids were Detectives John Lee, Lloyd,
Gavigan, Coddingham, and Williams.
A detachment of the Philadelphia detective police, force--Officers
Taggert, George Smith, and Carlin, reporting to Colonel Baker--went in
the direction of the North Pole; everybody is on the _que vive_ for
them.
To the provost-marshal of Baltimore, MacPhail, who knew the tone and
bearing of the country throughout, was joined the zealous co-operation
of Officer Lloyd, of Major O'Bierne's staff, who had a personal feeling
against the secessionists of lower Maryland; they had once driven him
away for his loyalty, and had reserved their hospitality for assassins.
Lieutenant Commander Gushing, I am informed, also rendered important
services to the government in connection with the police operations.
Volunteer detectives, such as Ex-Marshal Lewis and Angelis, were
plentiful; it is probable that in the pitch of the excitement five
hundred detective officers were in and around Washington city. At the
same time the secret police of Richmond abandoned their ordinary
business, and devoted themselves solely to this overshadowing offense.
No citizen, in these terrible days, knows what eyes were upon him as he
talked and walked, nor how his stature and guise were keenly scanned by
folks who passed him absent-faced, yet with his mental portrait
carefully turned over, the while some invisible hand clutched a
revolver, and held a life or death challenge upon his lips.
The military forces were commanded by Colonel Welles, of the Twenty
sixth Michigan regiment, whose activity and zeal were amply sustained by
Colonel Clendenning, of the Eighth Illinois cavalry, probably the finest
body of horse in the service.
The first party to take the South Maryland road was dispatched by Major
O'Bierne, and commanded by Lieutenant Lovett, of the Veteran Reserves.
It consisted of twenty-five cavalry men, with detectives Cottingham,
Lloyd, and Gavigan; these latter, with the lieutenant, kept well in
advance. They made inquiries of a soothing and cautious character, but
saw nothing suspicious until they arrived at Piscataway, where an
unknown man, some distance ahead, observed them, and took to the woods.
This was on Sunday night, forty hours after the murder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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