Booth's Death

On the morning of April 26, 1865, soldiers caught up with Booth and Herold. After cornering Booth and Herold in the tobacco barn, Herold was given a chance to surrender. Herold did surrender. When J.W.Booth was given the chance for surrender he said, "I prefer to come out and fight!" At that, the soldiers set fire to the barn. As Booth was moving about in the barn, Sergeant Boston Corbett shot him in the neck, later claiming that he saw him raise and aim his pistol at them. Fatally wounded, Booth was dragged to the porch by the barn. In his dying moments, he asked if he could see his hands. While looking at his hands, he murmered, "Useless, Useless." He died merely three hours later, at the age of 26, right as the sun was rising. While soldiers were checking his body, they found a compass, a candle, pictures of five women (one of them being his fiance, Lucy Hale), and his diary. In his diary, he had written of President Lincoln's death saying, "Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment."