At
each painful move the chances of discovery increased. Jones was able,
after repeated failures, to row his fated guests across the Potomac.
Arriving on the Virginia side, they lived the lives of hunted animals
for two or three days longer, finding to their horror that they were
received by the strongest Confederates with more of annoyance than
enthusiasm, though none, indeed, offered to betray them. Booth had by
this time seen the comments of the newspapers on his work, and bitterer
than death or bodily suffering was the blow to his vanity. He confided
his feelings of wrong to his diary, comparing himself favorably with
Brutus and Tell, and complaining: "I am abandoned, with the curse of
Cain upon me, when, if the world knew my heart, that one blow would have
made me great."
On the night of April 25, he and Herold were surrounded by a party under
Lieutenant E.P. Doherty, as they lay sleeping in a barn belonging to one
Garrett, in Caroline County, Virginia, on the road to Bowling Green.
When called upon to surrender, Booth refused. A parley took place, after
which Doherty told him he would fire the barn. At this Herold came out
and surrendered. The barn was fired, and while it was burning, Booth,
clearly visible through the cracks in the building, was shot by Boston
Corbett, a sergeant of cavalry.
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