"the instrument of his punishment"
— John Wilkes Booth - Escape of an Assassin —
After assassinating President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth and his accomplice, David A. Herold, fled Washington for Southern Maryland, a hotbed of Confederate sympathizers. After leaving the home of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd near Bryantown, Booth found a guide who brought them to the home of Samuel Cox in the early morning hours of April 16. After some negotiating, Cox agreed to place them in the care of friends in the Confederate underground. He sent them to a dense growth of pines a mile west of his house and enlisted his foster brother, Thomas A. Jones, to help them reach the Potomac River, two miles farther west, over which they could cross into Virginia. For several days, Jones' and Cox's overseer, Franklin Robey, brought food and newspapers to the fugitives as they waited for a chance to continue their journey south. Booth learned from the newspapers how strongly the world condemned the assassination. Shocked, he tried to justify his act by writing of Lincoln in his pocket diary, "Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment." On April 20, Jones saw an opportunity to get his charges to the Potomac. After dusk, he led them southwest, past his own home near Dent's Meadow, and down to the river.| HM Number | HMQFC |
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| Series | This marker is part of the Maryland Civil War Trails series |
| Tags | |
| Placed By | Maryland Civil War Trails |
| Marker Condition | No reports yet |
| Date Added | Thursday, September 11th, 2014 at 9:16pm PDT -07:00 |
| UTM (WGS84 Datum) | 18S E 326750 N 4259055 |
|---|---|
| Decimal Degrees | 38.46300000, -76.98575000 |
| Degrees and Decimal Minutes | N 38° 27.78', W 76° 59.145' |
| Degrees, Minutes and Seconds | 38° 27' 46.80" N, 76° 59' 8.70" W |
| Driving Directions | Google Maps |
| Area Code(s) | 301, 240 |
| Closest Postal Address | At or near 9690 Bel Alton Newtown Rd, Bel Alton MD 20611, US |
| Alternative Maps | Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap |
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