Oregon Magazine

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THE HUNT FOR JOHN WILKES BOOTH
Two Civil War vets who ended their days in Oregon caught the assassin.

By Randy Fletcher

Trooper John Millington was standing guard duty in Washington, D.C. before dawn on

April 15, 1865 when he was notified that President Lincoln had been shot at Ford's Theater the night before. The bugler sounded Boots and Saddles and Millington's regiment rode to the outskirts of the city to form a blockade in an attempt to prevent the assassin from fleeing the capitol. It was a gray Saturday and a steady rainfall chilled the men of the 16th New York Cavalry as they joined thousands of other soldiers in an attempt to lock down the city. The mission was impossible, for the murderer and his accomplice had already made their way across the Potomac River and slipped into Maryland. Later in the day, word was passed to the soldiers that the President had died and that well-known actor John Wilkes Booth had committed the dastardly deed.

The news of the President's death shocked, saddened, and angered the soldiers. The boys in blue of the Union army revered their President. They called him Father Abraham and it was the support of the military that clinched Lincoln's reelection in 1864. For the first time in American history, troops in the field were allowed to vote, and they responded overwhelmingly, seventy percent or more, in favor of Abraham Lincoln.

A week before the assassination, Millington and his comrades in the 16th, including his friend Emory Parady, had celebrated joyously the news from Appomattox Court House that Robert E. Lee had surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant. The war was won and Millington and Parady had survived. Peace was at hand and soon they would be going home to their native New York.

Troopers recalled for funeral duty

After three days on patrol in an attempt to keep the assassination conspirators from leaving the city, the 16th New York Cavalry was recalled to Washington D.C. where they were to take part in the President's funeral. Lincoln's body had been taken to the White House where his funeral was held on Wednesday, April 19th. After the service, twelve army first sergeants carried the coffin and placed it in a horse drawn carriage for the final trip down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol. General Grant and President Andrew Johnson led the funeral procession followed by a regiment of U.S. colored troops leading thousands of Union soldiers that included Parady, Millington and the rest of the 16th New York. Behind the dignitaries and the regiments were forty thousand African Americans, the freeborn and the newly-free, walking and holding each other's hands as they mourned.

Hundreds of thousands of spectators lined the street and filled every window, balcony, and rooftop to witness the procession and pay their final respects. Witnesses to the event remarked on the size of the crowd and marveled at the absolute silence of the occasion. A silence broken only by the muffled drums of the military escort. After lying in state at the Capitol, the President's body was loaded on a special train for his final trip to Springfield, Illinois. Millions of people gathered along the tracks and at train stops along the way to mourn their leader. Their solemn duty of the day complete, the 16th Cavalry returned to their barracks on 'J' Street.

Emory Parady and John Millington had known each other for seven months, ever since Parady had joined the 16th New York in September of 1864 and been assigned to Company H where Millington served. Millington, at age twenty-one was a seasoned veteran. Stocky and with dark curly hair, Millington had been eighteen when the Civil War began and he enlisted in the 93rd New York Infantry. The farm boy from Chester, New York fought in several major engagements with the 93rd before contracting typhoid and receiving a disability discharge following the Battle of Fredricksburg. After spending a year at home recovering from the disease, Millington re-enlisted.

Parady, age twenty, had grown up on his parent's farm near Beekmantown, New York, about ninety miles from the Millington place. Emory's older brother, Joe Parady, was already serving with the 16th New York when Emory enlisted. The Parady brothers and Millington had fought together against Confederate forces in numerous engagements and skirmishes throughout northern Virginia.

Boots and Saddles alerts the cavalry

Five days after the funeral, on April 24, 1865, Millington and Parady were chowing down in the barracks when they heard the first notes of Boots and Saddles, the bugle call that ordered cavalry to mount up. Normal military protocol was ignored for the sake of speed. Lieutenant Edward Doherty, the officer in charge of the detail, took command of the first 25 men to hit the saddle. Doherty added a sergeant from his own troop, and led his men to the corner of Fourteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, across from the Willard Hotel. There, two men in civilian clothes, officers from the National Detective Police, precursor of the U.S. Secret Service, met the troopers. The detectives led the cavalry to the Washington Navy Yard where the men and their horses were loaded onboard a Union steamship, which headed down the Potomac River.

On board the ship. Lt. Edward Doherty showed his men a set of three photographs. The

troopers did not recognize two of the men, but the third portrait was clearly that of the famous actor, J. Wilkes Booth. The soldier's hearts leapt with excitement; they were going after the assassins! The largest manhunt in history was underway. Doherty's detachment was told that Booth had crossed the Potomac near Port Tobacco and they were instructed to seize any man resembling the pictures.

At about ten o'clock that night, the troopers landed on shore and began a hard target search of every residence, warehouse, farmhouse, hen house, outhouse, and doghouse in the area. Talking only in whispers, the cavalry traveled light: Armed with only pistols and sabers, Parady reported they were ordered to secure the sabers to their saddles to reduce their clanking noise. In addition, the men carried no food or provisions, confiscating what they needed from local farms and houses issuing Federal payment vouchers as compensation for the requisitioned supplies. The search party, one of hundreds of patrols scouring the countryside, got a break early in the afternoon of the second day.

While searching near Point Conway, Virginia they questioned fisherman William Rollins. Asked if he had seen any strangers crossing the river in the last several days, Rollins reported that two men in a wagon, one of them with a broken leg, had crossed the day before. Three Confederate soldiers on horseback accompanied the men in the wagon.

Luther Baker, one of the detectives accompanying the cavalry, showed Rollins photographs of the three fugitives they sought. The first man pictured was John Surrat and Rollins reported that he had not seen him. Rollins, however, recognized the man in the second picture as being in the wagon with the man with the broken leg. He was David Herold who was seen outside

Ford's theater the night of the assassination. The third picture shown by the detective was identified as the man with the broken leg, John Wilkes Booth. They were on the right trail! Rollins had even more information to share. He reported that he recognized one of the Confederate soldiers as a local man named Willie Jett who had served with Mosby's Rangers. Rollins further volunteered that Jett was courting a local girl named Izora Goldman whose father ran the Star Hotel near Bowling Green.

Rollins was conscripted as a guide and the Union cavalry mounted up and headed out to find Willie Jett.

The men of the 16th New York arrived in Bowling Green at midnight and quickly surrounded the hotel. They suspected Booth and his accomplices could be sleeping inside. Lt. Doherty and the second detective on the killer's trail, Everton Conger, pounded on the hotel door and when the door was opened by Mrs. Goldman, they rushed past her with pistols in hand and ready for action. The Union soldiers hurried upstairs to find a man in his underclothes starting to rise from his bed. "Are you Jett?" they shouted and when answered in the affirmative they seized the man and roughly hustled him down the stairs, dragging along the Goldman's son Jesse. Under interrogation Jett stated that he did not know who the two men in the wagon were except that they were Confederate soldiers who had gotten into some trouble in Maryland and needed a place to lay low. He stated he did not know where they went. After what Millington described as some "forcible persuasion" Jett pleaded to speak to Conger alone.

Alone with the detective, Jett agreed to lead the search party to Booth and Herold's hideout on the condition that he did so under the appearance of force. Jett was concerned for his safety if he was seen as a Yankee collaborator and he wanted no witnesses to his capitulation. Jett was permitted to dress as his horse was retrieved from the stable. The Confederate ranger then led the Federal men back up the road they had just traveled, to the Garrett farm. Earlier that night, in their dash to the Star Hotel, the cavalry had thundered by Garrett's farm without stopping to search. They did not even notice that David Herold was standing plainly visible within the gates of the farm watching the horsemen tear down the road. When Jett indicated they were nearing the Garrett's place, Doherty slowed his column. Jett and Detective Baker opened the Garrett gate and the 16th New York Cavalry charged at full gallop down the road to the farmhouse.

The assassins are cornered

The barking of the dogs awakened Booth and Herold who were asleep in the Garrett's tobacco barn and they soon heard the unmistakable sound of cavalry on fast approach. Farmer Richard Garrett, asleep in his house also awoke and was on his front porch when the cavalry arrived in the blackness of night. Detectives Conger and Baker leapt from their saddles on to the porch and confronted the old man while half of the detachment, including Trooper Parady, was sent to search nearby barns. The detectives demanded to know the whereabouts of the two men who had visited that evening. Garrett replied that he knew nothing about any men being there, at which point Lt. Doherty ordered one of his men to fetch him a picket rope saying "We'll hang the old man and see if it will refresh his memory." Garrett had two sons, both recently returned from the war, who were hiding at the farm. At the mention of hanging, son John Garrett came out of the woods and said he would tell he detectives what they wanted to know. Before being given a chance to speak further, young Garrett was seized by Lt. Doherty who pointed his army revolver at Garrett's head. Conger demanded "where are they?" and the reply was "the two men are in the barn." In that same instant, Parady heard voices coming from inside the tobacco barn and he summoned his officer.

At the approach of the cavalry Booth and Herold attempted to flee only to discover that the Garrett boys had locked them in the barn. The fugitives tried in vain to kick out the wood slats in order to escape but the barn was solidly built. Soon the barn was completely surrounded by Union cavalry and Detective Baker ordered the men to come out. "Never! Come in and get me!" replied the defiant Booth who then offered to come out and fight if the troopers would back away fifty paces. The soldiers were ordered to gather and lay straw along the base of the barn and to prepare to fire the building.

While Booth continued to yell challenges at his besiegers, his accomplice David Herold was begging Booth to give up. Booth called out to the detectives "The young man who is with me will surrender." Doherty opened the barn door slightly to allow Herold to come out at which point the cavalry officer slammed the door and tackled Herold. Booth's companion was tied to a tree and Millington was posted to guard him. Millington asked Herold if the man in the barn was Booth and Herold confirmed that it was. Herold then told Millington that he had no knowledge that Booth planned to kill the President. Their plan was to kidnap Lincoln and hold him hostage until Union troops withdrew from the South. Herold cried to Millington that he had fallen under Booth's spell and that after the assassination, Booth threatened to kill him if he did not help him escape. David Herold was laying out to Millington the basis of his defense at his upcoming conspiracy trial. Millington, the hardened war veteran, was unmoved by Herold's pleas as, in the end, was the military tribunal that condemned Herold.

As Herold confessed to Millington, the order was given to set fire to the barn. As the orange flames illuminated the interior of the barn, Parady and the other men could see Booth scurrying about, trying to stomp out the flames, his broken leg rendering his attempt futile. The detectives planned to take Booth alive by jumping him as he fled the fire but that chance never came. The situation at the barn was practically a mob scene, many of the soldiers bent on revenge. From his position guarding Herold, Millington could hear the soldiers yelling for Booth to show himself. Sergeant Boston Corbett, seeing through vents in the barn that Booth was armed with a Spencer rifle, fired one shot from his Colt revolver, the ball striking Booth in the neck and dropping him to the ground. The troopers rushed inside the flaming structure and dragged the unconscious Booth outside, laying him on Garrett's front porch.

Parady and the men surrounded Booth as he regained consciousness. Paralyzed from the bullet, Booth asked to see his hands and when the soldiers raised his arms for him to see, Booth muttered "useless." Booth lived about two hours after being shot, the grizzly death scene lit by lanterns and the fire from the barn. His last words were "Tell Mother I died for my country." Booth's body was wrapped in an army blanket and placed in a wagon. As the sun rose in Virginia, the soldiers, detectives, their prisoners, and the wagon with Booth's body drove to the river where the steamer that had brought them waited for their return. On the journey, in return for his collaboration, Willie Jett was allowed to "escape." On board ship, Herold was placed in a cabin and again Millington was detailed to guard him while another soldier was stationed outside the door. Upon his guard relief, Millington, frigid because he had no overcoat, made his way to the ship's boiler room to sleep where it was warm.

Crowds greet the captors

When the steamer reached the Washington Navy Yard, the docks were jammed with people. When Booth had been shot, Detective Conger had gone ahead of the men and sent word to the War Department of the capture. The news had gotten out and thousands had turned out to see the body or at least congratulate the captors. Because of the curious throngs, Lt. Doherty decided not to try and take Booth's corpse ashore. He ordered Millington and others to move the body and place it on the deck of an ironclad Navy warship. With their duty complete, Doherty, Millington, Parady and their comrades returned to their barracks for a hot meal and a sound sleep. When they awoke the next day, the papers had long articles about the killing of Booth and the capture of Herold. An outstanding account of the search for Booth is James Swanson's book Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer.

The end of the Civil War brought return to civilian life for the men of the 16th New York Cavalry. Emory Parady received his discharge in May of 1865 and headed for home. John Millington had one final duty: Twenty-members of the 16th New York were present at the July 7, 1865 hanging of David Herold and three co-conspirators of the Lincoln assassination.

Soldiers share reward money

Millington mustered out of the cavalry when the regiment was disbanded in September. Like his friend Emory Parady, Millington returned to upstate New York and his parent's farm. He married shortly after returning home and began a family.

About a year after the death of Booth and the execution of Herold, the U.S. government paid out $100,000 in reward money to those persons who played a role in the capture of the assassination conspirators. Each of the twenty-six enlisted men of the 16th New York received $1,658.58, the equivalent of ten years of army pay.

Millington used $800 of his reward to buy a farm near Chester, New York but like many Civil War veterans, he soon headed west and by 1875 he and wife Phoebe were farming near Summit Lake, Minnesota. Emory Parady moved west with his parents and settled near Berlin, Michigan. He married a girl from Ohio and by 1870 Emory and his bride Frances had invested his reward money and owned a farm valued at $1,700. The Paradys grew tired of simple farming life and by 1880 they had relocated to Nashville Village in Michigan where Emory worked as a cobbler operating his own shoe business. Parady prospered in Nashville Village, serving as postmaster from 1881-1886, a time when post office boxes rented for forty cents per year. He was also elected to a term as Village President. Emory and Frances Parady made Michigan their home for thirty years before moving to Oregon. The couple raised two sons, Silas and Albert; and three daughters, Elizabeth, Nellie, and Blanche.

John Millington also gave up farming to pursue a trade. He became a carpenter and moved his family from Minnesota to Sioux City, Iowa. John and Phoebe raised five sons: John Jr., Joseph, James, George, and Benjamin. Phoebe died after the turn of the century and John took his carpentry skills to Portland where his sons George and Joseph lived.

Parady brought his business to Portland sometime between 1901 and 1908. Portland census records list Parady as a shoemaker and show daughters Elizabeth and Nellie working in a photography gallery and living with their father and mother. In Oregon, Parady was reunited with his old saddle-mate Millington. Both of the Civil War veterans, now gray and in their sixties, were members of Portland's Benjamin F. Butler Post 67 of the Grand Army of the Republic. Following a three-year battle with cancer, John W. Millington died on November 11, 1914. He was 71. Emory Parady died at age 80 at his Portland home on March 14, 1924.

Final resting places:

President Abraham Lincoln is buried in Springfield, Illinois beneath a magnificent one hundred seventeen-foot tall tomb. Lincoln is immortalized around the world. In this country, his face is one of the four carved into Mt. Rushmore and his giant seated form looks out upon our national capitol from the Lincoln Memorial. Portland's tribute is a downtown statue that is ten feet tall. Booth rots in an unmarked grave in his family's plot in Baltimore. John Millington is buried at the Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery in southwest Portland. His grave is marked by a simple veteran's headstone. Emory Parady fittingly rests in Lincoln Memorial Park in east Portland. His distinctive granite monument reads "Member Co. H, 16th NY Cavalry. One of the twenty-six enlisted men who captured John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln."