Follow the escape route of John Wilkes Booth, one of history’s most notorious assassins, as he fled from Washington, D.C., and hid for several days in Southern Maryland before being cornered. The Civil War was coming to an end and hopes were high that the mending of America could quickly get under way. But on the night of April 14, 1865, thoughts of reconciliation suffered a serious setback. John Wilkes Booth, a Maryland-born actor and[...]
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After shooting President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, John Wilkes Booth fled into Southern Maryland and towards Virginia. His leg broken in a fall at the theater, Booth met up with accomplice David Herold before stopping at the Surratt House and Tavern for supplies and guns stashed there earlier. Booth and Herold then stopped at the farmhouse of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, who splinted the assassin's leg. They managed to cross the Potomac River into[...]
At the Crossroads of Conflict In the spring of 1861, as the Civil War broke out and divided the nation, Maryland braced itself for battle. Living near the Potomac River, the conflict’s pivotal border between North and South, Maryland’s citizens would witness the brutality of the war firsthand. The long clash engulfed homes, towns and livelihoods, leaving its mark here and in the area’s many battlefields. Local citizens, though divided by conviction, were united by[...]