Tell Me About It, Humboldt features short conversations with Humboldt County, California residents about their niche interests and obsessions. You know that thing you can't stop talking about at parties, even after everyone has walked away? That’s what we want to hear. Come one, come all and let’s learn about our neighbors through these far ranging topics.
This week’s episode focuses on Sgt. Boston Corbett, also known as "the dude who shot the due who shot President Lincoln". Mike from Bayside is our guest for today and he gets into all of the drama, nuance and gory details of this story! If you are interested in learning more about Sgt. Boston Corbett, read about him here.
Show notes:
- Manhunt: the 12-day chase for John Wilkes Booth (via Northtown Books)
- Abraham Lincoln in the Wrestling Hall of Fame
- Sgt. Boston Corbett in the Library of Congress
This show is supported and produced by Cal Poly Humboldt’s College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences. Interested in being on the show or do you have someone you want to recommend? Email podcasts@humboldt.edu.
>>Joice : Hi, welcome to Tell Me About it, Humboldt. Today we have Mike from Bayside, and the show is about locals from Humboldt nerding out on something that they care a lot about, but you might not. They're going to convince you otherwise. Mike.
>>Mike : Oh, I don't think so. That's a little bit far, this is very niche.
>>Joice : Well, Mike, welcome anyway. We are going to talk about something that you're very passionate about. And before we get started, what don't you care about?
>>Mike : I don't care about expensive microphones or expensive cameras because you can get the job done with very cheap stuff. Don't waste your money, people.
>>Joice : Yes. You heard it here first. Don't waste your money.
>>Mike : The thing that you do care about I care way too much about the aftermath of the Lincoln assassination, specifically the dude who shot the dude who shot Abraham Lincoln.
>>Joice : How did this journey start for you?
>>Mike : Elementary school, I had to do a book report, randomly pulled a book off the shelf about the Lincoln assassination. Truly weird book in hindsight. There was this little footnote about the dude who shot the dude who shot Abraham Lincoln.
>>Joice : You were reading footnotes in elementary school?
>>Mike : I mean, not cool. I had nerdy friends.
>>Joice : Perfect. Speaking of friends, so, let's talk about friends of, who is it that we're talking about today?
>>Mike : We are talking about, well, Abraham Lincoln, a president/cat lover/in the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame. He was assassinated by an actor and dumdum named John Wilkes Booth, who then was shot by today's protagonist: Sergeant Boston Corbett. He was a weird dude.
>>Joice : Okay. And we care about this because you love history. I love the micro moments in history. The bit players that people might not know anything about? And Corbett is such a person, right? And how do we get to Corbett? Let's set the scene for us.
>>Mike : So it's 1865. End of the Civil War. Lincoln is like, I need to blow some steam off. I hear there's a comedy down the street at Ford's Theater. Little does he know there is a conspiracy to assassinate him, as well as the vice president, as well as the Secretary of State. And these conspirators are super dumb. Only one of these people finishes their mission completely. And so when John Wilkes Booth shoots Lincoln in the back of the head, he leaps out of the box seat where Lincoln was, and he yells this grandiose thing. And then he breaks his leg when he lands on the stage, and he hobbles off stage -very cringe- makes his getaway.
>>Joice : On a broken leg.
>>Mike : On a broken leg. Yeah. The other two conspirators failed for the most part. The guy who was supposed to take out the VP, he just wound up getting drunk in a bar. The guy who was supposed to take out the Secretary of State got close, but it turns out that the Secretary of State had just been in a carriage accident, made him very hard to attack because his body was covered in bandages. So that would-be assassin does get away. Fast forward, two weeks, a nation is in mourning, massive manhunt. John Wilkes Booth and this guy, David Harold eventually find a farmer who lets them crash with him because he's a Southern sympathizer right? They're south of the Potomac. They are terrible guests. They wound up drinking this farmer's liquor and getting trashed, so drunk that even the farmers like, look, I'm on your side, but, like, you need to sleep in the barn. And this is where Sergeant Boston Corbett enters the scene.
>>Joice : Yes. Tell us.
>>Mike : So, okay, would you like to know about his backstory? I would. It's bonkers. Pretty good soldier. He had been kicked out of the army once before, he had been demoted since then. He was a good soldier. He's on the right side of history. He was a big abolitionist, but he was not liked, and a weird dude, kind of insufferable. And, Joice, why do you think he was like this?
>>Joice : I don't know. Tell us.
>>Mike : He was not well. He was a hatter, right? And so we've all heard, like,"mad as a hatter." And it's because for that vocation, you're exposed to really bad chemicals, and this is pre OSHA. So, like, hatters went bonkers, basically. This guy, Boston Corbett, went so bonkers that he had a messianic complex. He thought he was Jesus. This took some weird shapes, including: he wound up castrating himself so that he would not be tempted by human passion, did it with scissors, which I have right here.
>>Joice : Oh, okay. Alright. There we go.
>>Mike : Did a great job. He was quoted as saying he was very proud of the result. That's Boston Corbett.
>>Joice : He's committed.
>>Mike : Yeah. Yeah, you can say that. Fashion-wise, he had a ponytail, 1965, self-castrated, thinks he's Jesus, winds up in the group of soldiers outside the barn. So it's 2 in the morning. John Wilkes Booth and the other guy, David Harold, they're in there, and they hear horse clipity clops outside the bar, and they're like, "Oh, we're cooked." And the soldiers are outside. They're like, "We know you're in there. You better come out with your hands up." John Wilkes Booth is like, "You'll never get us!" The other guy, the coconspirator is like, "Actually, I'll be right out."
>>Joice : He's given up. He's done.
>>Mike : He's done. They're like, "Seriously, Booth, you need to get out. We're going to burn this barn down with you in it if you don't come out. Like, you're coming out." Again, it's 2 in the morning. It's very dark. They're like, "Okay, you know, you don't want to come out. We're just going to set the barn on fire. You're coming out." And if you're one of the commanders outside, you're thinking the eyes of the world are on you, right? This is a spotlight. You are going to take this guy alive so that he can face justice in the American way, whatever that means. So they tell all the soldiers like, "hey, guys, do not shoot. We are taking John Wilkes Booth alive. Got it?" Everybody's like, "got it."
>>Joice : And I'm guessing Boston has different ideas here.
>>Mike : Yeah, he does. So again, picture a burning barn at 2 in the morning with a guy inside. You can see the silhouette moving around. Sgt. Boston Corbett makes basically a miracle shot because God told him to. He says, "Divine providence made me raise my rifle." And so he makes a really good shot through a crack in the barn, hits John Wilkes Both in the neck. John Wilkes Booth dies a few hours later. Now, this presents a weird moment for the commanders who really wanted this guy alive. They're presented with this option, like, should we court martial this dude, or should we make him a hero? What do you think happened?
>>Joice : What they went with? Hero, obviously. Americans, we love heroes. You know?
>>Mike : So tragically, you can kind of predict how this story is going to go because you have a guy who is mentally unwell, who is an overnight celebrity. Like, whatever the 1865 version of going viral is, he did it. He's in every newspaper, autographs, speaking gigs, celebrity appearances, right? And so when you zoom out, you kind of see all these pieces of America in this one guy's story. You have celebrity culture, you have vengeance and violence. You have a perverse version of religion. You have poor workplace conditions and mental health challenges. And so, his story ends pretty cinematically, right? Like, he is literally last seen heading for the Mexican border on a horse. And that is the last we see of the dude who shot the dude who shot Abraham Lincoln.
>>Joice : I think that this is an important part of history, and, you know, would you consider these micro moments that are important to the bigger story here?
>>Mike : I think they color the story in, and those narratives are what weave us together, right? It's the common story.
>>Joice : Yeah. Absolutely. And I think that that is a lovely way to end our time here today. Thank you, Mike.
>>Mike : Thank you.
>>Joice : That is a wrap for Tell Me About it Humboldt. If you want to be featured on the show or you have a Humboldt County guest to recommend, email us at podcasts@humboldt.edu. Thanks for listening.
♪♪ Produced at Cal Poly Humboldt.
Music by Silverman Sound Studios
