GREEN MOUNT CEMETERY - THE GRAVE OF JOHN WILKES BOOTH & OTHER

 

In my last entry, I told you that I am a Taphophile, or someone who is fascinated by cemeteries. I also talked about some of my rather unpleasant experiences when visiting cemeteries. ,

Without a doubt my most unpleasant and dangerous experience occurred earlier this year in Baltimore, Maryland, I think I am kind when I call it a disgusting city. Anyway, I don’t have anything good to say about Downtown Baltimore, so I won’t say anything else.

The reason I was in Baltimore was I wanted to visit historic Green Mount Cemetery.  And although I failed in my most recent attempt to visit, I did visit it back in 2001 and even then I found that the cemetery wasn’t in the best part of town, but it was nothing like what I found this time.

Back in 2001 it did manage to take a few photos of some of the more notable people that are resting in this large cemetery. While there are a number of notable people buried here, there were three that I really wanted to find.

JOHN WILKES BOOTH

The first and probably most notable person buried in Green Mount Cemetery is John Wilkes Booth. The man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D. C.

After he fatally shot President Lincoln, Booth manage to escape and fled across the Anacostia River into Maryland. Several days later he crossed the Potomac River near  Port Royal, Virginia where he and his companion David Herold shelter in a barn that was owned by the Garrett Family. 

While in the barn, Union soldiers caught up with the fugitives. Herold surrendered, but Booth refused and was eventually shot by a soldier named Boston Corbett and died a short time later.

Booth was originally buried buried at the Arsenal Penitentiary in Washington, D.C., But in 1869 the government released his body to his family who had his remains disinterred and moved to the Booth family plot in Baltimore’s Green Mount Cemetery.

His grave was initially unmarked and today is only marked by a small, unmarked white stone in the corner of the family plot.

 GENERAL JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON.

The second grave that I wanted to visit was that of Civil War General Joseph E. Johnston who attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, graduating in the same class as General Robert E. Lee.

After Virginia declared secession from the United States in 1861, General Johnston entered the Confederate States Army as one of its most senior officers during the War.

Most people associate the end of the Civil War with the surrender of General Robert E. Lee to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox.  At Appomattox, General Lee surrendered 28,000 troop attached to his Army of Northern Virginia.

Before and after General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, General Johnston, was still fighting with the Union Army in North Carolina.  A little over two weeks after Appomattox General Johnston surrendered more than 89,000 troops to Union General William T. Sherman. that was being Led by General William T. Sherman. This was the larges surrender of the entire war.

After the War General Johnson and General Sherman became close friends. They corresponded and visited with each other often. In fact the two men became so close that when General Sherman died on February 14, 1891, General Johnston was one of his pallbearers

General Sherman’s funeral was held in New York City on a cold and rainy day. As the funeral procession made it’s way through the streets of the city, General Johnson’s walked the entire length of the procession bare headed out of respect for his dear friend.

It is widely attributed that because he walked the entire length of the procession without a hat, he caught a terrible cold that turned into pneumonia which claimed his life a little over a month later on March 21, 1891. General Johnson also served as a pallbearer at the funeral of General Ulysses S. Grand in 1885.

JOHNS HOPKINS

The last grave that I really wanted to find was that of Financier and Philanthropist, Johns Hopkins. During his life he was involved in a number of profitable financial ventures including the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which was used to Transport Union Troops during the Civil War.

He was also the President of the Merchant’s Bank as well as a number of other investment that ended up making him a lot of money. When he died on December 24, 1873, he left more than 7 million dollars which was used to fund what would become Johns Hopkins University and Hospital.

SAMUEL ARNOLD

Come to find out, John Wilkes Booth is not the only Lincoln Conspirator that is buried in this cemetery.  Samuel Arnold, was a confederate sympathizer that Joined the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He was discharged in 1864 for health reasons.

After his discharge, Arnold returned to Baltimore and in the late summer of 1864, he was recruited by Booth to be part of the kidnap plot.^] Bored and unemployed, Arnold accepted. On March 15, 1865, the conspirators met at Gautier's Restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue to discuss the plot to kidnap President Lincoln.

They attempted to Kidnap President Lincoln twice but failed because Lincoln was not where they thought he would be. After the kidnapping failed, the plot moved from kidnapping Lincoln to actually Assassinating him. Arnold wanted not part of the murder plot and took a job at Old Point Comfort in Virginia

After Booth assassinated Lincoln on April 14, 1865, Arnold was arrested from his job in Virginia on suspicion of complicity. He admitted his part in the plot to kidnap Lincoln, and his co-workers supported his contention of being in Virginia at the time of the assassination.

Arnold was found guilty of conspiracy by a military tribunal and sentenced to life in prison at Fort Jefferson, along with Dr.  Samuel Mudd, Michael O'Laughlen, and Edmund Spangler. In 1869, Arnold, Mudd, and Spangler were released after being pardoned by President Andrew Johnson (O'Laughlen died in prison in 1867).

After being pardoned, Samuel Arnold returned home, he lived quietly out of the public eye for more than thirty years. In 1898, he returned to Fort Jefferson and took photographs of his old prison, but the photographs have not survived.

In 1902, Arnold wrote a series of newspaper articles for the Baltimore American describing his imprisonment at Fort Jefferson. Samuel Arnold died at the age of 72, on September 21, 1906.  The only conspirator who survived him was John Surratt.

There are a number of other notable people buried in this cemetery. As much as I would like to some day return and visit them, I don't think endanger myself by returning to Baltimore.