Thomas H. "Boston" Corbett (29 January 1832-1 September 1894) was an English-American US Army sergeant who, on 26 April 1865, killed John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln.
Biography[]
Thomas H. Corbett was born in London, England in 1832, and he was raised in Troy, New York from the age of eight. He worked as a hatter, during which time he was exposed to mercury and develoepd mental issues. He later married a woman in New York City and worked in Richmond, Virginia, where he found difficulty finding and keeping work due to his anti-slavery views. He later returned to New York after his wife's death and later moved to Boston, where he became a heavy drinker and a homeless man. He later sobered up with the help of Methodist evangelists and underwent a religious epiphany. Corbett worked at a hat manufacturer in Boston and became a street preacher, becoming known as a religious fanatic. On 16 July 1858, he castrated himself with a pair of scissors due to his literal interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew, preventing himself from giving in to his sexual urges. On 29 August 1858, he was baptized under the name "Boston" and came to wear his hair long in imitation of Jesus. On the outbreak of the American Civil War, Corbett enlisted in the 12th New York State Militia and later in the 16th New York Cavalry Regiment. Corbett distinguished himself while fighting against John S. Mosby's Confederate raiders, and he was captured on 24 June 1864 and was released in November 1864 after an exchange. Corbett was promoted to sergeant and later testified in Andersonville Prison commandant Henry Wirz's trial. In April 1865, Corbett took part in the manhunt for Abraham Lincoln's killer John Wilkes Booth, ultimately confronting him at a Virginia tobacco barn on 26 April. Corbett shot Booth through a crack in the shed after witnessing Booth raise his carbine, mortally wounding him. Corbett was reprimanded for not following orders to take Booth alive, but the public hailed him as a hero. Corbett returned to hatmaking in Boston before moving to Danbury, Connecticut and Camden, New Jersey. He was routinely fired due to his disruptive praying, and he relocated to Concordia, Kansas in 1878 and homesteaded while working as a preacher. In 1887, he became assistant doorkeeper of the Kansas House of Representatives in Topeka, but he was sent to an insane asylum after brandishing a revolver at officers of the house, whom he believed were discriminating against him. He later settled in a cabin near Hinckley in Minnesota, and he died in a fire there on 1 September 1894.