Pursuers of Booth the Assassin (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:

In Memory
of
Peter Carroll
Samuel N. Gosnell
Geo. W. Huntington
Christopher Farley
who lost their lives, April 24, 1865
while in pursuit of Booth the assassin
of our beloved President
Abraham Lincoln.


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The four head stones for Peter Carroll, Samuel N. Gosnell, Geo. W. Huntington & Christopher Farley are standing on either side of the "Pursuers of Booth the Assassin" monument at Alexandria National Cemetery.


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Here follows an excerpt from the National Cemetery Administration website about the memorial:
"... One large granite boulder memorial was erected by the U.S. government on July 7, 1922, in honor of the Pursuers of President Lincoln’s Assassin. The four men were Quartermaster Corps employees who drowned in the Potomac River on April 24, 1865, while pursuing John Wilkes Booth."


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Here follows an excerpt from the National Cemetery Administration website about the cemetery:
Alexandria National Cemetery is located near the Old Town section of Alexandria, VA, amid several other community cemeteries. The original cemetery consisted of approximately four acres known as Spring Garden Farm. Most of this land was acquired by the United States in the 1860s, and by November 1870 the cemetery had reached its current size of a little over five acres.

Alexandria was one of the principal campsites for Union soldiers sent to defend Washington, DC, at the outbreak of the Civil War. These troops, composed primarily of "three-month volunteers," were unprepared for the demands of war. When they tried to turn the Southern advance at Bull Run, they were decisively defeated and hastily retreated back to Washington. At one point in the war, General Robert E. Lee and his Southern troops rode the outskirts of Alexandria where they were close enough to view the Capital dome. As the tide of the war turned, especially after Gettysburg, the frontlines of the war moved west and away from Washington, DC. The fortress area at Alexandria, however, continued to serve as a major supply and replacement center throughout the remainder of the war.

Alexandria National Cemetery is one of the original 14 national cemeteries established in 1862. The first burials made in the cemetery were soldiers who died during training or from disease in the numerous hospitals around Alexandria. By 1864, the cemetery was nearly filled to capacity, which eventually led to the planning, development and construction of Arlington National Cemetery.

As of 1871, Alexandria National Cemetery encompassed a cobblestone avenue, a fountain, an ornate wrought-iron rostrum, graveled walks and paths, a small pond and a greenhouse. Today, the superintendent's lodge is the primary building on the grounds and the oldest surviving structure. It was constructed of reddish Seneca sandstone and brick around 1870. Seneca sandstone was popular during Washington, DC's, "brownstone era" (1840–1880), and can be found in many of the region's prominent buildings, including the Smithsonian Institution "Castle," and the U.S. Capitol floor and rotunda door frames. U.S. Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs designed the lodge in a Second French Empire style; approximately 55 of these lodges were constructed in national cemeteries between 1870 and the end of the century.

The original 1887 "comfort station" at Alexandria was converted into a kitchen/store room and tool shed/toilet when a brick summer dining room was added in 1927. Although significantly altered, the old comfort station is one of few structures like these to survive. The 16-foot ornamental iron rostrum with a capacity to hold 24 chairs and one table was demolished sometime after 1931. An enclosure wall constructed of Seneca sandstone with River Blue Stone coping surrounds the property; visitors pass through 12-foot wide ornamental cast-iron entry gates at the Wilkes Street entrance.

During the 1930s, the Civilian Works Administration (CWA) made general repairs to the lodge and outbuildings and erected a new flagpole. Alexandria National Cemetery was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Find A Grave website for Peter Carroll:

Civil War Union Army Soldier. On April 24, 1865 four brave members of the Quartermaster Corps pursued President Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth on horseback. Peter Carroll, Samuel N. Gosnell, George W. Huntington, and Christopher Farley all succumbed to the depths of the Rappahannock River in search of Booth. On July 7, 1922, a granite monument was erected in their honor in Old Town Alexandria, by the federal government in memory of the men who died in pursuit of Booth. It is found in the center of the Alexandria National Cemetery, coincidentally located on Wilkes Street, adjacent to the burial sites of four Quartermaster Corps officers. The inscription on the marker reads: "In memory of Peter Carroll, Samuel N. Gosnell, George W. Huntington, and Christopher Farley, who lost their lives April 24, 1865 while in pursuit of Booth the assassin of our beloved president, Abraham Lincoln.


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Here follows an excerpt from the City of Alexandria website about the cemetery:

The USCT and Alexandria National Cemetery
Upon hearing that African American soldiers were going to be buried at the new Freedmen’s Cemetery and not the Soldier’s Cemetery (now Alexandria National Cemetery) 443 soldiers at L’Ouverture hospital signed a petition to be buried at the Soldier's Cemetery.

The United States Colored Troops (USCT), formed in 1863 following the Emancipation Proclamation, eventually encompassed about 175 regiments in the Union Army during the Civil War.

On March 2, 1863, eminent abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass sent out this powerful message in his newspaper, Douglass Monthly. Titled "Men of Color, to Arms!" it urged black men to support the nation's war and the crusade to end generations of slavery.

"Who would be free themselves
must strike the blow,
Better even to die free than to live slaves."
Frederick Douglass, C. 1869

Approximately 180,000 African American soldiers took up the call to fight for the Union, comprising more than 10% of all Federal forces. Knowing that a Northern loss could mean possible re-enslavement, freemen and former slaves showed dedication to their country and a commitment to the freedom of their people forever.

The Colored Troops figured prominently in the ill-fated Battle of the Crater fought on July 30, 1964 as part of the Petersburg Campaign. Injured members of the 28th and 29th U.S.C.T., were among those transported to Alexandria, Virginia for medical treatment.


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"Dreadful Accident, Collision between Steamboats on the Potomac...". New York Times April 27, 1865
[Along with approx. fifty homeward-bound soldiers, recently freed from Southern prison camps at the end of the war, the four Quartermaster Corps employees were apparently killed aboard the Black Diamond in this collision - while that vessel was on "picket" duty, hoping to thwart any attempt by the assassin John Wilkes Booth to escape the manhunt in Maryland by slipping across the river in this vicinity.]


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Here follows an excerpt from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources website:

"Four Quartermaster Corps employees (Peter Carroll, Samuel N. Gosnell, George W. Huntington, and Christopher Farley), who drowned in the Rappahannock River on April 24, 1865, while in pursuit of Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, are buried in Section A, Graves 3174-3177. On July 7, 1922, a special monument was erected by the United States in memory of these men. The monument is a bronze tablet on a granite boulder base, about 3' x 3' and 3' high, and located in the center of the cemetery on a terraced wall."

The Civil War dead of both sides were frequently buried hastily following action on battlefields, or in city, church, or private cemeteries. Afterward, while Confederate memorial societies retrieved remains for reinterment in special cemeteries or in Confederate sections of existing burial grounds, the United States established national military cemeteries as the final resting places for its soldiers. Alexandria National Cemetery, because of its proximity to the defenses of Washington, D.C., was created during the war, in 1862. U.S. soldiers who died in the Washington fortifications, or fell in such northern Virginia battles as Thoroughfare Gap, or were wounded in other engagements and died in area hospitals are buried here. The cemetery contains 4,066 marked graves (not including post-war burials) and an 1887 Second Empire-style superintendent’s lodge. The Alexandria National Cemetery was listed under the Civil War Era National Cemeteries Multiple Property Documentation nomination form.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Annandale Chamber of Commerce website:

Alexandria National Cemetery
By: Marv Rodney, ENDEAVOR April 2012

Prior to the creation of The Alexandria National Cemetery was originally founded as the Soldiers' Cemetery in 1862.hat all Washingtonians simply refer to as Arlington, various military cemeteries were created. Collectively they are considered national cemeteries both in the US and abroad. One of the oldest is the Alexandria National Cemetery, established in 1862 as the Soldiers’ Cemetery, and located six blocks west of U.S. Highway 1 in the city of Alexandria. The need for military burial ground was especially great with the massive death toll of the Civil War, especially in Virginia where sixty percent of all Civil War battles took place.

The main entrance to the Alexandria National Cemetery is on Wilkes Street. It is the last in a series of aged cemeteries along this lane with graves dating back to the 18th century. An impressive twelve foot wide ornamental wrought and cast iron gate marks the entryway. Defining this relatively small property as a place of importance is a substantial red sandstone wall. It anchors this undulating ground as if to declare, “This ground, in perpetuity, is where heroes lie.”

The graves are marked with simple & dignified white marble headstones laid out like a regiment of soldiers with every two rows facing one another. Remembered for all time are 4,230 men who served in the Union Army of the Potomac.

The City of Alexandria was the site of one of the principal camps for northern Virginia troops sent to defend Washington at the outbreak of hostilities between the North and South. Here, in response to the popular slogan, “On to Richmond,” the Union Army of the Potomac was assembled from a miscellaneous collection of militia regiments. The force was approximately 2,000 strong and 722 of these men, thirty-six percent of the total force, both African American and Caucasian were native Alexandrians in local units.

Located within the city of Alexandria were a number of hospitals and convalescent centers for Federal troops wounded in the field. The Alexandria National Cemetery served as the burial ground for soldiers who died there and in the surrounding area. Two famous hospitals were at Camp Hall, a private residence seized by Union Troops and converted to a hospital at 806 Prince Street and Greens Mansion House Hotel (directly in front of the Carlyle House) along with the property that surrounded it at 121 North Fairfax Street. Known as the Manson House General Hospital, it was a 700 bed facility where Walt Whitman once visited.

The original superintendent’s lodge at the cemetery was constructed in 1862 and destroyed by fire in 1878. Nine years later, a brick Italianate utility building was extended from the original lodge which added a kitchen, store-room, and tool room. Landscaped by ancient yews and substantial boxwood shrubbery, this L-shaped lodge is of the Second Empire style and adds a warm and interesting welcome to the entrance. The first floor has an impressive ten foot ceiling height while three bedrooms can be found on the second floor, one of which has a corner partition for a hall bathroom.

In 1880, the City of Alexandria designated a tree estimated to be 200 years old, as an Alexandria Centennial Tree. It is a Liquidambar styracifua species and graciously shades the central portion of the cemetery. Much later, in 1946, a fieldstone and slate assembly area with flagpole was added where ceremonies to honor these veterans could be conducted. This assembly area is surrounded by low fieldstone walls with stone steps leading down from the flag to the plaza, facing away from the entrance gates and lodge. Although aligned with the main gate, by simply lowering the plaza, the tombstones are respectively allowed to remain the dominant feature.

Dignified white headstones stand as a regiment in this field for over 4,200 soldiers.

A final feature at this solemn yet beautiful place is a special monument, erected on July 7, 1922 by the United States Government in memory of the men who died while in pursuit of John Wilkes Booth. The monument is a bronze tablet on a granite boulder base and located in the center of the ceremonial flag plaza.

The four members of the Quartermaster Corps honored by this monument drowned in the Rappahannock River on April 24, 1865, while in pursuit of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin. They are buried in Section A, Graves 3174 – 3177. By 1864 this hollowed ground was almost filled to capacity which led to the development of the Arlington National Cemetery, the subject of next quarter’s edition of ENDEAVOR.

Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, Alexandria National Cemetery is administered by the Veterans Administration. For more photos, please see the April 2012 issue of ENDEAVOR on this website.