Thomas H. "Boston" Corbett

Sergeant Thomas H. Corbett, famously known as "Boston" Corbett, gained national notoriety for shooting and killing President Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, in 1865. Following the Civil War, Corbett settled in Camden, NJ, where he earned a living as a hatter and resided at 308 Mechanic Street before relocating to Pine Street below South 4th Street (where contemporary city directories occasionally misprinted his name as Thomas P. Corbett). A fervent religious zealot, Corbett also served as a local lay preacher at the Memorial Methodist Protestant Church on Broadway below Kaighn Avenue.

While many accounts describe Corbett as mentally unstable, a more personal and detailed perspective can be found in Byron Berkley Johnson's book, Abraham Lincoln and Boston Corbett, with Personal Recollection of Each, published in 1914. The book includes extensive quotes from Corbett himself.

Corbett started as a hat maker in New England, primarily in and around Boston, Massachusetts. After suffering the tragic deaths of his wife and child during childbirth, he spiraled into alcoholism before experiencing an intense religious conversion at a street revival. Swearing off drink, growing his hair and beard long to imitate Jesus, and receiving baptism from a Methodist minister, he renamed himself "Boston Corbett" in honor of the city where he found salvation. When local street preachers grew tired of his erratic shouting, Corbett took to preaching on his own street corners.

Driven by religious fanaticism, Corbett took his beliefs to extreme lengths. On July 16, 1858, after being approached by prostitutes on the street, he returned to his quarters, took a pair of scissors, and castrated himself to avoid sexual temptation, taking a literal interpretation of Matthew 18:8–9 and 19:12. He then attended a prayer meeting and ate a full dinner before the internal bleeding forced him to seek treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was successfully treated by Dr. R. N. Hodges. This medical case was recorded in detail and later highlighted on page 59 of Dr. John K. Lattimer's book, Lincoln and Kennedy: Medical & Ballistic Comparisons of Their Assassins.

In 1861, Corbett enlisted as a private in the 12th Regiment, New York State Militia, but was quickly court-martialed and expelled for berating fellow soldiers and superior officers for their sinful behavior. He re-enlisted in August 1863 as a Private in Company L, 16th New York Cavalry Regiment. Taken prisoner at Centreville, Virginia, in June 1864, he survived the infamous Andersonville prison camp, briefly escaping before being recaptured. Paroled in November 1864, he rejoined his unit and was promoted to Sergeant. Corbett was known as an exceptional marksman who routinely muttered, "May God have mercy on your soul," before pulling the trigger.

On April 25, 1865, Sergeant Corbett was part of the cavalry detail commanded by First Lieutenant E. P. Doherty sent to apprehend John Wilkes Booth. Although explicit orders were given to capture Booth alive for a public trial, Corbett shot Booth through a crack in Garrett's tobacco barn wall as the structure burned. Corbett later explained:

I aimed at his body. I did not want to kill him… I think he stooped to pick up something just as I fired. That may probably account for his receiving the ball in the head. When the assassin lay at my feet, a wounded man, and I saw the bullet had taken effect about an inch back of the ear, and I remembered that Mr. Lincoln was wounded about the same part of the head, I said: "What a God we have…God avenged Abraham Lincoln."

Though placed under technical arrest for disobeying orders, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton dropped all charges, calling Corbett "a faithful soldier." Lieutenant Doherty praised Corbett in his official report, writing:

I would call the attention of the commanding general to the efficiency of Sergt. Boston Corbett, Company L, Sixteenth New York Cavalry, who was untiring in his efforts to bring the murderers to justice. His soldierly qualifications have been tested before this occasion, and, in my judgment, are second to none in the service.

First Lieutenant E. P. Doherty

Corbett received a $1,600 share of the government reward money and mustered out with Company L, 16th Cavalry Regiment New York, at Washington, D.C. on August 17, 1865.

Following the war, Corbett moved to Camden, New Jersey, where he lived until 1878. The 1870 Federal Census shows him living in South Camden with Isaac and Sarah Boggs, and their daughter, Anna, working as a hatter—his pre-war trade—and preaching locally. While George Reeser Prowell's History of Camden County lists Corbett as serving as minister for the Memorial Methodist Protestant Church and later an Independent Methodist group on Pine Street, he acted primarily as an unordained lay evangelist.

As the years passed, Corbett's mental state deteriorated—a breakdown likely accelerated by chronic mercury poisoning (erethism, or "Mad Hatter Disease") suffered from years of inhaling mercuric nitrate during the hat-making process. By the 1870s, he grew increasingly paranoid and violent, routinely pulling his revolver on friends, strangers, fellow soldiers, some boys playing baseball, and court officials over perceived slights.

In 1878, Corbett left Camden for Cloud County, Kansas, attempting to farm an 80-acre homestead. In 1887, he was appointed assistant doorkeeper for the Kansas House of Representatives in Topeka. On February 15, 1887, convinced that officers and legislative pages were plotting against him and mocking the proceedings, Corbett pulled out his revolver in the statehouse chamber and brandished it at the assembly. No one was injured, but Corbett was arrested, declared insane, and committed to the Topeka Asylum for the Insane.

On May 26, 1888, Corbett escaped from the asylum grounds on a horse, fleeing to Neodesha, Kansas, where he briefly stayed with fellow Andersonville survivor Richard Thatcher. Telling Thatcher he was heading for Mexico, Corbett rode away and vanished from historical record. Though numerous imposters surfaced over the following decades, Boston Corbett's ultimate fate remains unknown.

Note: many hatters were known to have mental instability, caused by the use of mercury and related mercury poisoning. Many developed symptoms of chronic mercury poisoning, including psychosis, excitability, hallucinations, aggressiveness, neurological disorders, and tremors. These symptoms became so common in hatters that the phrase "mad as a hatter" was born. Mercury Poisoning—Erethrism—(aka Mad Hatter Disease) is related.

^ Note on Church Leadership: While George Reeser Prowell's 1886 History of Camden County, New Jersey refers to Corbett as a "pastor" of the Memorial Methodist Protestant Church and later an Independent Methodist congregation on Pine street, denominational records and contemporary accounts indicate he served as an unordained lay preacher and local evangelist rather than an officially assigned minister.