Amelia Frappolli Profile picture
Sep 14, 2020 24 tweets 5 min read Read on X
We all know John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln, but who shot Booth?

Grab a chair and a strong drink, because it's time for a thread about the wild life of BOSTON CORBETT.

(1/) A portrait card in sepia of Sergt. BOSTON CORBETT. He is seaPicture is identical to the first one attached to the tweet
And as a brief disclaimer, I am not a historian by profession!

Most of the information listed in this thread is from "Legends and Lies: Great Mysteries of the American West"
by Dale L. Walker.

(2/)
Corbett was born in London in 1832 and moved to Troy, NY with his parents in 1839 (so far so good).

Unfortunately his family was quite poor, and he had to learn the trade of hat-making starting from a young age (it's all downhill from here pretty much).

(3/)
In the 1850's, hats were often made of rabbit and beaver, and you had to soak the pelts in giant vats of mercury nitrate to turn them into felt.

As you can imagine, standing over tubs of this stuff and inhaling the fumes is not a healthyfuntimes activity.

(4/)
This *might* even be where the phrase "mad hatter" comes from, because excessive exposure to mercury nitrate can cause personality changes, tremors, coordination problems and even hallucinations.

(5/)
Also the "mad hatter" phrase might pre-date hats being made with mercury. Language is weird! Onward regardless!

Anyway, back to poor young Corbett, who was hanging out with the bad fumes, and went around plying his trade in various cities on the East Coast.

(6/)
Corbett got married at some unknown point!

(pause to appreciate the small happiness before moving on)

...and his wife died while giving birth to a daughter. The baby didn't survive either.

Following the tragedy, he began to drink heavily and became homeless.

(7/)
The stories on how he found religion conflict a bit, but he was apparently convinced to become a Methodist and then was baptized in Boston.

Did I forget to mention that his name was really Thomas? He changed his name to Boston because he was converted in the city.

(8/)
Corbett then sobered up and became increasingly devout AND increasingly eccentric.

His chosen hairstyle was long because Jesus had long hair.

He also seemed to do a lot of yelling at people on the street around this time (late 1850s).

(9/)
Well known enough to be referred to as the "Glory to God Man" by local newspapers, things were going *sort of* okay until 1858. He was mostly just a street preacher who was a bit weird.

The next tweet is not for the squeamish.

(10/)
One July day in 1858, Corbett was propositioned by two prostitutes on the street.

This event upset him so much that when he returned to his boardinghouse room, he castrated himself with a pair of scissors.

(11/)
He did not immediately seek treatment (ouch), but eventually ended up at Mass General for two days.

Then Ol' Boston falls off the map for the next 2.5ish years until he shows up in New York again and enlists in the militia.

(It's now 1861 and early in the Civil War).

(12/)
Corbett's military career was a mess of disciplinary problems.

He'd go around randomly shouting Bible quotes at his fellow soldiers and commanders.

One source says that he was court-martialed and ordered to be shot because of his behavior.

(13/)
He somehow escaped that fate, was discharged from the militia and then RE-ENLISTED with a cavalry regiment in NY.

That (maybe?) went okay until he was captured by the Confederacy and sent to the brand-spankin' new (and notoriously terrible) Andersonville Prison.

(14/)
Corbett spent five months at Andersonville (bad) until he was released in a prisoner exchange in November of 1864 (good).

He got treated for scurvy and malnutrition (ouch) and then rejoined the 16th New York Cavalry Regiment in 1865 (good?? bad??).

(15/)
Hey, we're finally at the John Wilkes Booth part!

Lincoln is shot on April 14, 1865 and dies the next day.

Corbett's regiment is sent to aid in the search for Booth on the 24th.

(16/)
On the 26th, Corbett's regiment surrounds the barn holding Booth at the Garret Farm.

(I'm not going through Booth's whole escape/journey, that's a Wikipedia article ya can read yerself.)

The regiment lights the barn on fire to force Booth out.

(17/)
Then from outside the barn, Corbett shoots Booth and other members of the regiment drag the man from the burning building.

Aaaaand the Secretary of War Stanton had said for Booth to be captured alive, so that was a bit of a problem.

(18/)
Corbett may have not even been the one to fire the gun, but he did take responsibility for it.

Boston Corbett was then court-martialed for a second time, subsequently pardoned by Stanton and became a bit of a folk hero.

(19/)
Discharged from the army in 1865, Boston went back to the hat trade for a bit.

By 1870, he tried to capitalize on the whole"Lincoln's Avenger" thing.

He was often invited to give speeches about himself, but was never invited back. (Remember the whole eccentric thing?)

(20/)
Okay, I need to wrap this up, it's my bed time!!

1875 - almost kills a man in anger
1878- moves to Kansas, still preachin'
Jan. 1887 - made a doorkeeper of the Kansas House of Representatives
Feb. 1887 - threatens to kill officers of the Kansas House, sent to an asylum

(21/)
In 1888, Corbett manages to ESCAPE FROM THE ASYLUM on horseback and briefly stays with a friend. He tells the friend he is headed to Mexico.

1888-1894 - ????????

(22/)
And no one really knows what happened to him after that! It's thought that he moved to Minnesota and died in a fire that destroyed the town of Hickney in 1894.

"Thomas Corbett" was listed as one of the victims missing or dead after the fire.

(23/)
Moral of the story, don't inhale mercury vapors?

Goodnight and thanks for reading!

(24/) 4 idential standing portraits of Boston Corbett, b/wA seated portrait of Corbett

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Amelia Frappolli

Amelia Frappolli Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @AmeliaFrappolli

Sep 20, 2022
Perhaps... not everything should be served in a savoury jelly.

A short (and unfortunate) thread!

(Practical Gastronomy, Charles Herman Senn, 1894) Page of a book on cold entrees, with the following text: &qu
Your options are:

Chicken salad
Meat with mayo
Meat in savoury jelly
Meat in savoury jelly with mayo

(Practical Gastronomy, Charles Herman Senn, 1894) Legs  of  chicken,  masked  with  cold  sauce,  dressed in
Please... no more

(Practical Gastronomy, Charles Herman Senn, 1894) List of various cuts of meat, most recommended to be served
Read 5 tweets
Sep 19, 2022
Can't sleep... guess I'll browse through "The Book of Bread" from 1903

(Owen Simmons, London) Colorized photo of a bread roll captioned "prize Irish Photo of a slice of bread, captioned "section of champi
(The Book of Bread, Owen Simmons, London, 1903) Image of "bashed cottage" bread with a hole in theDrawing of a prize loaf Drawing of a square tin loaf of breadDrawing of "a good coburg" bread
(The Book of Bread, Owen Simmons, London, 1903) Drawing of various loaves of bread labeled "a collectio
Read 4 tweets
Sep 18, 2022
I had a really good time at @SPXcomics yesterday and everyone was super nice!

Very excited for everything I picked up! art prints, comic books and...
Rhubarb's Cold Open and fruit zine by @rbivsart
Froggy prints by @cleanfloss
Uneaten by Sharks by @mashazart
Mothball & Snowman by kevinb_reilly (on insta)
Frog rodeo and mushroom sticker by @MadyGComics
Thieves is by @heyluchie who was so so nice and drew this amazing little Ella in the front!

Also excited to read it several weeks early!! a black pen drawing of a wo...
Read 4 tweets
Sep 16, 2022
Would you have guessed that this Coca Cola ad is 112 years-old?

Let's (digitally) crack open McClure's Magazine from May of 1910 and talk about it.

(thread!) a coca cola ad with arrows ...
I was flipping through this magazine on @internetarchive and noticed that not only the Coca Cola ad, but lots of other ads feel more recent than 1910.

But lots of them feel like modern by style and VERY old by their contents: ad for "night letters ...
Ignoring the prices on this one, I would have guessed 1970s from the styling on the hand and the SPENCERIAN font, but no!

60 years before! ad for pens: Pens that Stan...
Read 10 tweets
Sep 9, 2022
Here's the February 6, 1952, (and most recent!) precedent for the House adjourning "as a further mark of respect" to a recently deceased British sovereign (George VI). THE LATE KING GEORGE VI Mr. PRIEST. Mr. Speaker, I rise for Mr. Speaker, I offer a resolution. The Clerk read the resolu
The House was only in for 56 minutes that day.
And here's the one from January 21, 1936, the day after King George V died.

(The House was in session for 14 minutes that day.) DEATH OF KING GEORGE V OF ENGLAND Mr. McREYNOLDS. Mr. Speake
Read 6 tweets
Sep 8, 2022
This introduction to the "Eggs" section of the 1905 cookbook, "What to Have for Breakfast" is indescribably wonderful. Strictly fresh eggs come from the country sometimes with the
I'm here to provide only 117 year-old breakfast recipes and parodies until a vaudville hook appears and pulls me off the stage.  BLAZING OMELET Make a plain omelet. Pour over it rum, kirsc
The recipe for "Bath Buns" comes with a little poem.

("What to Have for Breakfast," 1905) Bath Bunny, Currant Bunny, sang a comic song, Bath Bunny, Cu
Read 6 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(