3. Booth followed a preplanned escape trail through Maryland
During the plot to kidnap Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth met with co-conspirators in Washington and Maryland, including at the Surratt tavern. Arms, ammunition, food, and whiskey were stashed at the tavern, and other locations along his planned route. During the phase of the conspiracy when kidnapping the President was the goal, Booth scouted locations where he could hide the victim as they journeyed to Virginia. One such location, near Bryantown, was a small farm owned by Dr. Samuel Mudd. Following emancipation in Maryland in 1864, Mudd could no longer operate the farm profitably. At a meeting in Bryantown in March 1865, Booth expressed an interest in purchasing the property. No such sale took place, but Booth did send provisions to Mudd’s farm prior to the events of April 14, according to another conspirator, George Atzerodt.
Atzerodt had been assigned, by Booth, to kill Vice-President Andrew Johnson in his room at the Kirkwood House, in Washington. Instead, he drank himself into near insensibility at the hotel bar, where he had the room directly above Johnson’s. He then staggered to another hotel nearby, obtained a room for the night, and passed out. During his brief staggering walk, he discarded his knife, an event which was seen by a woman who reported it to the police. The Metropolitan Police searched his room at the Kirkwood House, discovering a bank book which belonged to John Wilkes Booth. On April 15, an order for Atzerodt’s arrest went out, though the conspirator could not be found in Washington. He was arrested on April 20, in Germantown, Maryland, at the home of a relative. The police could not have asked for a more cooperative witness.