26 April 2011

Capturing John Wilkes Booth

Last year I posted about Abram Snay:

A Witness To History - Abram Snay & The Capture of John Wilkes Booth

The last surviving member of the "Lincoln's Avengers" was Abram Snay, who was also my 2nd great-granduncle. He was one of 26 men under Lieutenant Edward P. Doherty who captured John Wilkes Booth on April 26, 1865.

Picture of Abram Snay

From Lincoln's Avengers, The Men From the Adirondacks, Who Captured John Wilkes Booth?, by Steven G. Miller, published in the NNYACGS Journal:

 "Pvt. Martin Kelley from Saranac, New York, had been injured by a falling horse, but so had his fellow townsman, Pvt. Lewis Savage.  Both had trouble walking, but neither of these two men would want to have been left behind.  Savage's boyhood friend, Pvt. Abram Snay, was there, too.  But he was hale and hearty.  In...."




Abram Snay arrested Jack Garrett and turned him over to Oliver Lonkey.  Garrett was presented to Doherty, whereupon Garrett confirmed Doherty's suspicion that Booth was in the barn.



Abram Snay was the longest surviving member of Lincoln's Avengers.  He died 9 February 1928, and is buried in the Peasleeville Cemetery, Peru, Clinton County, New York.


Abram Snay's sister, Mary Jane (Snay) Swinyer, was my great-great-grandmother.


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