OF THE COLUMBIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY WASHINGTON, D. C. Compiled by THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION AND THE VOLUME 18 UNIV. OF WASHINGTON 1915 F191 COPYRIGHT BY THE COLUMBIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1915 VIMU NATIONAL CAPITAL PRESS, INC. BOOK MANUFACTURERS WASHINGTON, D. C. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Booth's Escape from Washington after the Assassina- tion of Lincoln, His Subsequent Wanderings and Final Capture. By William Tindall ..... → The Relation of the District of Columbia to the General Mackall Square. By Miss Sally Somervell Mackall... 30 AIND CALIFORNIA BOOTH'S ESCAPE FROM WASHINGTON AFTER THE ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN, HIS SUBSEQUENT WANDERINGS AND FINAL CAPTURE. BY WILLIAM TINDALL. (Read before the Society, January 21, 1913.) Few travelers on the Potomac River as they pass Mathias Point, are aware that the neighborhood is the scene of one of the most interesting episodes in our National History. That majestic stream which at that place is about two miles wide, there makes a turn from northeast to southeast, almost at a right angle in its course, and is deeper than at any other part of its channel. A part of the right bank of the river in this vicinity, and the east bank opposite Mathias Point and for several miles below, are bordered by stately bluffs some of which reach a height of over eighty feet. Upon the bluff at the south side of the mouth of Pope's Creek, directly east from Mathias Point, the leading character of this sketch, Thomas A. Jones, resided during the greater part of the continuance of the war, from 1861 to 1865, for the maintenance of the Federal Union. From this elevation an attractive river vista extends to Maryland Point ten miles to the southwest, where it is boldly arrested by the promontory at Potomac Creek. Another prospect opens to the south where it picturesquely expands for twenty miles until it fittingly tones into the horizon at the mystical Cliffs of Nomini. Under the exalting influence of this scenic environment, which embodies all the charms of an ideal tideriver landscape, Jones arose to his opportunity to |