John H. Boyle
Captain John H. Boyle was an officer of the Confederate Army who found himself in conflict with the law on several occasions, being arrested or captured at least five times and eventually being named as a suspect in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln at war's end.
In 1863, Boyle took part in the Battle of Gettysburg under Gnl George H. Steuart, who honoured him by naming Boyle's gallant aid in dispatches.[1] He was later captured at his mother's house in Marlboro, Maryland.[1]
In 1864 US Gnl E. B. Tyler gave the order to Capt. Thomas Watkins that Boyle should be arrested as a horse thief, having previously been held twice before as a spy.[1] Boyle retaliated upon learning he was wanted, by stealing a horse from the home where Watkins was staying but was pursued to a shopfront where he shot at Watkins but hit the horse instead.[1] Boyle was arrested, but some time later hit Watkins in the head and escaped - repeatedly vowing he'd return to kill Watkins eventually.[1] Boyle eventually returned to Watkin's home with several cohort, and sources differ on whether they knocked on the and shot Watkins upon being greeted, or snuck in a side door and shot him eating dinner or reading in front of the fireplace. His wife and infant son were unharmed.[1] Governor Augustus Bradford announced a $1000 reward for Boyle.[1]
While it was Lewis Powell, of the Confederate Secret Service and Mosby's Rangers, who stabbed Seward, reports by War Department investigator Lt. David D. Dana initially named Boyle as the attacker. When investigators reached Dr. Samuel Mudd, who had treated John Wilkes Booth in the days after the assassination, Mudd claimed that "fears of the vengeance of that desperado [Boyle]" had been the reason he'd not gone to authorities to report the stranger in the night who'd demanded treatment - as Boyle had threatened a relative of his.[1]
Boyle was promptly arrested in Frederick, Maryland after Lincoln's assassination, and remained in prison for seven years. Lincoln conspirator George Atzerodt testified on May 1 that "[John H.] Boyle also killed Capt. Watkins near Annapolis last month, was one of the party, in the conspiracy", although there never seemed to be much evidence of Boyle's involvement.[2] Boyle was pardoned by Governor William Pinkney Whyte in 1872 given that "Boyle is not expected to live a great while, and his friends intend to move him to Florida".[1] Boyle actually ended up working as a detective for the Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans Railroad until he was caught passing counterfeit money, and settled with his family in Tougaloo, Mississippi.[1]
Boyle was shot one evening sitting at home with his family, but authorities had little interest in seeking the killer. Allan Pinkerton refused to take the case, noting Boyle had been "one of the worst men he ever knew...good ridance". A local black man named Harry Barnes was briefly arrested, and the story circulated that he and Boyle had intended to rob a train together but upon Boyle withrawing from the scheme decided to murder him, but the evidence was weak and the charges were dropped.[1]
References
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