On April 26, 2015, our Nation will be marking the 150th Anniversary of the capture and death of the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln. Few people know or remember that former southeast Portland resident John William Millington was part of the successful manhunt for the killer John Wilkes Booth. As a member of Company H of the 16th New York Cavalry, Millington guarded the surrendered co-conspirator David Harold and thus became an eyewitness to Booth's ignoble demise at Richard Garrett's tobacco farm in rural northern Virginia on April 26,1865.
It was a case of Private Millington being in the right place at the right time, for this New York state farmer's initial enlistment with the 93rd New York Infantry at the start of the Civil War had ended prematurely when Millington was sent home with a bad case of typhoid fever and a disability discharge, following the Battle of Fredericksburg.
After he spent a year recovering his health, records show that Millington reenlisted on July 21, 1863 as a private in the 16th New York Cavalry. As a part of the detachment that captured Booth, he became eligible for a portion of the $100,000 reward money offered for Booth's capture.
Prior to Millington's transfer to Company L of the 3rd NY Provisional Calvary on August 17, 1865, he and 20 members of the 16th New York were present at the hanging of the four convicted co-conspirators of the Lincoln assassination that included Mary Surratt, George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell and Millington's former prisoner...David Harold. Millington was honorably discharged and mustered out of the cavalry when the regiment was disbanded on September 21, 1865 at Camp Barry near Washington, D.C.
Millington returned to the family farm in upstate New York, married and started a family and a new career as a carpenter before he embarked on a westward journey of settling and relocation in Minnesota and Iowa to finally set down roots in Portland, Oregon. -30-
by KCP
It was a case of Private Millington being in the right place at the right time, for this New York state farmer's initial enlistment with the 93rd New York Infantry at the start of the Civil War had ended prematurely when Millington was sent home with a bad case of typhoid fever and a disability discharge, following the Battle of Fredericksburg.
After he spent a year recovering his health, records show that Millington reenlisted on July 21, 1863 as a private in the 16th New York Cavalry. As a part of the detachment that captured Booth, he became eligible for a portion of the $100,000 reward money offered for Booth's capture.
Prior to Millington's transfer to Company L of the 3rd NY Provisional Calvary on August 17, 1865, he and 20 members of the 16th New York were present at the hanging of the four convicted co-conspirators of the Lincoln assassination that included Mary Surratt, George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell and Millington's former prisoner...David Harold. Millington was honorably discharged and mustered out of the cavalry when the regiment was disbanded on September 21, 1865 at Camp Barry near Washington, D.C.
Millington returned to the family farm in upstate New York, married and started a family and a new career as a carpenter before he embarked on a westward journey of settling and relocation in Minnesota and Iowa to finally set down roots in Portland, Oregon. -30-
by KCP
On April 26, 2015, our Nation will be marking the 150th Anniversary of the capture and death of the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln. Few people know or remember that former southeast Portland resident John William Millington was part of the successful manhunt for the killer John Wilkes Booth. As a member of Company H of the 16th New York Cavalry, Millington guarded the surrendered co-conspirator David Harold and thus became an eyewitness to Booth's ignoble demise at Richard Garrett's tobacco farm in rural northern Virginia on April 26,1865.
It was a case of Private Millington being in the right place at the right time, for this New York state farmer's initial enlistment with the 93rd New York Infantry at the start of the Civil War had ended prematurely when Millington was sent home with a bad case of typhoid fever and a disability discharge, following the Battle of Fredericksburg.
After he spent a year recovering his health, records show that Millington reenlisted on July 21, 1863 as a private in the 16th New York Cavalry. As a part of the detachment that captured Booth, he became eligible for a portion of the $100,000 reward money offered for Booth's capture.
Prior to Millington's transfer to Company L of the 3rd NY Provisional Calvary on August 17, 1865, he and 20 members of the 16th New York were present at the hanging of the four convicted co-conspirators of the Lincoln assassination that included Mary Surratt, George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell and Millington's former prisoner...David Harold. Millington was honorably discharged and mustered out of the cavalry when the regiment was disbanded on September 21, 1865 at Camp Barry near Washington, D.C.
Millington returned to the family farm in upstate New York, married and started a family and a new career as a carpenter before he embarked on a westward journey of settling and relocation in Minnesota and Iowa to finally set down roots in Portland, Oregon. -30-
by KCP
It was a case of Private Millington being in the right place at the right time, for this New York state farmer's initial enlistment with the 93rd New York Infantry at the start of the Civil War had ended prematurely when Millington was sent home with a bad case of typhoid fever and a disability discharge, following the Battle of Fredericksburg.
After he spent a year recovering his health, records show that Millington reenlisted on July 21, 1863 as a private in the 16th New York Cavalry. As a part of the detachment that captured Booth, he became eligible for a portion of the $100,000 reward money offered for Booth's capture.
Prior to Millington's transfer to Company L of the 3rd NY Provisional Calvary on August 17, 1865, he and 20 members of the 16th New York were present at the hanging of the four convicted co-conspirators of the Lincoln assassination that included Mary Surratt, George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell and Millington's former prisoner...David Harold. Millington was honorably discharged and mustered out of the cavalry when the regiment was disbanded on September 21, 1865 at Camp Barry near Washington, D.C.
Millington returned to the family farm in upstate New York, married and started a family and a new career as a carpenter before he embarked on a westward journey of settling and relocation in Minnesota and Iowa to finally set down roots in Portland, Oregon. -30-
by KCP
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