Fans of Apple’s new show Manhunt about the search for Abraham Lincoln’s assassin may be interested to learn that four Alexandria firemen who died during the 12-day search for John Wilkes Booth are buried in Alexandria National Cemetery.
The federal government initiated a massive search for Booth after Lincoln’s assassination on April 14, 1865. The search included usage of the Black Diamond, a ship made up of more than a dozen employees of the Alexandria Fire Department working with the Army Quartermaster Corps, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The crew was tasked with patrolling the Potomac River in case Booth tried to slip across into Maryland.
Booth crossed the Potomac on April 22. Three days later, the Black Diamond crashed into the Massachusetts ferryboat, which was transporting approximately 400 former Union prisoners. The crash killed four members of the Black Diamond and 83 passengers of The Massachusetts.
Despite the war ending earlier that month, the four firemen — Peter Carroll, Christopher Farley, Samuel Gosnell and George Huntington were buried alongside Civil War casualties in Soldier’s Cemetery, now known as Alexandria National Cemetery (1450 Wilkes Street).
The federal government placed a granite boulder at the cemetery recognizing the firemen in the 1920s, and in the 1950s replaced their individual grave markers to have the same design as those of Union soldiers, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.