One of these antic militiamen was a noted young actor named John Wilkes Booth. He had been in Richmond preparing for a play called The Filibuster when he noticed troops readying to board a train for Charlestown. Borrowing portions of two men’s uniforms, Booth decided to play soldier and tag along. “He was a remarkably handsome man, with a winning personality and would regale us around the camp fire with recitations from Shakespeare,” wrote a member of Booth’s adopted unit, the Richmond Grays. In later years, Booth would theatrically inflate the extent of his service in Jefferson County. He
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