John Wilkes Booth and his sidekick and co-conspirator Davy Herold met up with each other once they had both safely crossed the Navy Yard Bridge on assassination night.

Herold said he caught up with Booth at Soper’s Hill, about eight miles outside Washington. From there they head to Surratt’s Tavern, about 10 miles from the Navy Yard Bridge.

The tavern was owned by Mary Surratt, a Southern-sympathizing widow who, within a matter of weeks, would become the first woman hanged by the U.S. government, convicted as an assassination co-conspirator.

John Lloyd, a former Metropolitan Police officer who leased the tavern from Mrs. Surratt, testified that she gave him field glasses to give to some parties who would come calling for them and she also instructed him to give the parties shooting irons and a couple bottles of whiskey.

Source: John Wilkes Booth’s Escape Route: Notes by James O. Hall, published by the Surratt Society