On September 27, 1849, Edgar Allan Poe left Richmond, Virgina to travel to New York City. He stopped in Philadelphia to stay with a friend, James P. Moss. On September 30, Poe departed for New York, but it is unknown if he ever arrived there.
The generally accepted story is that he must have taken the wrong train and ended up in Baltimore. On October 3rd, a disoriented Poe was found drifting in and out of consciousness on the street outside Gunner's Hall, a public house on East Lombard St.
It was election day in Baltimore, and the public house was a polling place for Cornelius Ryan's 4th Ward Polls. A man named Joseph Walker found Poe and was able to extract enough information from him to get the name of an acquaintance, Dr. Joseph Evans Snodgrass. Walker sent the following note to Snodgrass:
Dear Sir, – There is a gentleman, rather the worse for wear, at Ryan's 4th ward polls, who goes under the cognomen of Edgar A. Poe, and who appears in great distress, & he says he is acquainted with you, and I assure you, he is in need of immediate assistance, Yours, in haste, Jos. W. Walker
Snodgrass arrived with Poe's uncle, Henry Herring. Snodgrass commented that Poe's appearance was "repulsive" with unkempt hair, a haggard, unwashed face and "lusterless and vacant" eyes.
Poe was usually a snappy dresser, but was wearing "a stained faded, old bombazine coat, pantaloons of a similar character, a pair of worn-out shoes run down at the heels, and an old straw hat." The ill-fitting clothes led his attending physician to remark that they were not Poe's, as such attire was out of his character.
Believed to be drunk, he was sent to Washington University Hospital where he died (under mysterious circumstances) on October 7, 1849.
