Samuel
Mudd was born in Charles County, Maryland, on
20th December, 1833. The son of a large plantation owner, Henry Lowe
Mudd, he attended Georgetown College before studying medicine at the
University of Maryland.
After graduation in 1856 Mudd returned to Charles County where he
worked as a doctor before marrying Sarah Dyer and buying his own farm
at Bryantown, Maryland.
Mudd, an advocate of slavery, was a supporter
of the Confederacy during the American Civil
War. He also associated with agents working for the Confederate
Army. This included John Wilkes Booth,
who he met for the first time on 13th November, 1864. Further meetings
took place between the two men and Louis
Weichmann saw him with Booth and John
Surratt talking together in Washington
on 23rd December, 1864.
After John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham
Lincoln on 14th April, 1865 he and David
Herold arrived at Mudd's house the following day. Mudd set, splinted
and bandaged Booth's broken leg. Mudd also arranged for a carpenter
to make Booth a pair of crutches.
The detectives investigating Lincoln's murder soon discovered that
Mudd had treated John Wilkes Booth while
on the run from the authorities. Mudd was arrested and charged with
conspiracy to murder Abraham Lincoln.
During his trial Mudd denied recognizing Booth when he treated him.
Evidence was also provided that Mudd had a record of bad behaviour
towards slaves. This included the shooting of one of his men for disobedience.
On 1st May, 1865, President Andrew Johnson
ordered the formation of a nine-man military
commission to try the conspirators. It was argued by Edwin
M. Stanton, the Secretary of War, that the men should be tried
by a military court as Lincoln had been Commander in Chief of the
army. Several members of the cabinet, including Gideon
Welles (Secretary of the Navy), Edward
Bates (Attorney General), Orville
H. Browning (Secretary of the Interior), and Henry
McCulloch (Secretary of the Treasury), disapproved, preferring
a civil trial. However, James Speed,
the Attorney General, agreed with Stanton and therefore the defendants
did not enjoy the advantages of a jury trial.
The trial began on 10th May, 1865. The military commission included
leading generals such as David Hunter,
Lewis Wallace, Thomas
Harris and Alvin Howe and Joseph
Holt was the government's chief prosecutor. Mary
Surratt, Lewis Powell, George
Atzerodt, David Herold, Samuel
Mudd, Michael O'Laughlin, Edman
Spangler and Samuel Arnold were
all charged with conspiring to murder Lincoln. During the trial Holt
attempted to persuade the military commission that Jefferson
Davis and the Confederate government had been involved in conspiracy.
Joseph Holt attempted to obscure the fact
that there were two plots: the first to kidnap and the second to assassinate.
It was important for the prosecution not to reveal the existence of
a diary taken from the body of John Wilkes
Booth. The diary made it clear that the assassination plan dated
from 14th April. The defence surprisingly did not call for Booth's
diary to be produced in court.
On 29th June, 1865, Mudd was found guilty of conspiracy to murder.
He missed the death penalty by one vote and was sentenced to life
imprisonment. Mary Surratt, Lewis
Powell, George Atzerodt and David
Herold were hanged at Washington Penitentiary on 7th July, 1865.
Mudd, along with Michael O'Laughlin,
Edman Spangler and Samuel
Arnold were imprisoned at Fort Jefferson.
In December, 1865, Mudd complained to his wife about being guarded
by black soldiers who he described as being a "set of ignorant,
prejudiced and irresponsible beings of the unbleached humanity".
Mrs. Mudd passed these comments onto President Andrew
Johnson who responded by ordering better treatment for Mudd and
his fellow conspirators at Fort Jefferson.
During an outbreak of yellow fever in
1867, the prison doctor died. Mudd agreed to take over and although
coming down with the disease he recovered. One of his fellow conspirators,
Michael O'Laughlin, was less fortunate
and died from the disease.
Mudd was pardoned by Andrew Johnson
on 1st March, 1869. He returned home, taking with him Edman
Spangler, who he gave 5 acres of land. In 1876 Mudd was elected
to the Maryland legislature. Samuel Mudd died
of pneumonia on 10th January, 1883.
Forum Debates
The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
(1) Samuel Mudd, statement
presented at his trial (13th
May, 1865)
We (Mudd and Booth) started
down one street, and then up another, and had not gone far when we
met Surratt and Weichmann. Introductions took place and we turned
back in the direction of the hotel. After arriving in the room, I
took the first opportunity presented to apologize to Surratt for having
introduced him to Booth - a man I knew so little concerning. This
conversation took place in the passage in front of the room (hallway)
and was not over three minutes in duration. Surratt and myself returned
and resumed our former seats (after taking drinks ordered) around
a center table, which stood midway the room and distant seven or eight
feet from Booth and Weichmann; Booth remarked that he had been down
to the country a few days before, and said that he had not yet recovered
from the fatigue. Afterward he said he had been down in Charles County,
and had made me an offer to purchase of my land, which I confirmed
by an affirmative answer; and he further remarked that on his way
up (to Washington) he lost his way and rode several miles off the
track.
(2)
Lieutenant Alexander Lovett, testimony at Dr. Mudd's
trial (16th May, 1865)
On the day after the assassination
of the President, I went with others in pursuit of the murderers.
We went by way of Surrattsville to the house of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd,
which is about thirty miles from Washington. Dr. Mudd did not at first
seem inclined to give us any satisfaction; afterward he went on to
state that on Saturday morning, at daybreak, two strangers had come
to his place; one of them rapped at the door, the other remained on
his horse. Mudd went down and opened the door, and with the aid of
the young man who had knocked at the door helped the other, who had
his leg broken, off his horse, took him into his house and set his
leg. On asking him who the man with the broken leg was, he said he
did not know; he was a stranger to him.
(3)
Thomas Ewing, Samuel Mudd's attorney, was interviewed
about the case by George Alfred Townsend in 1883.
The court very nearly hanged
Dr. Mudd. His prevarication's were painful. He had given his whole
case away by not trusting even his counsel or neighbors or kinfolk.
It was a terrible thing to extricate him from the toils he had woven
about himself. He had denied knowing Booth when he knew him well.
He was undoubtedly accessory to the abduction plot, though he may
have supposed it would never come to anything. He denied knowing Booth
when he came to his house when that was preposterous. He had been
even intimate with Booth.
(4)
Edward
Steers Jnr., The
Deceptive Doctor , Columbiad
Magazine (Winter, 2000)
During his initial interview with investigating
detectives on April 18, 1865, Dr. Samuel A. Mudd claimed, "I
never saw either of the parties before, nor can I conceive who sent
them to my house."1 With these words Dr. Mudd told the first
in a series of lies about his involvement with John Wilkes Booth and
Booth's conspiracy to capture President Abraham Lincoln, a conspiracy
that would ultimately lead to Lincoln's assassination at Ford's Theatre.
In statements given prior to his arrest, Mudd lied about virtually
every piece of information the authorities were seeking in their effort
to capture Booth. Lieutenant Alexander Lovett, the first interrogator,
and Colonel Henry H. Wells, the second interrogator, both complained
of the doctor's evasiveness and apparent untruthfulness during their
questioning of him.26 This behavior led Wells to place Mudd under
arrest and send him to Washington under guard.
Mudd's
attempt to convince the military authorities that he had only met
with Booth on one occasion belies all of the facts in his case. Mudd
withheld even from his own attorneys information about the meeting
at the National Hotel, where he had introduced Booth to Surratt, and
the December meeting in Bryantown with Harbin. Ignorant of both meetings,
Maj. Gen. Thomas Ewing, one of Mudd's two defense attorneys, weakened
his credibility with the military commission by arguing that Weichmann
had lied about the hotel meeting in late December and that Mudd had
only "met Booth before the assassination but once on Sunday,
and once the day following, in November last."27 The commission
believed differently.
After
his conviction Mudd and co-conspirators Michael O'Laughlin, Samuel
Arnold, and Edman Spangler were transported to Fort Jefferson, where
the men were scheduled to serve out their prison sentences. During
the trip they were placed under a military guard commanded by Captain
George W. Dutton. Captain Dutton later claimed that during the journey
Mudd had "confessed that he knew Booth when he came to his house
with Herold on the morning after the assassination of the President."
The captain said that Mudd "also confessed that he was with Booth
at the National Hotel on the day referred to by Weichmann in his testimony;
and that he came to Washington on that occasion to meet Booth by appointment
who wished to be introduced to John Surratt."
History has been much kinder to Mudd than the events in the assassination
should warrant. The facts that have emerged about his involvement
with Booth belie the popular image of Mudd as a gentle country doctor
who unexpectedly became entangled in a tragic murder through no fault
of his own. The current perception of an innocent Dr. Mudd is largely
due to the tireless efforts of Dr. Richard Dyer Mudd, who has struggled
for seventy years to clear his grandfather's name and officially expunge
the findings of the military tribunal that convicted him. His efforts
have come close to fruition in the past decade.
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