Samuel Mudd was born on Dec. 20, 1833. His father was a wealthy plantation owner who gave his son a plantation of his own with slaves when he reached adulthood. He grew tobacco, but his main job was doctoring. He married and had four kids when the war broke out. In 1864, Maryland abolished slavery and Mudd’s financial situation deteriorated. Mudd was a firm believer in slavery and supported secession. In 1864, he met John Wilkes Booth. Booth was supposedly shopping for real estate. He spent the night at Mudd’s farm. We do not know what they discussed. Later, in December, the two met again in Washington. According to Mudd, by accident. They spent several hours together, along with other conspirators against Lincoln. On April 15, 1865 they met again when presidential assassin Booth showed up on Mudd’s doorstep with a broken fibula. Mudd cut off his boot and splinted the leg. Booth spent 12-15 hours before moving on to his death. Mudd did not contact authorities when word spread that Booth was the assassin. He was arrested for conspiracy to kill the president. He lied about previously knowing Booth. This was a huge mistake. At his trial, Thomas Ewing argued that Mudd was a good master to his slaves. The prosecution claimed he had shot one of them in the leg and threatened to send them to work on Richmond’s defenses. The most damning evidence was that he had lied about his contacts with Booth. He had also hid the boot in his house. He escaped the death penalty by just one vote. He got life imprisonment. He and several other conspirators were sent to Fort Jefferson in Florida. He was 31 years old at the time. For a while they were housed in “the dungeon”, but a letter from his wife caused Pres. Johnson to improve his conditions. In 1867, a yellow fever outbreak hit the prison and killed the doctor. Mudd took over and was responsible for minimizing the epidemic. Only 14% of those infected died. (In 1873, a similar outbreak took 37%.) One of the dead was fellow conspirator Michael O’Laughlin. 299 soldiers stationed at the fort petitioned Johnson for clemency. Ewing, who had influence in the administration, put in a good word. On March 8, 1869 Mudd was pardoned. He returned to his farm and basically lived happily ever after, fathering several more kids. Was he guilty? His grandson Richard Mudd certainly didn’t think so. He wrote a book that convinced Presidents Carter and Reagan to doubt it. However, evidence points to his guilt. He lied about his relationship with Booth, aided his escape, hid evidence. Most likely, he thought he was part of a plot to kidnap Lincoln, not kill him. He knew Booth had his farm in mind as a stop after the kidnapping. He tried to cover up his involvement when he was arrested. He deserved the pardon for his actions in the epidemic, not because he was innocent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Mudd
https://www.historynet.com/dr-samuel-a-mudd.htm
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