The life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd; containing his letters from Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas island, where he was imprisoned four years for alleged complicity in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, with statements of Mrs. Samuel A. Mudd, Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, and Edward Spangler regarding the assassinatin and the argument of General Ewing on the question of the jurisdiction of the Military commission, and on the law and facts of the case; also "diary" of John Wilkes Booth

Front matter

r

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

Contents

PAGE

Preface, 1 1

Introduction, 19

Preface

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln startled and shocked the civilized world as few events have done in the whole course of human history. It occurred at a time when, by reason of the termination of the Civil War with the surrender of L,ee at Appomattox, there was promise and hope of a more kindly feeling between the people of the two great sections of the country who, during a period of four years, had been arrayed against each other in deadly strife. The victors had granted magnanimous terms to the vanquished. The conciliatory and generous spirit shown by the Commanding General of the victorious armies in the hour of his crowning success, and to which he afterward gave expression in the famous declaration, "Let us have peace," awakened hopeful response in the hearts of the conquered people.

It was at this point of time, when better and brighter days seemed to be dawning for the whole country, that the tragedy of Lincoln's death aroused throughout the land. North and South, an excitement unparalleled in the nation's history. The victim of the assassin had become almost deified in the minds of the Northern people. The people of the South had learned to respect and honor him for his lofty virtues as a man, while conscientiously condemning the administrative policies for which he stood. When the estimation in which he was held by the people is considered, it is not a matter to cause surprise, although to be deplored, that the news of the assassination excited for the time a feeling of bitterness more intense than had existed at any period during the bloody years of the Civil War. This feeUng, deplorable but not altogether unnatural under the circumstances, was so extreme that, at first, a large number of the Northern people

12 THE lilFE OF DR. SAMUEL A. MDDD

were disposed to place the responsibility of L,incoln's murder on the whole of the Southern people and to have inflicted upon them all vindictive punishment. This monstrous idea ultimately gave place to the one not less vicious, yet perhaps less far-reaching, that victims, guilty or innocent, must be sacrificed to avenge the crime of the assassination of the President. To the honor of the victorious Union army it should be stated that few of the soldiery shared in this desire for indiscriminate revenge. Among those high in authority in the administrative affairs of the nation, however, in a spirit diametrically at variance with that spirit of magnanimity and kindness that had uniformly characterized the course of President Lincoln, the determination was deep seated that victims must be offered up for sacrifice.

One of these victims was Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, whose sufferings to satisfy the demands thus born of prejudice and passion, are set forth in this volume, edited by his daughter, then unborn. In this work she has not sought to produce effect by ingenuity of argument, or to deduce conclusions from premises admitted or assumed. She has simply presented to the reader the facts as contained in the argument of General Ewing, made in defense of her father before the Military Commission before which he was tried ; the statement of her mother ; the statement of Spangler, one of the alleged "conspirators," who was imprisoned in Fort Jefferson for nearly five years; and the statement of Dr. Mudd, written while he was in prison but which he was not allowed by the authorities to give to the public, and which is now for the first time published ; together with the letters of her father, written during the long period of his incarceration, and also the letters of various other persons relating directly or indirectly to the alleged "conspiracy." Upon these facts, without comment, she rests the question of the guilt or

THE UFE OF DB. SA3fCEL A. MUDD 13 innocence of her father, and submits the matter to the consideration of an impartial public.

The letters of Dr. Mudd, written not for general perusal, but for the eyes alone of those very "near and dear" to him, reveal the character of the man more accurately perhaps than it could be revealed in any other manner. That he suflfered intensely is apparent; that this suffering, which was caused chiefly by his anxiety concerning the welfare of his wife and little children, should have embittered him as the period of his imprisonment, which he regarded as absolutely unjust, was lengthened out from year to year, is neither surprising nor censurable. This bitterness appears only in his later letters. He was a man of culture, of quiet tastes, unostentatious, retiring. He preferred the peaceful surroundings of his home, the association and love of the members of his family, and the friendly intercourse of his neighbors, to any participation in the stirring and momentous events that were transpiring in his war-ridden country.

From such peaceful scenes and surroundings of his home he was, on the 24th of April, 1865, rudely torn, a prisoner charged with complicity in one of the most wicked and monstrous crimes that ever cast a stain upon the pages of the world's history. At first he seems to have scarcely regarded his arrest seriously, but as a mistake, incidental to the disturbed condition of the time, that would be speedily corrected. He believed that he would soon be restored to his family, and was particularly solicitous, not about his own fate, but that, during his brief absence from home, the work on the farm should be properly attended to. In the first letter he wrote to his wife, after his arrest, dated from the Carroll Prison, he does not speak of any personal discomfort or apprehension, but advises her to "try and get some one to plant our crop," "hire hands at the prices they demand," "urge them on all you can and make them work,"

14 THE lilFE OP DB. SAMUEL A. MXTDD

and expresses the hope that his absence may be of short duration. This letter is dearly that of an innocent man, conscious of his innocence, and believing in his early and complete vindication.

His hopes, however, were not to be realized. "The frenzy of madness that ruled the hour," referred to by the eminent advocate for the defense, and himself a distinguished Union soldier, decreed otherwise. He was declared guilty by the military tribunal, and was ultimately sentenced to be confined for life in Fort Jeffer son, on the Dry Tortugas Island, than which no more desolate place of imprisonment could have been found within the limits of the then United States, or where his banishment from his family would have been more complete. It seems clearly to have been the purpose of the Federal authorities to place him beyond the reach of the processes of the civil courts.

Now is shown forth the nobility of his character. He bears his misfortunes, as is testified by the distinguished attorney who defended him, with "Christian fortitude." He is conscious of his innocence, knows his punishment to be unjust, yet believes that justice will ultimately triumph. Hope was still active and alluring. His anxiety was something apparently apart from himself and his personal interests and welfare, but existed solely on account of his wife and children. In his letter, written on shipboard when he was being carried to the place where he was to endure the severest privations as a prisoner, probably for life, he tells his wife "not to give up hope — take care of the little ones." All through his letters there breathes the spirit of true Christian heroism. His faith in the goodness and wisdom of a Supreme Power seems never to have been shaken. True, as time passed on and the rigors of his iinprisonment were intensified rather than relaxed, and he realized more acutely the hardships of his unjust punishment, he

THE lilFE OF DB. SAMUEI; A. MUDD 15

showed occasionally a tendency toward misanthropy. He came to doubt both the gratitude and justice of man, but never appears to have doubted the goodness of God.

In a letter written on Christmas Day, 1865, to his wife, he says : "What have I done to bring so much trouble upon myself and family? The answer from my inmost heart — nothing. I am consoled to know that the greatest saints were the most persecuted and the greatest sufferers, although far be it from classing myself with those chosen friends of God. * * * j ii^ve endeavored to the best of my ability to lead as spotless and sinless a life as in my power." Again, on January i, 1866, he writes to his wife: "I can stand anything but the thought of your dependent position; the ills and privations consequent pierce my heart as a dagger."

As time passed on and he was again and again disappointed in his hopes of an early release, his desire to again be with his family becomes more intense, until it seems to dominate his every thought. In one of his letters to his wife he says: "I have but one desire, namely : to be with you, and to see our dear little children properly trained and educated." One will therefore hesitate to blame him, when the harshness and injustice of his imprisonment are considered, for making an effort to escape. This he did in the latter part of the year 1865, although he had positively declared in the earlier months of his incarceration, his purpose not to try to escape, as any effort on his part to do so might seem to indicate a consciousness of guilt. The effort, however, when made was abortive, and resulted in his being subjected to greater hardship of treatment in his imprisonment than he had hitherto endured. He stated, after his release from prison, that he had intended to escape and reach some point where the writ of habeas corpus was in force and available and then surrender himself to the authorities, in order that the writ might

16 THE LIFE OF DR. SA3IUEIi A. MUDD

be invoked in his behalf and the legaHty of his trial and sentence by the military court tested.

After his unsuccessful effort to escape he seems to have been subjected to cruelties almost beyond the power of human endurance. Yet we find him, during the visitation of the dreaded yellow fever to the island, ready and willing to sacrifice his life for the relief of his persecutors. Rarely has there been shown in the life of any man greater heroism and self-abnegation than that shown by Dr. Mudd in his course while the fever prevailed among the soldiers who held him in captivity. To minister to them as he did was an exhibition of magnanimity and self-sacrifice worthy of the highest praise that can be ascribed to human conduct. Yet he was to show that he had reached a loftier plane of human excellence than that evidenced by his mere ministrations to the stricken yellow fever sufferers. He had through months of wearying, harassing imprisonment, longed to get beyond his prison walls. The time came when nearly every man of the garrison was helpless from fever, when he could have left the island, with no man to hinder him. Yet hear what he says : "By the hand of Providence my fetters have been broken, yet I run not, preferring to share the fate of those around me and to lend what aid in my power to breaking down the burning fever, overcoming the agonizing delirium, and giving all the hope and encouragement possible to the death-stricken victims of the pestilence." In this quotation from a letter to his brother-in-law, dated October i, 1867, and intended not for public perusal, Dr. Mudd's character stands forth as a living exemplification of the loftiest Christian charity. When we find that only a little time had elapsed after he had written this letter, as he states in a letter dated December 7, 1867, he was still in chains, under rigorous guard and required to do menial labor, can any one censure him for indulging in some harshness of expression concerning those responsible for his misfortunes ?

Nor can one deny to his wife the highest measure of praise for her noble, womanly conduct during all the trying ordeals through which she was required to pass. Her trials will never be known save to herself and the God in whom she unfalteringly trusted. We are given some idea of the depth of her suffering, of the laceration of her woman's heart, in her letter of January 28, 1866, to President Johnson. In "Rachel mourning for her children and would not be comforted," no lower note of human anguish is sounded than that touched in the heart of this wife and mother, as shown in this appeal for justice to her husband and the father of her little children. Few can read this letter without emotion ; none can read it without a measure of profound sympathy, and a yet larger measure of admiration, for the faithful woman who wrote it.

Through all the period of her husband's incarceration, with resources exhausted in his defense, dependent for the maintenance of herself and her children on the product of a farm for the tilling of which it was almost impossible to procure labor, with anxieties almost innumerable pressing upon her, she bravely struggled on, persistently striving to secure her husband's release, and writing cheering words to him, bidding him hope. To women such as she, for their example alone, the world owes a debt of gratitude not easily cancelled.

In conclusion — just forty-one years have elapsed since the death of President Lincoln; the sectional bitterness engendered by the civil war has passed away; we have in truth a reunited country; North and South alike honor the name of Lincoln. Has not the time arrived to fully vindicate the name of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, who was so cruelly and unjustly called upon to suffer — and to remove from that name even the faintest shadow of doubt that may exist regarding his complicity in the great crime committed in Ford's Theater, in Washington, forty-one years ago ?

D. EiJ)RiDGS MoNRoe.

Introduction

Abraham L,incoln, President of the United States, while attending a play in Ford's Theater in Washington, on the evening of the fourteenth of April, 1865, was fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth. In jumping from the box in the theater, occupied by the President, and in which the infamous act was committed, to the stage, Booth fractured a bone in his leg. He nevertheless escaped through a rear entrance to the theater, and mounting a horse, which he had provided should be kept in readiness, escaped by way of the bridge across the Eastern Branch of the Potomac River, into southern Maryland. With his features disguised, and in company with David E. Herold, he reached the residence of Doctor Samuel A. Mudd, in Charles County, thirty miles south of Washington, about 4 o'clock on the morning after the assassination. Dr. Mudd set the broken bone in Booth's leg. As will appear by the following chapters neither Dr. Mudd nor any member of his family knew of Booth's identity. Both he and Herold gave assumed names. They left about 2 o'clock of the same day, and ultimately succeeded in crossing the Potomac into Virginia. They were discovered in a bam on the farm of a man named Garrett, near Port Royal, Virginia, on the morning of Wednesday, April 26, 1865. United States officers and soldiers surrounded the building. Herold surrendered. Booth refused to surrender. The barn was then set on fire. Booth approached the door of the barn, as the flames surrounded him, and was shot and killed by Sergeant Corbett.

In addition to David E. Herold, George A. Atzerodt, Mrs. Mary E. Surratt, Lewis Payne, Samuel Arnold, Michael O'Loughlin, Edward Spangler, and Dr. Samuel

20 THE LIFE OF DR. SA3nJEI/ A. MIIDD

A. Mudd were subsequently arrested charged with complicity in the crime of assassinating the President, "and the attempted assassination of the Honorable William H. Seward, Secretary of State, and in an alleged conspiracy to assassinate other officers of the Federal Government at Washington." By an order issued by President Johnson, dated May i, 1865, the Adjutant-General was "directed to detail nine competent military officers to serve as a Commission for the trial of the accused." It was strenuously contended, by many of the most eminent lawyers of the country, that the civil courts alone had jurisdiction to try the accused, and that their trial by the Military Commission was illegal.

The following officers were detailed on the Commission : Maj.-Gen. David Hunter, U. S. V.; Maj.-Gen. Lew Wallace, U. S. V.; Brevet Maj.-Gen. August V. Kautz, U. S. V. ; Brig.-Gen. Alvin P. Howe, U. S. V. ; Brig.-Gen. Robert S. Foster, U. S. V. ; Brevet Brig.-Gen. James A. Ekin, U. S. V. ; Brig.-Gen. T. M. Harris, U. S. V. ; Brevet Col. C. H. Tompkins, U. S. V. ; Lieut.-Col. David R. Clendenin, Eighth Illinois Cavalry. Brig.-Gen. Joseph Holt was Judge-Advocate and Recorder of the Commission, assisted by Judge-Advocates Burnett and Bingham. The Commission held its sittings in a room in the old Arsenal Building, in Washington. The Commission met May 9, 1865, but adjourned to the loth, to enable the accused to employ counsel.

The trial began on the latter date, and ended on the 30th day of June, 1865, when the Commission announced its decision. Mrs. Mary E. Surratt, David E. Herold, George A. Atzerodt, and Lewis Payne were declared to be guilty, and sentenced to be executed July 7, 1865, between the hours of 10 o'clock a. m. and 2 o'clock p. m. Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, Samuel Arnold, and Michael O'Loughlin were declared to be guilty, and were sentenced to be confined for life, at hard labor, in the penitentiary at Albany, New York. Edward Spangler was declared to he guilty, in a lesser degree, and sentenced to be confined in the penitentiary at Albany, at hard labor, for a term of six years. The penitentiary sentences were subsequently modified, by changing the place of imprisonment from Albany to Fort Jefferson, on the Dry Tortugas Island, Florida. President Johnson approved the findings of the Commission on the Sth day of July, 1865.

On the 7th day of July, 1865, Mrs. Surratt, Herold, Atzerodt and Payne were executed by hanging. Strenuous efforts were made to save the life of Mrs. Surratt, but without avail. A writ of habeas corpiis was issued in her behalf, by Judge Wylie of the Supreme Bench of the District of Columbia, on the application of her legal advisers, returnable at ten o'clock on the morning set for her execution. The military authorities, however, refused to surrender her. The story of the imprisonment of Dr. Mudd, and incidentally that of Arnold, Spangler, and O'Loughlin, is told in. the following chapters. Much information in relation to the incidents connected with, and growing out of, the assassination of President Lincoln, and not heretofore published, is also given.

Chapter I Days, Coixegb And Home Wfe

Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd, known in history as one of the "Lincoln conspirators," was born on a large plantation in Charles County, Maryland, nearly equidistant five miles between the villages of Waldorf and Bryantown, fifteen miles from the county seat, La Plata, and twenty-five miles from Washington. His father, Henry Low Mudd, was a wealthy planter and slave owner. His estate, for more than a mile, extended along the "Old Mill Swamp," gradually rising on the east side of a stream known as the Sakiah. The surface of the land increased in elevation from the "Swamp" until, with a steep upward sweep, it ascends to a high hill, sloping toward the north and south, the summit crowned with locusts and wide-spreading oaks; from these it derived the name it bears, "Oak Hill."

On the top of the hill was built the old homestead. In architecture it was not different from other houses in the vicinity. Wide, oldfashioned halls and spacious rooms, substantially furnished, formed a comfortable abode and place of entertainment for the family and visiting guests. At the north wing of the house was the schoolroom, where many lessons were learned, perhaps many childish tears were shed, and many airy castles were built never to be realized. Above this was the home chapel. Bed chambers occupied the remainder of the second floor.

Viewed from the nearest point in the valley, it presented in appearance a large structure without any architecturally definite shape. Outside it looked well enough. It seemed to the eye roomy and hospitable. A large lawn, sloping to the public road, was dotted with shrubbery, which contrasted prettily with the white background formed by the painted weatherboarding of the house.

Here on December 20, 1833, was born Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, who in after years was destined to involuntarily play so conspicuous a part m one of the most important events in the nation's history. Amid these rural scenes he passed his infancy and childhood. Even from his earliest years, he was always thoughtful of others, always distinguished for his gentleness and kindness. When attending the public school, which he began to do when a little boy of seven years of age, such was his uniform courtesy and consideration for others that the companions of his early childhood remained his friends for life.

After a year or two in the public school, his father secured a governess for the instruction of his children, and he then continued his

Abraham Lincoliv

FACING PAGt 24

Studies at home with his sisters. Here under the tuition of Miss Peterson, the governess, he made rapid progress in his studies. At the age of about fourteen years he entered St. John's College, in Frederick City, Maryland, where he spent two years. He then entered Georgetown College, in the District of Columbia, where he completed his collegiate course. He was particularly interested in the study of languages and became proficient in Greek, Latin, and French ; and was also a musician of recognized ability, performing with skill on the violin, piano, flute and other instruments. After leaving Georgetown College he studied medicine and surgery in the University of Maryland, Baltimore, where he graduated in March, 1856. During his last year at the University he practiced in the hospital attached to that institution, and in recognition of his services received from the faculty a complimentary certificate of merit at the time he received his diploma.

Again, his college life ended, we find him in his old home, amid the friends and scenes of his childhood. Here on his father's estate may have been seen more than a hundred slaves, who made the evenings merry with song, and with banjo and violin accompaniment. Scattered over various sections of the farm may also have been seen the "quarters" of these humble colored folk, who were always treated with the kindest consideration by their master and mistress, and who would say of these white friends, after they had passed from earth, "God bless my old Marse and Miss; I hope dey is in heaven." Here my father began his public life as a practicing physician; always keeping his old friends by his loyalty and uprightness, and continuously adding to the list some new ones. It is not too much to say, nor should it be charged to filial partiality, that to know him was in truth to love him. He was the friend of the needy, the consoler and comforter of those in distress and trouble. He never paused to consider whether those needing his ministrations could or could not remunerate him. He gave freely of his best to all alike.

About eighteen months after he established himself in practice he married Miss Sarah Frances Dyer, whom he always in after years, as will appear by his letters, addressed as "Frank," his schoolmate and childhood's love, having been engaged to her four years. At the time they became engaged she had just graduated from the Visitation Convent, Frederick City, Maryland. Cardinal Bodeni, the first delegate sent to the church by the Pope of Rome, conferred on her the graduating honors. It may be of some interest to the young people of this day to learn how so important a matter as the matrimonial engagement was arranged at that time. There is perhaps little variation between the method of engagement at that time and that of the present. My mother, after my earnest solicitation to learn more of this important event, at last consented to say, "There was nothing romantic in our little love affair. I was only seventeen and Sam eighteen years of age, so it was impossible to think of getting married just then. When Sam asked me, 'Frank, are you going to marry me?' I answered, 'Yes, when you have graduated in medicine, established a practice for yourself, and I have had my fun out, then I'll marry you. You need not get jealous; I vow I will never marry any one else.' " This seems to have settled matters, and on the 26th of November, 1857, they were married in her home, which was only a few miles distant from where my father then lived. During the two years following they resided at the home where they were married, with her elder brother, Mr. Jere Dyer, who was a bachelor, and whose name appears frequently in the succeeding chapters. After this they moved into their own home, which my mother still occupies. From this to the time of the Civil War life moved on smoothly, she being busy with her household duties and the care of her little ones, and he being fully occupied in attending to his practice and to the farm.

While Maryland never seceded from the Union, the war brought much distress and sorrow to many homes and hearts within her borders. Her people, especially in the southern part of the State, where the number of slaves was large, were subjected to many of the inconveniences and hardships suffered by the

28 THE lilFE OF DR. SAMtTBIj A. MUDD

people in the States of the Confederacy. The negroes, very soon after the war commenced, became imbued with the idea of freedom, and as this idea gained stronger hold in their minds their efficiency as servants diminished. When President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, declaring the freedom of the slaves in the States that had seceded, the moral effect on the negroes in Maryland was such that they were of little value to their owners. Their demoralization as laborers was almost complete. Subsequently, when slavery was abolished in the State by constitutional provision, they almost uniformly refused to work for their former owners, even for highly remunerative wages. Of course, in my father's home, there were experienced these conditions. He had to pay twice the value of their services to the emancipated colored people in order to make even a partial crop, or to retain them as servants about his dwelling.

This was the state of affairs on my father's farm at the time Booth fired the fatal shot, in Ford's Theater, by which the life of the President was destroyed. The fact that these conditions did exist made it much harder for my father to bear his imprisonment. He was devoted to his family. He knew that my mother would find it to be almost impossible to obtain labor to cultivate the farm. He was at all times, during his long imprisonment, burdened, indeed almost tortured, by the fear that she and the children might come to want.

CHAPTER II MY mother's statement

The following very full statement was written by my mother:

The first time I ever saw John Wilkes Booth was in November, 1864. My husband went to Bryan town Church, and was introduced to Booth by John Thompson, an old friend from Baltimore, who asked my husband if he knew of any one who had a good riding-horse for sale; to which he replied, "My next neighbor has one." After this they made arrangements for Booth to come up to our hom^e that evening to see about buying this horse. There was company in the house and supper was just over, when my husband came in and asked me to prepare for a stranger. My husband came in with the stranger and made the necessary introductions. The conversation was on general topics. Nothing relative to the Administration or the war was spoken of by any one present. After supper, Booth joined the visitors and remained in general conversation until bedtime, which was about 9.30 o'clock. I did not see Booth again until at the breakfast table the next morning.

After breakfast the horses were ordered. Booth tied his at the gate, and my husband threw the bridle rein of his horse over his arm and walked along with Booth across the field to Squire George Gardiner's. Booth soon returned, came in and got his overcoat which he had thrown over the back of a chair in the parlor, said good-by, and rode away. The horse he purchased was sent to him at Bryantown that even-

30 THE LIFE OP DK. SA3njEI> A. MUDD

ing. After he had gone I went to the parlor to put things in order. Lying on the floor by the chair that had held his overcoat was a letter, not enclosed in an envelope, that had fallen from his pocket. I picked it up and almost involuntarily glanced at the headlines. These lines convinced me that some poor man's home had been wrecked by the handsome face and wily ways of Booth. The letter was from New York ; but I did not look at the name of the writer, and I do not know to this day who she was. I laid it on the table, hoping to be able to find some means of returning it to him. As he never returned, I subsequently threw it in the fire.