The Assassin’s Doctor: The Life and Letters of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd

Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was one of the eight persons convicted of conspiracy in the 1865 Abraham Lincoln assassination trial. Dr. Mudd had met Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, a couple of times before the assassination. Booth had stayed overnight at Dr. Mudd’s farm about five months before the assassination, and the two met again a month later in Washington, D.C., four months before the assassination. Dr. Mudd told those hunting Booth after the assassination about Booth’s overnight visit to his farm, but not about his subsequent meeting with Booth in Washington. His cover-up of the latter meeting, when it was found out, is most likely what led to his conviction. Four of the eight persons convicted were executed shortly after the trial, The other four, including Dr. Mudd, were incarcerated at the Fort Jefferson military prison, located on a remote island in the Gulf of Mexico. The military prisoners at Fort Jefferson were a rough crowd. Their offenses included murder, manslaughter, robbery, grand larceny, and desertion. Standing orders said: “If a prisoner refuses to obey orders, the sentinel must shoot him, and then use his bayonet, at the same time calling for the guard.” Dr. Mudd was sentenced to life imprisonment, but was pardoned after 3 1/2 years by Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson. He was pardoned in large part because of his heroic work during a yellow fever epidemic at the prison. Three-hundred thirteen soldiers, 54 prisoners, and 20 civilians, a total of 387 people, were at Fort Jefferson during the epidemic. Two-hundred seventy of them contracted yellow fever. Thirty-eight died. Many more would have died without Dr. Mudd’s work. This biography of Dr. Mudd tells of his life growing up on his father’s Maryland tobacco plantation, his education and marriage, his life as a country doctor, his use of slaves to grow tobacco, his involvement with John Wilkes Booth, the Lincoln assassination and conspiracy trial, his imprisonment at Fort Jefferson, the yellow fever epidemic, his pardon, and life afterwards. It’s quite a story. Dr. Mudd’s actual guilt is still debated today. Most historians believe he had nothing to do with the assassination of Lincoln – and this is what Johnson’s pardon says – but some think he may have been involved with Booth’s original plot to kidnap Lincoln. You will undoubtedly reach your own conclusion about Dr. Mudd’s guilt or innocence after reading this book. The Assassin’s Doctor is the story of the fall and redemption of a man who had lost everything — his home, family, children, reputation, and freedom — only to recover everything by risking his life, and almost losing it, to save the lives of those who imprisoned him. It is an important part of American history.