Treating an Assassin

— John Wilkes Booth - Escape of An Assassin —

This house was the home of Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd and his wife, Sarah Frances Dyer. Early on the morning of April 15, 1865, John Wilkes Booth arrived here with a companion, David E. Herold, and asked Mudd to set Booth's broken leg. Afterward, as Booth rested in an upstairs bedroom, Mudd rode into Bryantown, then returned home late in the afternoon to find his visitors departing.

Questioned later by U.S. authorities, Muddclaimed he did not recognize Booth or know that hewas being sought, and only learned of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination in Bryantown.Other witnesses stated, however, that late in1864, Booth had met Mudd at St. Mary'sCatholic Church, below Bryantown, while visiting Charles County ostensibly to purchase real estate. He then came here, spent the night, andbought a horse from Mudd's neighbor. Mudd allegedly accompanied Booth into Bryantown and introducedhim to a friend, Confederate agent Thomas Harbin. Afew days later, a witness stated, Mudd met Booth again in Washington and introduced him to John H. Surratt.

Charged with conspiring with Booth from thebeginning, Mudd claimed that the earlier meetings wereinnocent, Booth had been disguised on April 15, and hehad only done his duty as a physician. Convicted and sentenced to life in prison at Fort Jefferson in the Florida Keys, Mudd distinguished himself treating sick prisoners and guards alike during a deadly 1867 yellow fever epidemic. President Andrew Johnson pardoned him in 1869. Mudd died here on January 10, 1883.

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Show me all markers in:  Waldorf, MD  |  Charles County  |  20601  |  Maryland  |  United States of America

John Wilkes Booth
Home of Dr. Samuel Mudd
Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House
Dr. Mudd's House
Village of Bryantown
Immanuel Church
Mattawoman Run
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
John Wilkes Booth
Rev. Lawrence Anthony Bender, S.S.

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