If Booth were to get over the river safely, Cox would be the person to arrange it. But Booth had to get to Cox’s place first, and that would require negotiating the dangerous Zekiah Swamp. Here is where Burtles could play a major role.31 Mudd could easily have made the trip between Bryantown and Burtles and still have ample time to counsel with Burtles about how to handle Booth before returning home near sundown. After first conferring with his brother, Mudd went into Bryantown to reconnoiter the situation. When Mudd arrived in Bryantown and found it crawling with troopers, it short-circuited his plan to send the two fugitives off in an orderly fashion. Now he must get them off his place and fast. Burtles was the likely answer to Mudd’s problem.
When Mudd returned home at sundown he had been absent for over six hours. He more than likely filled Booth in on the situation, telling him about the soldiers in Bryantown. They would have to leave immediately and make their way to Burtles’s place on their own. The darkness would be both a blessing and a problem. Moving south in the dark would be a hindrance, but the cover of darkness would help shield the pair from Union soldiers who might be roaming the area. Mudd gave careful directions, making sure that Booth and Herold circled east around Bryantown in a wide arc, avoiding the troops stationed there. He would later concoct a story about finding his two guests in the process of riding west in the opposite direction toward Parson Wilmer’s place.32 This was compatible with his story that the pair had stopped by his house on their way to Washington. If successful, it would throw the soldiers off of Booth’s track long enough for Cox to put the pair across the river. Once across, Mudd’s problems would be behind him.
Forty years later Nettie Mudd wrote about that fateful night and her father’s plight. In her book, Nettie claimed her father had wanted to go back into Bryantown after Booth left and tell the military authorities about the two “strangers” and the suspicions they aroused. But Mrs. Mudd pleaded with her husband not to leave her alone as she feared the men might return and do her and the children harm. According to Nettie Mudd’s account, the doctor decided to stay with his wife and leave the telling to a later time.33 Nettie’s story is inconsistent with the facts. Mudd had already left his wife and children in Booth’s care for over six hours without apparent apprehension. Having learned in Bryantown about the president’s murder, he felt no apprehension about the two men left alone with his wife. He made no attempt to hurry back to his house, stopping at Francis Farrell’s place instead for what appears to be idle talk. The following morning he rode to church services at St. Peter’s, leaving his wife and children alone once again. If Mudd did fear for his wife and children’s safety as he claimed, he could have taken them along with him or left them at his father’s house, which he would pass on his way into town. Certainly they would be safe there and Mudd could pass his vital information on to the soldiers in a timely way. Mudd had to know this information was critical since Booth and Herold had left his house within the hour and would be only a short distance away. By waiting until Sunday before passing the information along to his cousin, Mudd allowed Booth to gain a full day over pursuing troops. As it turned out, Mudd’s information wasn’t passed on to the soldiers in Bryantown until Monday, giving Booth almost two full day’s head start on the military stationed there.
On learning that Booth had a broken leg, Lovett returned to General Augur’s headquarters on Thursday, April 20, and informed Colonel Henry H. Wells, provost marshal for the defenses south of the Potomac, of the important information. Wells immediately went to Stanton, informing him that Booth’s leg was broken and that he was last seen in the Bryantown area. Stanton ordered Wells to go to Bryantown and follow up on the information that he had received from Lovett.34 Wells boarded a steamer and headed for Chapel Point, where he secured a horse and set out for Bryantown. In the meantime, Lovett was ordered to return to Bryantown to take up the hunt. On Friday morning he set out for Bryantown. Feeling something wasn’t quite right about the doctor’s answers, the lieutenant stopped by Mudd’s house a second time.
Mudd repeated much of the same information that he had given Lovett during their first meeting. Lovett noticed that Mudd seemed nervous and flushed as if suffering under some apprehension. Lovett’s suspicions were again aroused. He had seen enough. Lovett told Mrs. Mudd that his men would have to search the house. At this moment, Mudd recalled an important piece of evidence. He remembered the boot that he had removed from the injured man’s leg. Mudd told his wife to go upstairs and bring down the boot.35 Mudd explained that it had been accidentally shoved under the bed and was only later discovered while cleaning the room. After the Tuesday conversation with Lovett, Mudd must have known that the boot was a vital piece of evidence. Assuming Mudd was telling the truth when he said he had forgotten about it, why hadn’t he taken it immediately to Lovett when he did find it “under the bed”? When Lovett took the boot from Mrs. Mudd and examined it, he noticed an inscription on the inside of the upper margin of the boot. The inscription read, “J. Wilkes.”36 Lovett showed Mudd the inscription and asked him if he had not noticed it when he cut it from the man’s leg. Mudd said he had been unaware of the writing. There was more. Now believing that the injured man was John Wilkes Booth, Mudd still had not mentioned that his wife had told him that Booth was wearing false whiskers. Lovett finally popped the question to Mudd, asking him if the injured man might have been wearing false whiskers. To Lovett’s surprise Mudd replied, “I did not pay sufficient attention to his beard to determine whether it was false or natural.”37
Lovett must have found it hard to believe that Mudd would have forgotten so important a piece of information. He was sufficiently cynical of Mudd’s response that he decided to take him into Bryantown for further questioning by Colonel Henry H. Wells, his superior, who had just arrived from Washington. Noticing that Mrs. Mudd was upset that her husband was being taken into custody, Lovett assured her that her husband would return as soon as they had finished questioning him.
Mudd, Lovett, and the three detectives mounted their horses and headed along the road to Bryantown. The group had not gone very far when Lovett asked one of the detectives to show Mudd a photograph of Booth. Mudd examined the picture and said that he did not recognize the man in the photograph. Perhaps there was a slight resemblance around the eyes, but nothing more.38 Seventy-two years later, historian Otto Eisenschiml would claim the photograph was not of John Wilkes Booth, but his brother Edwin.39 Eisenschiml had found the photograph of Edwin among the trial exhibits in the War Department files. It was labeled “Exhibit No. 1, John Wilkes Booth.” Eisenschiml claimed that the government deliberately switched photographs of the two brothers to entrap certain individuals in their web of conspiracy, the principal one being Samuel Mudd.40 Eisenschiml’s claim became a part of the conspiratorial mythology concerning Dr. Mudd’s alleged innocence.
While the two Booth brothers bore a strong resemblance, Edwin was clean shaven—while Wilkes wore a prominent moustache. Why Eisenschiml assumed that the photograph in exhibit 1 was the same photograph shown to Mudd on the way to Bryantown is unexplained other than by inference that if the government would stoop to such tricks during the trial, they would surely stoop to such subterfuge in rounding up “innocent” victims of a government conspiracy. Eisenschiml’s argument has been picked up by nearly every author since and repeated as additional evidence that Mudd was innocent of any culpability with Booth. Eisenschiml’s theory fails, however, because subsequent research into the photograph labeled exhibit number 1 and the photograph shown to Mudd while en route to Bryantown were photographs of John Wilkes Booth and not his brother Edwin (see chapter 19 for a full discussion of this evidence).41
After arriving in Bryantown, Mudd wrote out a statement in which he finally acknowledged knowing Booth: “I have seen J. Wilkes Booth. I was introduced to him by Mr. J.C. Thompson, a son-in-law of Dr. William Queen, in November or December last. ... Booth inquired if I knew any parties in this neighborhood who had some very fine horses for sale. I told
him there was a neighbor of mine who had some very fine traveling horses, and he said he thought if he could purchase one reasonable he would do so…. The next evening he rode to my house and staid [sic] with me that night, and the next morning he purchased a rather old horse, but a very fine mover of Mr. George Gardiner, Sr., who resides but a short distance from my house.”42
Mudd then wrote: “I have never seen Booth since that time to my knowledge until last Saturday night.”43 With this statement Mudd made the most serious lie of all those he had told to the military detectives interrogating him. He now found himself in the most dangerous situation of his life.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Here in Despair
With every man’s hand against me, I am here in despair.
John Wilkes Booth
Samuel Mudd stood beside the stable located in the rear of his house. The sun had finally set, covering the area in darkness. It was time for the two men to move on. Mounting their horses, Booth thanked Mudd for all his help. The two men wheeled their mounts and rode off to the southeast following a small farm road that led through the tobacco fields and ran near the edge of the Zekiah Swamp. Herold would lead the way. He knew the countryside much better than Booth, or so he told him. Mudd stood watching as the two riders disappeared into the darkness of the night. An hour later they were seen at Oak Hill, the plantation of Mudd’s father. Henry Mudd lived only a half mile to the southeast of his son’s home. Herold may have become lost momentarily after leaving Mudd’s house. One of the elder Mudd’s former slaves, a man named Electus Thomas, met Herold in the road leading up to the house. Herold appeared to be confused. He asked the old man which direction the sun rose and which direction it set. Electus “told him as near as he could get at it.”1 Herold gathered himself up and rode back to where Booth was waiting. Having oriented themselves east from west, the two men made their way to the east around Bryantown, making sure to keep a safe distance between themselves and the military.
Now in total darkness, the two men had trouble navigating and found themselves lost a second time. They eventually came to the house of a man named Joseph Cantor.2 They were still to the east of Bryantown. Cantor too could be trusted. Like his neighbors, he had no use for Yankees. Cantor pointed the pair down the Cracklingtown Road to where it intersected with the road leading from the small village of Hughsville. Burtles’s place was just a short journey to the west of the intersection. By traveling this way the pair would remain well east of Bryantown and swing south of the village. So far everything was going well despite their temporarily getting lost. They had been now riding for close to two hours.
As Booth and Herold approached the juncture of the two roads they saw the light from a cabin. It was the home of a free Black by the name of Oswell Swann. Swann was one of the few free Blacks who lived in the area. He had managed to purchase a small farm situated along the Cracklingtown Road just west of the village of Hughsville. Swann was a savvy man. As a free Black living in a pro-Confederate region, he had to be. He knew all of the principal players in Charles County and also knew how to avoid trouble. His friendship with George Mudd probably served him well on more than one occasion. George Mudd held the mortgage that allowed Swann to buy his own farm. It was around nine o’clock when Booth and Herold came across Swann standing outside his cabin.
By now, Booth and Herold were not sure of where they were or the direction to Burtles’s house. Booth’s leg was causing him considerable pain. He asked Swann if he had anything to drink. Swann brought the pair food and some whiskey. Booth then asked Swann the way to William Burtles’s house, telling him he would pay him two dollars if he would lead them there.3 It was an easy two dollars. Burtles lived less than two miles from Swann’s cabin. The three men started out for Burtles’s house but after a short distance Booth asked Swann if he knew the way to Cox’s house. Booth offered Swann another five dollars if he would lead them directly to Cox’s.4 Did Swann know the way? He did, but it would mean the three men would have to cross the Zekiah Swamp. Cox’s home, known as Rich Hill, was on the western side of the great swamp. Getting across it required an expert guide, especially at night. Booth upped the fee, offering Swann another five dollars for his help. Swann agreed. He would guide them to Cox’s plantation for twelve dollars.5 He had little choice. If he had refused they would have used his services anyway at the end of a gun. At least this way he would make twelve dollars. The authorities would not hold him culpable for following a White man’s order (there were still a few advantages to being Black). The three men headed south. Bryantown, now cloaked in darkness, lay a few miles to the north.
With Swann as their guide, the two men arrived at the home of Samuel Cox shortly after twelve o’clock on Sunday morning. They had been traveling for over six hours. Booth sat astride his horse as Herold dismounted and went up to the front door. Realizing that everyone was probably sound asleep; he knocked loudly against the wooden door. Within a minute or two he could hear movement. On the second floor directly above the door was a large window. In the pale cast of the moonlight Herold could just make out a face peering through the imperfect glass. It was the young adopted son of Captain Cox, Samuel Cox Jr. Herold could hear footsteps on the staircase coming toward the door. Booth sat astride his horse beneath the boughs of a large ailanthus tree, his inflamed leg dangling free of the stirrup.
The door opened slowly as a dim candle flickered its feeble light through the narrow opening. Herold spoke first. He and his friend needed shelter and something to eat. The man leaned forward, extending his candle toward the horse and rider sitting under the Ailanthus tree. To his right a Black man stood nearly invisible in the darkness. The occupant nodded his head. Herold turned back to help this companion slide down from his horse. Placing his arm around Herold’s shoulder, the two men entered the house, leaving the Black man squatting in the thick grass beneath the tree. He was not welcome inside.
It was a few minutes past midnight when Booth and Herold entered the home of Captain Samuel Cox. Cox had organized a small rifle company before the Yankees arrived and shut down the local militia. Among his “recruits” were many of the able-bodied men of Charles County. During the trial one of the witnesses made a revealing statement that Samuel Mudd had been part of Cox’s local militia; “a company gotten up in Bryantown.”6 When the war broke out, the local militia stood ready to defend Maryland should the state secede. But instead of secession Maryland chose to remain in the Union. It was a choice many felt was coerced. The local militia units were disbanded, several members fleeing south to serve in Lee’s army while others stayed behind to serve in the underground.7 Cox was one of the more important ones to stay behind.8 He was an authority figure in the area and, as such, commanded respect from all around. From most Blacks in the area he commanded fear. Jack Scroggins’s fate had not gone unnoticed. Cox was squat in build and had a round, heavily muscled face. He had a full head of hair and his beard was short-cropped running from ear to ear, his upper lip clean shaven in Brethren style. He gave the appearance of a no-nonsense patrician.
Inside Cox’s house the fugitives gained a much-needed respite from their difficult travel through the swamp. They had covered nearly ten miles over difficult terrain and were tired. Although Booth had rested at Mudd’s house during most of the day, the constant pain in his leg and back had sapped his strength, leaving him worn and hurting. Cox gave the two men food and drink and allowed them to rest. They talked for nearly five hours before Cox told them they would have to leave. No matter, Booth wanted to get across the river and closer to safety as soon as possible. Cox would see that they were put into good hands. It was essential to get the two fugitives to a secure place before patrols started combing the area.
With the first light of dawn beginning to break, a man appeared at Cox’s door. His name was Franklin Roby, Cox’s overseer and farm manager. Cox told Roby to take the two men to a place where they would be safely concealed until he could send help to them. It was a small pine thicket located t
wo miles to the southeast of his home. The thicket was located just over the boundary of Cox’s property. The crafty Cox was still mindful of what would happen if the two fugitives were found on any part of his land. Cox would later be gathered up as a result of the dragnet that would sweep through the county. He would protest as usual, admitting that two strangers stopped by his house but that he refused them entry and sent them on their way. One of his former slaves, now in his employ, would swear the captain told the truth.9 Oswell Swann would tell a different story.
Swann would later tell the soldiers that the two men had been invited inside Cox’s home and stayed for four or five hours.10 Swann was caught both ways. A free Black, he nonetheless had to live and work in the area and Cox was an important man, one whose word was seldom crossed. It would have been just as easy for Swann to agree with Cox and his lady servant. The problem was that the military had asked Swann first what happened and only later asked Cox’s servant. If Swann was going to lie, he would have had to get his story straight ahead of time, and that didn’t happen. There is no evidence to suggest that Swann suffered as a result of his testimony against Cox, but then there is no evidence that Cox himself ever suffered beyond a brief stay in the Old Capitol Prison as a result of Swann’s revelations. Cox returned home still a force within the county.
At daybreak the party broke up. Swann received his payment and made his way through the swamp back to his cabin. Roby picked up Booth and Herold and led them to the pine thicket and told them to lie low; someone would soon come and take care of them. It was important to get them across the river as quickly as possible. But nothing could be done until nightfall. The two men remained in the thicket the entire day wondering what would happen next. They had placed their lives in Cox’s hands as well as Swann’s. One slip of the tongue or careless word and the area would be swarming with Yankees.
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