Posted on 07/27/2015 8:04:54 PM PDT by nickcarraway
About 80 descendants of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd marked Friday's 150th anniversary of Mudd's July 24, 1865, arrival at an isolated Gulf of Mexico fort where he was imprisoned after splinting the broken leg of President Abraham Lincoln's assassin.
Wearing "Free Dr. Mudd'' T-shirts, the group toured Fort Jefferson, a former Union military prison on an island 68 miles west of Key West in remote Dry Tortugas National Park. Most visited the cell where Mudd spent four years after being convicted as a co-conspirator in Lincoln's assassination.
Great-grandson Tom Mudd, who spearheaded the pilgrimage, believes the doctor was unaware of John Wilkes Booth's crime when he treated Booth.
"You have to really believe that history is not cut in stone,'' Tom Mudd said. "That history is flexible, it's pliable, and we sincerely believe that Dr. Samuel Mudd was innocent.
"That's why we're here today, to contest those who have penned Dr. Mudd as being one of the conspirators in the Lincoln assassination,'' he said. Samuel Mudd left Fort Jefferson, nicknamed the Gibraltar of the Gulf, after being granted a pardon in 1869, primarily because of the medical work he did in stemming the spread of a yellow fever outbreak at the fort. But his conviction was never overturned.
"The real champion of the Mudd family was my father, Dr. Richard D. Mudd,'' said Tom Mudd of his dad, who waged a seven-decade fight to have his grandfather's name cleared. "My dad, just before he died (in 2002) said, 'We will never win this judicially.'
"But in the court of public opinion, we're going to win this,'' Tom Mudd said. "As long as there is a Mudd alive, we are going to stand as evidence for the innocence of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd and his historic importance.''
Nearly thirty years in the making, from 1846 to 1875, Fort Jefferson was never finished nor fully armed and never fired upon. It was abandoned by the Army in 1874 and in 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt designated the area as Fort Jefferson National Monument.
The monument was expanded in 1983 and, along with six other nearby islands, was redesignated as Dry Tortugas National Park in 1992.
That was my first thought too
After this, my name is Mudd
Ha! My first thought too!
Ditto.
Bookmark
Ping
The next time a man with short arms and a broken leg shows up at your door, tell him to keep riding.
http://www.amazon.com/His-Name-Still-Mudd-Alexander/dp/1577470192
From the blurb:
Arguing forcefully and with the weight of great evidence, Dr. Edward Steers proves how mistaken modern efforts to exonerate Mudd are. Mudd knew Booth well; he had entertained him as an overnight guest just months prior to the assassination. Mudd even plotted with Booth to capture Lincoln, and introduced Booth to key conspirators.
The claim that a man who knew Booth well, had been part of an earlier conspiracy against Lincoln, let a supposed "stranger" into his house in the middle of the night and got close enough to him to treat his injuries sustained earlier in the murder of the President failed to recognize him because of a theatrical disguise is as preposterous a fiction as the the idea that a squad of terrorists armed with mortars and RPG's showed up at the US mission as a spontaneous response to a YouTube video to murder the US Ambassador to Libya.
Mudd was guilty as hell, and his descendants should give it up. They're a laughingstock.
Yet the Doctor that treated Lincoln also treated Garfield. Had he not treated Garfield, Garfield would have lived.
You got it. Awesome picture.
I think they figure if they wail long enough, eventually a President will be elected to give them a gift to go away.
The mud dwellers think that history ‘ is flexible, it’s pliable’
Geez.
Thanks nickcarraway.
From what I’ve read, Ft Jefferson was a boondoggle. The waters around were too shallow for any enemy ship to come within range of the fort’s guns.
We toured the Mudd home a few years ago. Fascinating tour, as they have so many artifacts, and the curator is one of the descendants. Quite knowledgeable and, of course, passionate about the subject.
The book “Manhunt”, a chronicle of Booth’s journey following the crime, is one of the best-written books I have read in recent years.
For a light, highly fictionalized, mystery about Fort Jefferson and Dr. Mudd, combined with a modern day mystery, try “Flashback” by Nevada Barr.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
