Dr. Mudd Lends a Hand

[Susan Higginbotham]

This account by Mrs. Theodore L. Burnett of crossing the Potomac was published in the April 1907 issue of The Confederate Veteran. Thought you might find the mention of Dr. Mudd at the end interesting. It would also be nice to know the identity of the unnamed "Southern sympathizer" Mrs. Burnett mentions.

How to get across the broad river was the question, at this season, too. when the tide was troublesome. Meanwhile the surrender of Lee had taken place. At night
our little boats came out of hiding up the small streams, and we started; but when halfway over we found the tide too high and had to return, stopping farther down the stream, where they told us it was fourteen miles wide. The following
night we made a successful effort; but just as we were nearing the Maryland shore a volley was fired over our heads with a demand to “surrender,” which we did. But when our captors found they had little else but women and children, they were greatly disappointed and quite indignant. We were marched to Lieutenant Leftwich’s headquarters and questioned and personally examined. Dear Mrs. Ashbridge, how grandly she bore herself through this trying ordeal! We
were now prisoners, and were marched to a farmhouse of a Southern sympathizer not far away, where breakfast was ordered for the party by our guard. The man at whose house we breakfasted would receive no remuneration from us, though broken in purse, in spirit, and in health. After break fast his carriages and wagons were "impressed" to take us to Washington. We stopped for a day at Port Tobacco, the little place soon afterwards immortalized in history. We were closely guarded. not allowed to leave our rooms; but through my little boy, who was permitted to pass at will, we accepted the offer of Dr. Mudd to be of service to us and got him to
exchange some gold for greenbacks. He gave my little boy a picture of himself, which we still have as a relic of the war. This was on the 12th of April. A few days later he was an actor in more thrilling events. The same Dr. Mudd was arrested and imprisoned for setting Wilkes Booth's leg.

[RJNorton]

Susan, this is interesting. I am confused, though, as she sounds like she is saying Dr. Mudd lived in Port Tobacco. Mudd lived in Beantown (roughly 10+ miles from Port Tobacco I think).

[Susan Higginbotham]

Maybe he had come to the area to help the prisoners?

[Gene C]

(07-29-2017 07:38 PM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  He gave my little boy a picture of himself, which we still have as a relic of the war.

Interesting article. It raised some questions we will probably never know.
Where were the woman and children heading to and why.
What was Mudd doing in Port Tobacco?
Did the kind Dr. hear of their predicament and seek them out to see if he could assist them?
Were the ladies able to personally meet with Dr. Mudd, or was all contact through the little boy?
The money exchange sounds unusual. "Broken in purse". Was there a bank nearby or did Dr. Mudd carry sufficient cash to exchange gold for greenbacks?
Why give the little boy a photo of himself, even if it was intended for the mother?
Are there any pre-assassination photo's of Dr. Mudd?

I don't expect answers from anyone, I'm sure there are a few rational answers to my questions. It is an interesting story, with a few red flags.

[L Verge]

I have most of the same questions that Gene posed. I would first like to know from whence on the Virginia shore the party embarked. That would give us a better guess at where they landed in Maryland. Sounds like the Southern gentleman whom they first encountered in Maryland had a bit of money since she mentions plural carriages and wagons -- especially after Union troops had pretty well plundered the area.

[RJNorton]

(07-30-2017 08:44 AM)Gene C Wrote:  Are there any pre-assassination photo's of Dr. Mudd?

Gene, I think this is the earliest known photo of Dr. Mudd.

[SSlater]

I hope I can provide some thinking that will help you toward a solution of your questions.
The "crossing" was after April 9th, so I checked the log books of the Gunboats, an I see no mention of this activity.

If they had trouble crossing, they most likely did not ask for help from the Confederate Camps on the Potomac. Plus, they did not know where it was safe to land, else they would not have been shot at.

The 14 mile width of the river is an error. The Potomac is not that wide any where. It might be 14 miles from "Launch to Landing" but not across.

I found a Theodore L. Burnett family in North Carolina - which might be this group. That family would cross the Potomac here - if it was them.

I did not find an Ashbridge family. (Might have been a slave)

If Mudd was called, or even allowed to help the travelers, they were not "Prisoners". They were "protected" by Southern Sympathisers.

Gene C. made an error - They would not have traded "Greenbacks for Gold". It would be the other way around.

The Photo of Mudd was probably a positive identification of Mudd to the mother. He was identified to her through the picture that he gave to the boy.

The wagons in the Maryland farm yard were "Impressed" not "Impressive". (Meaning, they didn't have to pay for them). The wagons were most likely Hay Wagons, Manure Spreaders or Grain Wagons (Tools of the Trade) They were loaned one.

My answers are merely "logical", just that alone. I do not claim that the are the only answer.

The travelers tried to take the shortest route to the North, beyond that they had to rely on help from locals. If they were from N.C. then they would cross near Mathias Point, VA. Their helpers may not have known about Cawood and Brogden, but someone put them in a boat and shoved them off, and they made it to Port Tobacco. They must have looked like Southerns (A Mother, kids, a Nurse - no Males) and they pitched in. These locals knew about Mudd, so, he was notified. Mudd has told was elsewhere that he was Allowed to travel about, because he was a Doctor. The Feds thought he was tending patients.

If others will add ideas, we may learn more - but we will never know for sure.

[L Verge]

If only we could see that photo. There was another Dr. Mudd in the area, Dr. George Mudd, who was well-known as a strong Union supporter. I would think that the soldiers would be more inclined to allow him to visit their "prisoners" in Port Tobacco. I am not sure of this, but I think he might have had an office in Bryantown, which was closer to Port Tobacco.

There was also still a Yankee outpost at nearby Chapel Point, if I am not mistaken. Hooker's men had been within a few miles of Port Tobacco (at Hilltop) early in the war, but I think most of the troops had been pulled from Charles County in the last year. John, do you know if there were any Union troops still posted past Port Tobacco, Goose Bay, or Hilltop? I'm wondering if the landing was that far down and the prisoners were brought up what would be present-day Route 6...

---

Just checked my own files, and Dr. George did have his home and office in Bryantown.

[Susan Higginbotham]

Mrs. Theodore Burnett was Elizabeth Shelby Gilbert Burnett. She and her husband, Judge Theodore Burnett, were from Kentucky. Judge Burnett was a member of the Confederate Congress. Here is another extract from her account (which was published a short time after her death), with some more details:


"A few days later Judge Burnett determined to send his family from Richmond and home to Kentucky if possible.
The arrangements were completed for my start home about the 29th of March by what was then known as the “underground railroad.” which meant traveling by any way you could. from the usual railway travel to an ox cart—any way to get to and across the Rappahannock and Potomac. There were nineteen in our party. most of them women and children. Major and Mrs. McLain, three children, and Miss Stevenson, Miss Botts, of Virginia, Mrs. Ashbridge. a dear old lady, widow of a Presbyterian minister, were of the number. After crossing the North Anna and South Anna (where Sheridan had burned the bridges) and the Rappahannock in little boats, we were delayed six days: but finally reached the Potomac. How to get across the broad river was the question, at this season, too. when the tide was troublesome. Meanwhile the surrender of Lee had taken place."

According to Mrs. Burnett, after the encounter with Dr. Mudd, her party was allowed to go to Washington:

"The next morning we started again on our way to Washington. We reached there about ten o’clock and were driven to some sort of headquarters. where we were kept waiting for two hours in our carriages, when permission was given to go to any hotel we pleased; but we were not to leave the city. Mrs. Ashbridge and I were soon in our rooms at Willard's. and were so glad to get there. That night they were celebrating the surrender of Lee. The city was illuminated, bands were playing, fireworks. etc. We closed our shutters tightly and tried not to see or hear—we were not celebrating.

"A young Englishman, who had been of our traveling party, went out to see and hear. and, getting quite near when Mr. Lincoln was called to the balcony for a speech, reported to us when he returned that Mr. Lincoln made a very conservative talk, and said: “The war is over now, these people are our brothers, and we must treat them as such,” etc. This did not please the waiting mob below. and there were many threats and much murmuring. The next morning an officer came and administered an oath, requiring that we should free our slaves. After that we were permitted to leave the city, and at eight o’clock that night, the memorable 14th of April, we left for Baltimore, where we stopped at Barnum’s Hotel, the home of Wilkes Booth, and at that time of course the most undesirable place for us. My baby was sick, and I called a servant late in the
night to bring some ice water, when he told me that President Lincoln had been shot. I never shall forget the horror of those words.

. . .

"I reached home without further incident the 24th of April, having been nearly a month coming from Richmond, Va., and was again with my children, from whom I had been separated for four long years. Where my husband was, I did not know. I had parted from him on the banks of the South Anna River."

Among Mrs. Burnett's acquaintances was Mary Lincoln's widowed half-sister, Emily Helm. Mrs. Burnett ran into Emily in March 1865 at Richmond; and she notes that Emily was staying at the Barnum Hotel in Baltimore on the night of the assassination. I have been able to verify that Emily was indeed in Richmond and in Baltimore at the times in question, the first through the diary of a soldier in Richmond who gave "Mrs. Hardin Helm" a letter to take to Kentucky in March 1865 and the second through a telegram sent from Emily at the Barnum Hotel to Robert Lincoln on April 15, 1865, asking if Mary wanted her to come to her. So the fact that these things can be verified makes me give Mrs. Burnett's account of the unrelated encounter with Dr. Mudd a certain amount of credence.

[Gene C]

All that info from everyone helps to answer several of my questions.
I mistakenly thought the travelers were "poor of purse", but after re-reading the original post, it was the farmer who fed them who was in that condition.
I'm still a bit hung up on the interaction with Dr. Mudd.
I imagine with the ordeal they went through, after 40 years the details of the events can get a bit cloudy.
Emily's whereabouts for March and April 14th 1865 is certainly interesting.

Where you able to determine why Emily was there?
I'm sure there is an interesting story behind how and where you found the telegram
Sorry to be so skeptical, many of these retelling of war experiences after 20, 30 years and more that I have read, have had a considerable degree of exaggeration and embellishment.

[Susan Higginbotham]

I have a PDF of Emily's telegram sent from the Barnum Hotel--will see if I can post it later today. Jason Emerson mentioned it in his biography of Robert Lincoln and was kind enough to send me a better copy than I could obtain at the Library of Congress.

Besides the soldier's diary placing Emily Helm in Richmond earlier in March, Orville Browning, who was trying to broker a cotton deal involving Emily and General James W. Singleton, records in his diary entry for March 25, 1865, that the general, Emily, and a Miss Breeden had just arrived in Washington from Richmond. Of course, none of this helps with the Mudd story, but it does make me believe that Mrs. Burnett's memory was reasonably reliable as to whom she saw in 1865.

[Gene C]

Thanks Susan, I appreciate your addressing my concerns about the story.
I vaguely recall at one time Emily wanted Lincoln's help in a cotton deal and he said "no".
That seemed to cool her relationship with the family considerably.

She tried again, causing the President some embarrassment, not sure how this final attempt turned out. (se last paragraph)
http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/resi...todd-helm/

[L Verge]

Without the supposed photo of "Dr. Mudd," we will never be sure which Dr. Mudd saw the group. I am still inclined to think that it was Dr. George Mudd and that, when the lady read of the assassination details, she assumed Dr. Sam was the one who had treated them.

Dr. Sam was not photographed at the time of his arrest. Were there any photographs of him circulated in papers of the day that she might have used to positively identify her photo? The one lithograph that I am thinking of is literally "sketchy."

It does make for an interesting aside in the story of Dr. Sam, if we could only prove it.