Broken Fibula - Again!

[L Verge]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe that Booth (or Herold) ever told anyone except Dr. Mudd that his horse had fallen on him. That's where the story originated and was evidently "proven" by Dr. Mudd's hired hand saying that he noticed a gash on the horse's foreleg when he was lathering it down. I could counter with a statement that the roads that Booth used that night were lined with branches, briars, etc. Roadsides in Southern Maryland were paved when I was a child, but there were no shoulders and lots of bushes and trees grew right up to the edge of the road. (In some places, they still do!) That gash on Booth's horse might have come from being slapped by the underbrush. And, isn't it convenient that Mudd is the one making the horse connection?

If I remember correctly, there was a light drizzle that night. Also, if the Huntt story is correct, Herold had been caught in a downpour in the late afternoon of April 13 en route back to D.C. It is quite possible that mud and mud puddles were still there on the night of the assassination.

Likewise, I can take you over the route today and point out Piscataway Creek that had to be crossed about three miles south of Surrattsville; an area that was used as an ice pond during the winters about a mile past that; and numerous marshy places between T.B. and Dr. Mudd's. Booth didn't have to fall to get covered in mud -- does anyone remember anyone reporting that his shoulders and back were covered in mud? They would have been if the horse went down.