The Voice of Nettie Mudd

[John E.]

Fort Jefferson looked very different in 1865 then it does today and functioned as a small community. There were several buildings located inside and outside the fort's walls, including separate barracks for the officers and enlisted men.

There was also a Sutler or store where prisoners and soldiers could purchase furniture, clothes or food.

And yes Laurie, we know of at least one person who brought a camera with him and took photos. The post surgeon, supposedly took several photos while at Fort Jefferson. I learned from the resident historian at Key West / Monroe County library that the photos were purchased by the University of Miami when they were put up for auction.

Efforts to locate them have since been unsuccessful. Perhaps the surgeon took the photo of Dr. Mudd while he was tasked as his assistant.

Also,the surgeon's wife and son lived with him on post. They had servants that cooked and cleaned their quarters.

Fort Jefferson also housed a makeshift theater. Many of the men at Fort Jefferson suffered from Scurvy (a nutritional deficiency). Lime juice was used to control the disease but since there was no money for it, the post's doctor decided to raise funds by putting on shows. Supposedly, Mudd played his fiddle as part of the orchestra.

Barry and I will have a section of our book(s) that covers the Dry Tortugas. It has been enjoyable learning about this phase of the conspirators' incarceration.

One of the funniest stories involves the myth of sharks patrolling the moat (ala The Prisoner of Shark Island). One story is that the surgeon's son suggested a Shark might deter people from trying to escape if it were kept in the moat.

Some men drowned attempting to escape and it was hoped the shark might actually save lives by stopping them from trying.

Another story has one of the prisoners wanting to make the moat into a home made aquarium. They already had large sea turtles, why not add a shark ?

In any case, a ten foot shark (most likely a Grey Nurse shark) was captured and put in the moat. He was nick-named Provost Marshal and died after only two months.

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Grey Nurse Shark - Look menacing but are pretty harmless to humans unless provoked. There have only been 28 known attacks on humans with 2 resulting in death.

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(10-09-2012 03:17 PM)Gene C Wrote:  There were letters being published in some of the major newspapers regarding cruelty to prisoners at Ft. Jefferson (were these letters Dr. Mudd mailed home to his wife?) and the War Dept. had some explaining to do. All of this at the time of Johnson's ongoing problems with the radical Republicans and the impeachment hearings.

The originator of the cruelty letters was Col. George St. Leger Grenfell. He was Ft. Jefferson's 5th state prisoner and quite a character. He was an English soldier of fortune who sided with the Confederacy. Holt and Burnett helped put him away too.