Dr. Mudd's slave who cooked breakfast for JWB and David Herold

[L Verge]

(03-01-2018 06:00 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  John, like you, I noticed she was off in her memory of the time she was first awakened. Here's Mrs. Mudd's account of the timing of events:

"About 4 A. M. on the 15th of April, 1865, I heard a rap on the door, and as my husband was not feeling well he asked me if I would not go and see who it was. I replied, "I would rather you would go and see for yourself." He arose and went to the door in his night clothes. I heard some one talking in the hall, and footsteps as they passed into the parlor. My husband returned and told me there was a man out there with his leg broken. He asked me to tear some strips for bandages. I did so. Afterward I heard my husband and a third man assisting the injured man up-stairs. The Doctor returned, and went to bed himself. At 6 o clock I arose, called the servants to get breakfast, and at 7 waked my husband. He sent a servant to tell the man who called himself "Tyson" (and who afterward proved to be Herold) to come to breakfast. I then prepared breakfast for the sick man, put it on a tray, and sent it to his room by a servant; told her to place it on the table by his bed and come down. Tyson and my husband then came to the table, and while at breakfast Tyson asked the Doctor if he knew many persons in the lower part of the county near the river."



I think Mrs. Mudd's memory of a 4 A.M. arrival is universally accepted by authors. Offhand, I cannot think of any books I have ever read that gave a different time.

I agree completely with Mrs. Mudd's statement, based on the fact that the fugitives arrived and quickly departed from Surratt House at midnight on the 15th, according to Lloyd's testimony. They had to go another 15 miles or so (depending on their debated route) to reach the Mudds, and we really need to consider that they had to slow their horses and also keep the hurting Booth in the saddle.

As for Lettie, I doubt that she even knew how to tell time - and how many clocks might the Mudds have owned? Fifty plus years later, she also fits into that category of hazy memories. I just enjoyed the scenario from the perspective of a household servant and the joy it brought to receive monetary compensation for something she did.