His Name Is Mudd

[mikegriffith1]

(12-18-2018 03:54 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Personally, to compare Bob Mills's work with that of Ed Steers and Mr. Hall is inexcusable.

Now that you know that the "work" you dismissed was written by Kauffman, not Mills, you might want to retract that comment.

Having read Mills', Steers', and Hall's research, I would say that Mills' research is far better than Steers' and better than Hall's.

When the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records concluded that Mudd's trial had been grossly unfair and that his conviction should be set aside, Hall lobbied the Secretary of the Army with memos that argued for Mudd's guilt. I'm gonna take a wild stab and guess that Hall never once mentioned any of the inconsistencies in Weichmann's testimony, or any of the evidence that Weichmann was coerced to lie. I'm also guessing that he didn't mention any of the problems with the slaves' negative stories about Mudd. Just a wild guess. In fact, I'd bet very good money on it.

As for Kauffman, aside from his blind spots about Booth's fate and the identification of the body on the Montauk, his research is very good. For example, I think Kauffman makes a strong case that Booth did not injure his ankle when he jumped onto the stage, but that he injured it later when his horse tripped. And Kauffman's comments about the military commission in his review of Higdon's book are right on target.

I'm still in the process of formulating my views on Mudd. My initial take was that he did not recognize Booth, that his previous contacts with Booth were commercial in nature, etc. I definitely don't think he deserved a life sentence, nor do I think he knew anything about Booth's intention to kill Lincoln. But I'm not sure about his claim that he did not recognize Booth, and I'm open to the idea that Mudd was in some way involved in the kidnap plot while the war was still going on (which he would have rightly viewed as an act of war designed to free Confederate POWs, some of whom were being terribly mistreated).

I sense the ring of truth in Cox's claim that Booth told him that when Mudd returned from Bryantown and had learned about the assassination, he angrily shouted at Booth, "How dare you put my family in danger" and ordered him and his companion to leave. Until then, Mudd's behavior was entirely consistent with innocence.

In the dangerous, revenge-filled atmosphere of the first few weeks after the assassination, many innocent people who knew Booth denied that they knew him, including Seaton Munroe, because they feared that this admission would be get them into trouble for no valid reason. I suspect this might have been why Mudd denied that he recognized Booth.