His Name Is Mudd

[L Verge]

I was going to congratulate you on recognizing the talents of Kauffman and Steers in the field of history - until you just spouted off that Mills was better than anyone. All I will say is OMG; if I go any further, Roger will ban me from the forum. IMO, you, sir, are not the person qualified to judge other writers.

Mike does make a strong case about the leg being fractured when Booth's horse fell on him. I don't believe it, but (as I tell others), we will never know and what difference does it make in the total story. Yes, the injury may have caused him to veer off course and go to Dr. Mudd. Personally, I think Mudd's was his destination all along, and I won't bore the rest of our poor readers by repeating my theories. One point that I do make is that Booth's writings in the "diary" are in flowing text and written in a chronological manner. His description of breaking his leg while jumping is in perfect order with his preceding actions and what happened later.

Have you reached the part in the Mudd story yet where he took his own sweet time about ambling back to his farm after leaving Bryantown with the news of the assassination? Stopping to chat with an acquaintance? Not hustling the fugitives off until nearly sundown (cover of night and all that stuff)?

As for your last paragraph, don't pass out, but I actually agree with you! But I have one caveat: Mudd had spent four years of the war serving the Confederate underground, had been a slaveholder, had really vehement views on the role of the black man in society, and had watched the value of his family's holdings become practically non-existent thanks to the war and the new Maryland constitution outlawing slavery in his state as of Nov. 1, 1864. Maybe his denial was based on the fact that he hated the U.S. government and especially the military at that point and was not going to do anything to assist them.