Food for Thought

[L Verge]

I'm glad that Bob Summers's version was cited here because the description of the reporter's group's journey to Dr. Mudd's is worth the read before they even knock on the door. Of course, as a local girl, I know exactly where most of the places he described were/are. He did get wrong information regarding the naming of the village of T.B., however.

"Reporters and lawyers didn't have to be allowed off the ship..." That doesn't mean that Mudd or any of the conspirators were allowed on the ship or ever allowed to talk with such folks.

My comment about the "sharks" was also posted in jest; I apologize if you took it seriously. I just wrote a Facebook blurb on the shark situation at Ft. Jefferson (as part of the recent salute to Shark Week). They did feast on garbage, etc., but also stray cats that some of the cruel guards would throw to them. There is one shark that is cited somewhere. They called him the "Provost Marshal," but he was so discombobulated (source's word) that most of the cats scared him away with their yowling and struggling to get out of the water! Fact or folklore, you decide.

I have never investigated the prison facility in Albany, NY, but I would suspect that it was under the jurisdiction of Unionist authorities also and a great deal more accessible to reporters, lawyers, and general public. Mrs. Mudd might even have been allowed a visit with her husband since trains ran to Albany, instead of boats? However, the Albany prison may not have been under control of the Union military like Ft. Jefferson. I would think that the element of military control would have been a big factor in Stanton's decision to switch prisons. It might also have been the issue of Mudd and the others being tried by a military tribunal, not a civilian court in the state where the crime was committed?? Again, someone who is not allergic to "law" like I can fill in the blanks here.

I admit that it has been many a year since I read Nettie Mudd Monroe's book, but the letters that he wrote home to Frankie are quite interesting - especially in reading his "personality." There is one that I remember where he almost seems to be blaming her for finding that darn boot under the bed and turning it over to the soldiers. After 60 years of studying the Lincoln assassination, I still have not made up my mind whether or not I would have liked Dr. Mudd.