1865 Southern Maryland road and town map.

[L Verge]

Welcome, Mr. Jones -- I remember the home of Dr. Joseph Blandford very well. My gym teacher in high school actually lived there in the 1950s-60s. It stood until about 1980 or so. Booth and Herold rode right by it, and it sat very close to the road. I also remember other Mudd and Blandford families who lived close by -- Ed Mudd and Pauline Mudd Blandford Gwynn. There are still Blandfords in the area; one was a volunteer at Surratt House until her death, one was a friend of my mother, and several are still members of the Surratt Society. They grew up in the village of Piscataway - about five miles from Surrattsville. I think some are buried in the graveyard around St. Mary's Catholic Church in that village.

Reading your post is like old-home week! My great-grandfather Huntt was the postmaster in T.B. from 1862 until his death in the 1890s.

Re: some of your thoughts: The fugitives were too close to D.C. when they passed Dr. Blandford's; they could have been caught for sure, and the house was only about 50 yards from New Cut Road (also called T.B. Road then and is Brandywine Road now). No doubt that the doctor was a minor player in the Confederate underground as was the Dr. Wyvill that he mentions. Wyvill actually lived closer to Surrattsville, and there is a diary kept by a governess to his children in which she makes comments about obvious Southern agents visiting. I was friends with one of Wyvill's descendants and introduced her to James O. Hall and Bill Tidwell, who co-authored the great book Come Retribution. She shared a lot with them. The house is gone now, but I showed Rick Smith of this forum where it (Burton Hall) was, and he's been trying to find foundations through the overgrowth.

Did not know that the Blandford farm was Meadow Grove. It also adjoined the plantation of Walter Griffin, and the politician Sydney Mudd married into that family. Bennett Gwynn's Mount Auburn was right across the modern Route 5 from Colony South Hotel where the Surratt Society holds our annual conferences. Gwynn’s plantation was raided at night by about 200 cavalry early in the war. They were accusing him of supplying weapons to the South (and no doubt he was). A brother whose plantation was outside of T.B. served in the Confederate Army, and his wife and children ran a safehouse and mail drop while he was gone. Story is that the Union paid some slaves to burn the house.