The Mudd family, David Herold and the Sothorons.

[Stephen]

Laurie,

The second confiscation act (An Act to suppress Insurrection, to punish Treason and Rebellion, to seize and confiscate the Property of Rebels, and for other Purposes) was draconian. There is a copy of it in The Statutes at Large, Treaties and Proclamation of the United States of America, December 5, 1859 to March 3, 1863. Vol. XII. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1863, pp. 589 to 592. The confiscation act required a proclamation to be made by President Lincoln.

There is an 1865 book that states Herold “was born in Maryland, and received his education at Charlotte Hall, in St. Mary’s County.” However, the source incorrectly gives Herold’s name as David C. Harold. The source is The Trial of the Assassins and Conspirators. Philadelphia, PA: T. B. Peterson, 1865, p. 19. I do not know if the book is accurate with other facts.

S. Webster Sothoron served in Weston’s Battalion, Maryland Infantry, a unit of 187 personnel. The name Samuel B. Arnold is also on Weston’s roster. I obtained this information from the Soldiers and Sailors database of the National Park Service web site. Again, this is not proof of any involvement by the Sothorons in the Lincoln assassination, although their farm was taken and Mrs. Sothoron and her children held hostage by the Union army. If you go to the following link:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/malquery.html

Type in the word Sothoron and it should bring up three communication to and from Lincoln about the Sothorons.

I am related to the Burroughs family of St. Mary’s. My grandfather was born there, possibly at The Plains. They owned a tobacco farm which they lost around 1893 because of mortgage foreclosure. One of my Burroughs ancestors was known as “Deacon” Burroughs because he made his slaves go to church. My grandfather told me he used the gun that Sothoron killed the Union officer with to hunt for game.

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John,

I think your analysis is accurate.

Your information is intriguing. At the time of the assassination, Sothoron’s plantation had been confiscated and was a government farm, superintended by Lt. Edward F. O’Brien. O’Brien’s communications are the source of my information. He identified the unit as Mosby’s. Does your information indicate that the unit was actually a Navy Partisan Group? The purpose of my question for my future research. I have been focusing on Mosby, but if the unit is naval, there are different records to research. If you have the name of a member of the Navy Partisan Group or a unit name, I can search for it at the National Park web site. They also have a search that brings up unit histories and all personnel of a single unit.

Thomas Nelson Conrad, in his book (Conrad, Thomas Nelson. The Rebel Scout. Washington, DC: The National Publishing Co., 1904.), wrote about Ruggles. Conrad stated that Ruggles was one of his couriers, although I do not know if it was true (p. 95). Conrad denied that the Confederate government knew of his plot to kidnap Lincoln, excepting the military secretary of General Braxton Bragg (p. 131).