Mudd, Surratt and Harbin

[loetar44]

Thanks Roger.

Indeed this is not exactly what I wanted to hear. I know of the statements of Mudd’s former slaves at the conspiracy trial. The only reference to John Surratt is what Dr. Mudd's former slave Mary Simms testified. She said that John Surratt had visited with the Mudds during the summer of 1864. He visited there "often," she said in response to the Judge Advocate's leading question. "He was there from almost every Saturday night to Monday night. When he would go to Virginia, or come back from there, he would stop", she said. She also said that he (John Surratt) slept in the woods (surrounding Mudd's farm) with others (most of whom were Confederate soldiers), and they took their meals in the house while the Mudds "put us all out to watch." This is according to me the only “prove” that John Surratt and Dr. Mudd knew each other well enough so that Mudd could introduce Surratt to Booth in December 1864. But it is no hard evidence, it’s all circumstantial and the question remains whether Mary Simms could be believed i.e. trusted in her testimony.