Broken Fibula - Again!

[Ed Steers]

A broken fibula brings back history. An interesting occurence at yesterday's (Thursday) Olympics. Manteo Mitchell of the USA team, running the first leg of the men's 4 x 400 relay broke the fibula in his left leg at the 200 meter mark and continued running the final 200 meters passing the baton to his team mate (the US qualified for the finals). Booth broke the fibula in his left leg, as we all know. There is some minor controversy whether Booth broke his leg jumping (as he later wrote in his diary) or later during his escape when his horse supposedly fell breaking his fibula. The fact that Booth was able to run across the stage and walk his horse over the Navy Yard Bridge does not prove he did not break his fibula jumping to the stage. As Mitchell shows, breaking your fibula does not prevent walking or running during very intense moments. The fibula is not a weight-bearing bone, and while painful, does not prevent mobility. I think Manteo Mitchel nows needs to be added as a footnote to the Booth escape story. An interesting occurrence! What do you think? Ed Steers

[Gene C]

Is that type of break similiar to a stress fracture? I got a stress fracture in my foot when backpacking (those days are over). I was able to continue hiking, but after about two hours I couldn't.

[HerbS]

As a former College Football Player,Then-Football-Wrestling coach,many players play through their injuries! I think Adrenalene plays an part,injured or not!Pluse,let's not overlook the"fear-factor"!

[Laurie Verge]

Thank you, Ed, for bringing up a modern example of what we old-timers in the field have been preaching for years -- it was possible for Booth to exit the stage, mount a horse, and ride for miles with a broken leg, especially since he had adrenalin and the fear-factor (good point, Herb) assisting him, not to mention the knee-high boots that served as a form of support or brace.

While the theory that Booth's leg was broken when his horse fell on him is interesting and a good one, my feelings here in the arguments between the two is that the matter is rather moot. I doubt that we will ever prove conclusively how he broke his leg and it really makes no difference in the grand scheme. The leg was broken.

Some have rudely told me that the consequence was that Booth had to change his plans and head to Dr. Mudd. To which I have responded that he passed at least two doctors en route to Dr. Mudd (including Dr. Mudd's brother-in-law who lived right on the route and only about two miles south of Surrattsville). My personal opinion is that he intended to go to Dr. Mudd for his first layover anyhow and that that is why Herold was in Southern Maryland at least one day before the assassination.

Dr. Mudd's farm was off the beaten path, isolated, a known safehouse for Confederates during the war, and about half way to the Potomac River. The horses would need a rest after having been ridden hard for about five hours -- heading another 15-20 miles to the Potomac River would be really pushing them.

Also, I think the fugitives would have been aware that the Union patrol boats on the Potomac would be alerted to expect a night passage. Look how long Jones had to wait to find an opportunity to get Booth and Herold across the river. Again, an IMO, but it just makes sense.

[Ed Steers]

(08-10-2012 10:53 AM)Laurie Verge Wrote:  Thank you, Ed, for bringing up a modern example of what we old-timers in the field have been preaching for years -- it was possible for Booth to exit the stage, mount a horse, and ride for miles with a broken leg, especially since he had adrenalin and the fear-factor (good point, Herb) assisting him, not to mention the knee-high boots that served as a form of support or brace.

While the theory that Booth's leg was broken when his horse fell on him is interesting is a good one, my feelings here in the arguments between the two is that the matter is rather moot. I doubt that we will ever prove conclusively how he broke his leg and it really makes no difference in the grand scheme. The leg was broken.

Some have rudely told me that the consequence was that Booth had to change his plans and head to Dr. Mudd. To which I have responded that he passed at least two doctors en route to Dr. Mudd (including Dr. Mudd's brother-in-law who lived right on the route and only about two miles south of Surrattsville). My personal opinion is that he intended to go to Dr. Mudd for his first layover anyhow and that that is why Herold was in Southern Maryland at least one day before the assassination.

Dr. Mudd's farm was off the beaten path, isolated, a known safehouse for Confederates during the war, and about half way to the Potomac River. The horses would need a rest after having been ridden hard for about five hours -- heading another 15-20 miles to the Potomac River would be really pushing them.

Also, I think the fugitives would have been aware that the Union patrol boars on the Potomac would be alerted to expect a night passage. Look how long Jones had to wait to find an opportunity to get Booth and Herold across the river. Again, an IMO, but it just makes sense.

[RJNorton]

I am from the "old school" and I still believe JWB broke his fibula at Ford's. This may be a minority view nowadays. I am not sure.

Lincoln assassination researcher and author Mike Kauffman has written the arguments for JWB breaking his leg when his horse took a fall. Hopefully this (scanned from Blue & Gray magazine, June 1990) can be read, but it's possible you might have to enlarge it depending on your monitor's settings:

[Craig Hipkins]

This argument makes sense to me. I am willing to bet that the Olympian, Mitchell is hurting more right now than when he first broke his fibula on the track. As a long distance runner I have injured myself and brushed it off as nothing only to be in great pain later.
It was probably the same with Booth.

Craig

[LincolnMan]

I am also of the school that JWB broke his leg at Ford's. The example citing by Ed is excellent. Like Craig, I have experienced a sport-related injury. I broke a bone in my leg during judo and kept right at it that evening. The next day was a different story-followed by being in a cast for weeks.

[jonathan]

I've never bought the claim that Booth's clean getaway proves he didn't break his leg jumping from the stage. At least since I learned the fibula does not bear weight.

I've been an athlete my entire life and I know for a fact that there is a lot you can play through. I once yanked my shoulder out of socket swinging a golf club. After pacing back and forth a minute wondering what to do, I just shoved it back in with the other hand and went about my business. It's happened two or three times since then and each time I've done the same thing. Now of course it hurt, but it certainly wasn't anything that couldn't be played through. Even now, at 43 years old, I still play softball a lot. Occasionally, I'll have some kind of injury that really makes me wonder if I might have to sit out a game or two. But virtually every time, once I get on the field and the blood starts to flow, the injury takes a back seat. That's just the way it is with adrenaline. There are also injuries that just don't show themselves the way you would think. I once knew a guy who lifted weights a lot. At some point, he tore a pectoral muscle, but didn't even know it. He found out one night when he went to pick up his daughter and hit it just right and felt the pain.

Now, I'm not saying that I absolutely believe Booth broke his leg jumping to the stage. The claim that he broke it getting thrown from the horse does make a lot of sense. I'm just saying that I truly believe he could have broken it jumping and still made a clean getaway, showing no sign of injury. In fact, in my mind, I know he could have. As far as the encounter at the Navy Yard Bridge with Cobb, I wouldn't imagine the adrenaline rush would have even started to wear off that quickly. As a couple of others have pointed out, in these situations, the worst of the pain usually comes later. That's exactly what happened to Booth. But I'm with Laurie, I think it's mostly irrelevant because I also believe he was going to Mudd's anyway.

Now, of course there are injuries that can't be ignored, but a lot can be played through if one has the motivation. Booth certainly had the motivation and a huge adrenaline rush. Throw in the fear factor that Herb pointed out, the boot that Laurie pointed out, add it up and we have something that's barely worth mentioning as evidence of anything. At least that's how I feel.

I agree that the Manteo Mitchell injury is a very interesting coincidence. I looked him up and it made me think of something else interesting, in a stupid kind of a way. He is from North Carolina, same as me. In High School, there was always a group of seniors headed to Western Carolina, which is in Cullowhee, in the NC mountains. One day, somebody asked one of our teachers where Cullowhee was, and he replied that "it's about as far west as you can go and still be in NC". Manteo Mitchell is from Cullowhee (about as far west as you can go in NC), but his name, Manteo, is of course the same as the name of Manteo, NC, which is on the Outer Banks, about as far east as you can go in NC. I wonder if that was intentional on the part of his parents or just a coincidence.

[L Verge]

Jonathan,

Doesn't the name "Manteo" have a historical tie to the Lost Colony?

Getting back on track, Ed reminded me in a personal e-mail on another subject that Booth said to Cobb at the bridge that he was going to Beantown - which was the hometown of Mudd, not Bryantown. Atzerodt's confession states that supplies had been sent to Mudd several weeks before. Those supplies could easily have been sent by stagecoach since one stopped in Bryantown, and they were probably food staples that could have been easily hidden at the Mudd farm, or even in their kitchen.

And, concerning pushing the horses too far: Ed reminded me of a timeline that I had suggested on another forum showing how the fugitives were slowing down. Assuming Booth left the theater at roughly 10:30 pm, we know from Lloyd's testimony that they arrived at Surratt's right as the clock was striking midnight. That was a distance of about 15 miles that they covered in 1 1/2 hours. My great-grandparents were in T.B., five miles further south, and heard horses about 1 am while feeding the baby.

Mudd was about 8-10 miles from T.B. (using the old road system), but the fugitives didn't arrive there until about 4 am -- three hours from T.B. You can't blame the increased delay on the horse falling because, according to the purveyors of that theory, the horse fell between D.C. and Surrattsville.

To me, the delay can be attributed to the horses getting fatigued. Booth was an excellent horseman, and I suspect that he appreciated good horses. He was also traveling on city horses - not race horses and not ones that hauled heavy loads for miles and miles.

And, he knew he had a head start on the cavalry and that his first hideout was within the reasonable distance of thirty miles. To go beyond Mudd's to the Potomac at that rate would put him in daylight and roughly arriving at that destination about 9 am. The Southern Maryland river runners generally operated under the cover of night - not the bright morning sun.

I'm sure that the retort will be that none of the eyewitnesses at Ford's remembered Booth having a limp when he alighted after the jump. Herb's, Bill's, and Jonathan's sports descriptions above can certainly verify that any injury might not be immediately apparent. Also, if I had been in that audience, I would have been stunned and confused about why someone was landing on the stage anyhow; and then I would have heard the screams from the box and looked up instead of watching to see if the man rushing across the stage was limping.

As you can see, I am passionate on this subject (as well as other aspects of the assassination), but I have taken a large amount of heat on this particular issue because I still accept the legendary story of where Booth broke his leg and where he intended to go that first night.

[jonathan]

Yep, I had completely forgotten that he told Cobb he was going to Beantown. Deep down, I do believe he broke his leg jumping. I was somewhere not long ago, and there was one of those "Clearance such and such feet" signs. It was 12 or 13 feet, and for whatever reason I immediately thought of Booth jumping to the stage and how easy it would be to snap that bone if you landed awkwardly, which he apparently did.

Also, like Laurie said, there was so much confusion that I'm not sure how fair it is to expect people to remember whether or not Booth was limping. I remember reading We Saw Lincoln Shot, and one of the things that seemed to turn up a lot in people's stories was how quickly everything happened. The consensus seemed to be that I believe no more than about 30 seconds elapsed from the shot being fired to Booth escaping out of the back door. In that amount of time, with the complete confusion, It's just not realistic to expect people to notice a limp unless it was very obvious.

I've also wondered about Booth's claim of being thrown from the horse, and whether or not he said that because it maybe reflected a little better on him. Almost like he felt he had rid the world of this tyrant, he didn't want to ruin the story by letting people know he broke his leg jumping to the stage. So he told the story of being thrown from the horse, so that puts the blame on the horse. Kind of like, "oh no, I didn't do anything wrong, it was the horse". Probably not, just a thought lol

As far as his pants being muddy though, is there any description of how muddy? I know that sounds odd, but I would kind of expect that Herold was leading the way, so wouldn't his horse have kicked mud up onto Booth over the course of some miles? I don't know what kind of condition the roads were in or how much, if any, rain had fallen in the previous few days. And maybe they rode side by side. Just some thoughts.

[L Verge]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe that Booth (or Herold) ever told anyone except Dr. Mudd that his horse had fallen on him. That's where the story originated and was evidently "proven" by Dr. Mudd's hired hand saying that he noticed a gash on the horse's foreleg when he was lathering it down. I could counter with a statement that the roads that Booth used that night were lined with branches, briars, etc. Roadsides in Southern Maryland were paved when I was a child, but there were no shoulders and lots of bushes and trees grew right up to the edge of the road. (In some places, they still do!) That gash on Booth's horse might have come from being slapped by the underbrush. And, isn't it convenient that Mudd is the one making the horse connection?

If I remember correctly, there was a light drizzle that night. Also, if the Huntt story is correct, Herold had been caught in a downpour in the late afternoon of April 13 en route back to D.C. It is quite possible that mud and mud puddles were still there on the night of the assassination.

Likewise, I can take you over the route today and point out Piscataway Creek that had to be crossed about three miles south of Surrattsville; an area that was used as an ice pond during the winters about a mile past that; and numerous marshy places between T.B. and Dr. Mudd's. Booth didn't have to fall to get covered in mud -- does anyone remember anyone reporting that his shoulders and back were covered in mud? They would have been if the horse went down.

[LincolnMan]

I don't ever remember that Booth was mud covered. He went to Mudds but didn't in mud.

[jonathan]

Laurie, that's exactly my point about the muddy pants. If he got thrown, seems like more of him would be muddy and not just his pants. Only his pants being muddy indicates that the mud was being thrown up from the road, but wasn't thrown up far enough to get his top half muddy. And if he was muddy all over, it seems like that's how it would have been described...."he was muddy", rather than "his pants were muddy".

As far as the people he told the thrown from a horse story, in the article Rojer posted, Kauffmann says that it was about a dozen. But I'd be curious what those details are. For instance, he mentions that some of the people he told knew about the assassination, and lists John Lloyd as an example. But as I understand it, Lloyd was told of the assassination as Booth and Herold were leaving. So presumably when they told Lloyd that Booth had been thrown, he did not yet know about the assassination. It's easy to see how they might have come roaring up to the Tavern with the intent to keep the secret, then in a moment of bravado as they're leaving tell Lloyd the truth.

As far as Mudd's claim that they told him Booth was thrown, that can be dismissed immediately as far as I'm concerned. What exactly was Mudd going to say? He couldn't very well say "Oh, they told me he broke his leg jumping to the stage after shooting the President".

---

(08-11-2012 11:14 AM)L Verge Wrote:  Jonathan,

Doesn't the name "Manteo" have a historical tie to the Lost Colony?

Yes, the town of town of Manteo is the county seat of Dare County, which includes Roanoke Island. Roanoke Island is where the Roanoke Colony (The Lost Colony) was established in 1587. The town was named after a Native American Croatan chief, who acted as something of a mediator between the Colonists and the Natives.

[BettyO]

(08-11-2012 08:42 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe that Booth (or Herold) ever told anyone except Dr. Mudd that his horse had fallen on him. That's where the story originated and was evidently "proven" by Dr. Mudd's hired hand saying that he noticed a gash on the horse's foreleg when he was lathering it down. I could counter with a statement that the roads that Booth used that night were lined with branches, briars, etc. Roadsides in Southern Maryland were paved when I was a child, but there were no shoulders and lots of bushes and trees grew right up to the edge of the road. (In some places, they still do!) That gash on Booth's horse might have come from being slapped by the underbrush. And, isn't it convenient that Mudd is the one making the horse connection?

If I remember correctly, there was a light drizzle that night. Also, if the Huntt story is correct, Herold had been caught in a downpour in the late afternoon of April 13 en route back to D.C. It is quite possible that mud and mud puddles were still there on the night of the assassination.

Likewise, I can take you over the route today and point out Piscataway Creek that had to be crossed about three miles south of Surrattsville; an area that was used as an ice pond during the winters about a mile past that; and numerous marshy places between T.B. and Dr. Mudd's. Booth didn't have to fall to get covered in mud -- does anyone remember anyone reporting that his shoulders and back were covered in mud? They would have been if the horse went down.

Supposedly, Lew Powell's ol one-eyed Nag also fell with him, according to what he told Gillette and Powell was knocked out temporarily. These guys apparently had hired some clumsy horses! HA!

The fact of Powell's fall is also supported by a statement in The Evidence in which Colonel John A. Foster, in a statement given for evidence claimed that on the night of April 14, 1865, near Fort Bunker Hill, a horseman was heard galloping by, apparently jumping from the high ditch down onto the road below. Shortly thereafter, there was heard the sounds of a man moaning or groaning loudly as if in pain and distress. Several pickets at the Fort were going to check on the source of the sounds when they ceased and then therefore they decided to give up the quest. Following the groaning sounds, the horse was heard running off in another direction.

When found, Powell’s horse had a cut on its shoulder, its knees were muddy and it was somewhat lame, giving indications of having fallen. Powell was knocked unconscious and it’s apparent that he may have had or most probably did have a concussion. That he struck his head is indicated by the facial injuries which appear in his photographs taken after his capture. This could also account for his “hazy recollections” of what happened during the attack on Seward earlier that night as well. Powell was also described during his capture as being "muddy"....