Townsend Article about Dr. Mudd

[bob_summers]

I have just posted a George Alfred Townsend article about Dr. Mudd that I think may be new to many people. It was to me when I found it. See:

http://www.samuelmudd.com/4161883-george...-mudd.html

[JMadonna]

Thanks Bob,
It certainly a different take from the usual line Mudd's family took.

[RJNorton]

I agree, Jerry. I had not seen an interview like this before.

"Now, Dr. Mudd, what is your explanation of your cousin's behavior at that time?"

"I think there is no question that Sam Mudd immediately knew Booth, and that Booth told him that he had murdered the President. If he had possessed the moral courage to have said at once: 'I will have nothing to do with assassination; I will give this man up to his Government,' he would have stood very differently toward himself, his family and his fame. But you see those rebel views he had held, that obstinacy of character, his prejudices, his false sense of honor, made him secrete his information till he had actually made himself an accessory after the fact."

[BettyO]

Wow! A facinating account - and quite different from the usual viewpoint held by the Mudd family -- quite refreshing, actually.

I was just a little [/i]surprised by the statement that Herold was somewhat of a "dandy" - I've seen this stated of Herold before. It's hard to surmise that he was dandyish inasmuch as his photos make him look so dirty - as he was after living for two weeks on the lam! Not much of the dandy there at all....

[L Verge]

Bob,

Thank you so much for posting this. It was sort of strange to read because it was like reading my own mind -- the words in that article and on my computer screen are nearly the same thoughts that I have spent so many years of my life believing - not only about Dr. Sam, but also the brief mentions of the Surratts and Herold.

Some of my Charles County ancestors were patients of Dr. George Mudd and thought he was a fine, upstanding man. They did not have the same opinion of his cousin. Dr. George's assessment of Dr. Sam that Roger reiterated in the above post reminds me so much of what one of Dr. Mudd's defense team, Frederick Stone, said of Sam's prevarications.

[J. Beckert]

I think that was the most insightful thing I've ever read about Dr. Mudd. The part about Herold separating from Mudd at Bryantown when they saw the Troops and also Dr. Mudd's telling that Booth was the assassin are new to me and very telling. Very interesting. Thank you, Bob.

[JMadonna]

Wow! A facinating account - and quite different from the usual viewpoint held by the Mudd family -- quite refreshing, actually.

I was just a little [/i]surprised by the statement that Herold was somewhat of a "dandy" - I've seen this stated of Herold before. It's hard to surmise that he was dandyish inasmuch as his photos make him look so dirty - as he was after living for two weeks on the lam! Not much of the dandy there at all....

Maybe he was his mother's 'Dandy'? I always thought of him as a mamma's boy.

[L Verge]

I tend to agree with Jerry. Being raised with all those sisters had to have had some effect on him. Also, the family ran in pretty good social circles. Even the few names that Davey mentions in his statement as people he knew in Southern Maryland (Parker, Griffin, etc.) were among the higher planter set. He and his father also had leisure time for hunting - again something enjoyed more by the upper middle class.

[Hess1865]

Thanks for such a fascinating, informative interview!!
I'm sure that after the family read/heard about the GATH interview, George's name truly was 'mud' with his relatives.......

[bob_summers]

Note that Dr. George Mudd's recollection that nobody in Bryantown on Saturday afternoon, April 15th, knew that the President had been assassinated by John Wilkes Booth is contradicted by Lieutenant Dana's testimony, which was:

Lieutenant David B. Dana:

By the Judge Advocate:

Will you state whether or not, on the day following the murder of the President, you went in pursuit of the assassin in the direction of Bryantown?

Yes. sir: I did.

Will you state at what hour you and your men arrived there on that day?

I had sent a guard of four men ahead of me into the town; and they kept ahead of me all the way to the town. They arrived there twenty minutes or half an hour before I did. I arrived there near one o`c.lock that Saturday afternoon, the Saturday following the assassination.

Will you state whether or not, on your arrival, the intelligence of the assassination was spread through the town?

Yes. sir: it was. I communicated the intelligence to the citizens, and also told the name of the party assassinating the President.

Did you mention as the assassin the name of Booth?

Yes, sir: J. Wilkes Booth. Some of the citizens asked me if I knew for a certainty that it was him; and I told them, “Yes: as near as a person could know anything."

Are you or not quite certain that at that hour, say one o’clock, it was known throughout that village?

As early as a quarter-past one, it was known all through the village that the President had been assassinated, and who the assassin was.

[L Verge]

The troops passed through T.B. earlier in the morning on April 15, because they knocked on my family's door before Mr. Huntt went to open his store. They only asked if the family had heard riders during the night - which they had. Later on, Mr. Huntt learned from John Chandler Thompson at the T.B. Hotel what had really happened and whom the soldiers were looking for. If the soldiers let the people of T.B. know the details, you can bet they told the populace of Bryantown.

[JMadonna]

Wow! A facinating account - and quite different from the usual viewpoint held by the Mudd family -- quite refreshing, actually.

I was just a little [/i]surprised by the statement that Herold was somewhat of a "dandy" - I've seen this stated of Herold before. It's hard to surmise that he was dandyish inasmuch as his photos make him look so dirty - as he was after living for two weeks on the lam! Not much of the dandy there at all....

I figured it out. With most of the eligible bachelors serving in the war, Herold must have looked good to some women. Kind of like Olive Oyl looked 'Hot' to sailors.

[L Verge]

I understand that he struck out with Mrs. Quesenberry's daughter.

[Gene C]

I understand that he struck out with Mrs. Quesenberry's daughter.

I understand he got on base with the Carter girls at The Trappe

[Hess1865]

I understand that he struck out with Mrs. Quesenberry's daughter.

I understand he got on base with the Carter girls at The Trappe

They probably gave him the 'bargain' rate.....