1864: A Very Bad Year
1864 was a very bad year. To help pay for the enormous cost of the war, Congress had passed a new tax on incomes over $600. Businessmen, including physicians, were also required to pay an annual $10 business license. 1864 tax assessment records show that Dr. Mudd paid his $10 physician’s license fee, but do not show that he was assessed any income tax. It therefore appears that Dr. Mudd’s 1864 income was below $600 (about $12,000 in today’s dollars). The Civil War and the end of slavery had brought hard times to the Mudds.
Dr. Mudd’s financial situation was not helped by the addition of another mouth to feed. His fourth child, Samuel A. Mudd II, was born January 30, 1864. He now had to provide for a wife and four children from a small rural medical practice and a farm which produced little income.
To make matters worse, Dr. Mudd was drafted into the Union Army on July 19, 1864. The following day, the Baltimore Sun carried a front page story containing the names of all the persons selected in the previous day’s Fifth Congressional District’s draft. For the Fourth Election District of the Fifth Congressional District, the Sun reported that those drafted were:
Thomas Hancock; John R. Murray, constable; Toney Bruce, slave of A.S. Chapman; Henry Middleton, slave of J.T. Gardner; Thomas J. Boarman, colored; James Gross, colored; Alfred Proctor, colored; John A, Bean; Wm. M. Burch; Patrick Wade, slave of Mrs S.E. Mudd; Thos. Segar; J. Alexander Turner; Chilton Dent; T.H. Nighting; George Butler, colored; Frank Jones, slave of S.P.A. Chapman; Eavey Reeder, slave of John O. Norton; Geo. F. Burroughs; Alex. Hawkins, slave of Thos. Dent; John Hawkins, colored; Chas. Brooks, colored; Henry Gardner, slave of Thomas Carrico; Richard Bearman; Wesley Bond. slave of S.W.B. Hawkins; Harry Chapman, slave of Clinton Dent; T.S. Freeman; Wm. Jenkins, colored; Henry Stewart, slave of E.D. Boon; George Douglas, slave of John W. Hawkins; William Wood; B.R. Smith; Samuel Mudd, physician; Thomas Robey; Jos. Butler, colored; George W. Carrico; Rich’d Boon; James A. Morris; Charles Olden, slave of Catharine A. Hawkins; Constantine Mudd; Patrick Buckett, slave of Letty S. Hawkins; Rufus Robey.
It must have been somewhat mortifying for a slave owner like Dr. Mudd to be drafted equally with slaves. However, like most other draftees, Dr. Mudd did not serve. Most Civil War draftees avoided serving by hiring a substitute or paying a $300 commutation fee. There is no record of which option Dr. Mudd took, but his father had paid for substitutes for Dr. Mudd’s brothers Henry and James, so his father may have paid for a substitute for Samuel also.
Dr. Mudd was unable to raise a crop in the summer of 1864 due to the lack of workers, slave or free. Several people testified at the conspiracy trial that Dr. Mudd wanted to sell his farm. Dr. William T. Bowman testified:
I heard him say last summer when he could get no hands, that he could not till his land and he would like to sell it and would do so. I asked him what he expected to do in case he sold his land. He said he thought of going into the mercantile business in Benedict... Benedict is in an easterly direction from Bryantown, and is our usual port for Charles County... on the Patuxent River.
Dr. Mudd’s reported comment that he was thinking of selling his land and going into the mercantile business suggests that medicine was not his main source of income, or his main interest. His patients appear to have been primarily family members and slaves. If he had other patients, there is no record of them.
James V. Deane, a former slave on the Mason plantation not far from Dr. Mudd’s farm, said "When the slaves took sick, Dr. Henry (sic) Mudd, the one who gave Booth first aid, was our doctor."
Another former slave, William Marshall, testified at the trial that Dr. Mudd treated his wife: "My wife being sick, the Doctor had been to see her..."
Dr. Mudd’s sister Mary testified at the trial that: "During this time [early March 1865], on one of the days, a negro woman on the place was taken very sick of typhoid pneumonia. My brother saw her every day until the 23d of March."
Although slaves had no money to pay a doctor’s bill, their owners did. While not his primary line of work, the income from treating slaves provided a welcome supplement to Dr. Mudd’s farm income.
The fact that Dr. Mudd’s main income came from farming and not medicine didn’t mean he wasn’t a good doctor. On the contrary, Dr. Mudd had trained at the University of Maryland Medical Department, one of the best medical schools in the United States. He was one of a small, select number of students allowed to live and treat patients in the school’s training hospital, the Baltimore Infirmary. And his great success in saving the lives of a large number of soldiers during the terrible 1867 yellow fever epidemic at his prison testifies to his superior medical skills, not to mention his courage in the face of death. He was simply a farmer at heart, and preferred to work the land.
Emancipation
On October 12-13, 1864, the free white male citizens of Maryland voted on a new state constitution that contained a provision abolishing slavery in the state. The constitution was approved by the slim margin of 30,174 to 29,799. In Charles County where Dr. Mudd lived, only thirteen people voted for the new constitution. Nine hundred ninety-one, probably including Dr. Mudd, voted against it. The final nail in the coffin of Maryland slavery had been driven in.
The new constitution took effect two weeks later on November 1, 1864. Article 24 of the constitution said:
Hereafter, in this state, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; and all persons held to service or labor as slaves are hereby declared free.
Two of Dr. Mudd’s eight slaves, Elzee Eglent and Dick Washington, had run away in 1863. Four of the remaining six slaves, Melvina Washington, Mary Simms, Milo Simms, and Rachel Spencer, left the Mudd farm shortly after Maryland emancipation. The last two slaves, teenage sisters Lettie Hall and Louisa Cristie, remained on the Mudd farm, working as house servants.
Mary Simms said she left about a month before Christmas 1864 because Dr. Mudd whipped her. But several former slaves testified at the trial that Mary Simms was not trustworthy and could not be believed. Julia Ann Bloyce, a house servant, testified it was actually Mrs. Mudd who had struck Mary Simms:
Mrs. Mudd told her not to go away on a Sunday evening walking, but she would go, and the next morning she (Mrs. Mudd) struck her about three licks with a little switch. The switch was small, and from the licks she gave her, I do not believe she could have hurt her.
New African American workers began to appear at Dr. Mudd’s farm as his slaves either ran away or were emancipated. These new workers included Frank, Betty, and Baptist Washington, Julia Ann Bloyce, and Henry Hall, who may have been related to Lettie Hall.
The new workers were probably all free, not slaves. Maryland had the highest number of free black workers in the country. Betty Washington certainly was free since she arrived after emancipation. In any case, there were no slaves after November 1864.
Betty Washington worked as a house servant. Her husband Frank Washington worked as a plow man. Baptist Washington was a carpenter. All three Washingtons testified on behalf of Dr. Mudd at the conspiracy trial. Frank Washington said Dr. Mudd treated his servants well: "He treated me first rate. I had no fault to find with him."
Betty Washington said: "I have no fault at all to find with him myself. He treated me very well when I was there."
Baptist Washington said Dr. Mudd always treated his workers very well: "He treated me very well. I was always very well satisfied with the accommodations he gave me when I was there."
Events were moving quickly as 1864 came to a close. Slavery was abolished in Maryland on November 1, 1864. On November 8, 1864, Abraham Lincoln was elected to a second term, receiving 55% of the vote in Maryland. A week later, on November 15, 1864, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman captured and burned Atlanta. There was no longer any doubt about the outcome of the Civil War.
Dr. Mudd probably thought things couldn’t get much worse than they had been that year, but he was wrong. Things were about to get much worse. Shortly after the burning of Atlanta, Dr. Mudd attended Sunday Mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Bryantown, Maryland. As he was entering the church, he was introduced to the 26 year-old actor John Wilkes Booth who was visiting Bryantown.
The new constitution took effect two weeks later on November 1, 1864. Article 24 of the constitution said:
Hereafter, in this state, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; and all persons held to service or labor as slaves are hereby declared free.
Two of Dr. Mudd’s eight slaves, Elzee Eglent and Dick Washington, had run away in 1863. Four of the remaining six slaves, Melvina Washington, Mary Simms, Milo Simms, and Rachel Spencer, left the Mudd farm shortly after Maryland emancipation. The last two slaves, teenage sisters Lettie Hall and Louisa Cristie, remained on the Mudd farm, working as house servants.
Mary Simms said she left about a month before Christmas 1864 because Dr. Mudd whipped her. But several former slaves testified at the trial that Mary Simms was not trustworthy and could not be believed. Julia Ann Bloyce, a house servant, testified it was actually Mrs. Mudd who had struck Mary Simms:
Mrs. Mudd told her not to go away on a Sunday evening walking, but she would go, and the next morning she (Mrs. Mudd) struck her about three licks with a little switch. The switch was small, and from the licks she gave her, I do not believe she could have hurt her.
New African American workers began to appear at Dr. Mudd’s farm as his slaves either ran away or were emancipated. These new workers included Frank, Betty, and Baptist Washington, Julia Ann Bloyce, and Henry Hall, who may have been related to Lettie Hall.
The new workers were probably all free, not slaves. Maryland had the highest number of free black workers in the country. Betty Washington certainly was free since she arrived after emancipation. In any case, there were no slaves after November 1864.
Betty Washington worked as a house servant. Her husband Frank Washington worked as a plow man. Baptist Washington was a carpenter. All three Washingtons testified on behalf of Dr. Mudd at the conspiracy trial. Frank Washington said Dr. Mudd treated his servants well: "He treated me first rate. I had no fault to find with him."
Betty Washington said: "I have no fault at all to find with him myself. He treated me very well when I was there."
Baptist Washington said Dr. Mudd always treated his workers very well: "He treated me very well. I was always very well satisfied with the accommodations he gave me when I was there."
Events were moving quickly as 1864 came to a close. Slavery was abolished in Maryland on November 1, 1864. On November 8, 1864, Abraham Lincoln was elected to a second term, receiving 55% of the vote in Maryland. A week later, on November 15, 1864, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman captured and burned Atlanta. There was no longer any doubt about the outcome of the Civil War.
Dr. Mudd probably thought things couldn’t get much worse than they had been that year, but he was wrong. Things were about to get much worse. Shortly after the burning of Atlanta, Dr. Mudd attended Sunday Mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Bryantown, Maryland. As he was entering the church, he was introduced to the 26 year-old actor John Wilkes Booth who was visiting Bryantown.
