Attempted Escape
In September 1865, two months after Dr. Mudd arrived, he tried to escape from Fort Jefferson. Control of Fort Jefferson was being transferred from the 161st New York Volunteers to the 82nd U.S. Colored Infantry. As a recent slave owner and a person convicted of conspiring to kill the president who had freed the slaves, Dr. Mudd was understandably fearful of his treatment by the incoming U.S. Colored Infantry troops. On September 25, 1865, he attempted to escape from Fort Jefferson by stowing away on the Army supply ship Thomas A. Scott, but was captured, brought back to the Fort, and put in chains.
The Thomas A. Scott
Following Dr. Mudd’s attempted escape he was placed in a small cell in the guardhouse, located next to the Sally Port entrance. After a couple of days, he was allowed outside to work during the day, but was required to sleep in the guardhouse at night. On October 18th, he was transferred along with Arnold, O’Laughlen, Spangler, and George St. Leger Grenfell to a large empty ground-level gunroom in the bastion at the south end of the Sally Port wall. This was the “dark and gloomy dungeon” the post commandant had warned Dr. Mudd and his companions about when they arrived at Fort Jefferson. Spangler, Arnold, and O’Laughlen were sent to the dungeon with Dr. Mudd because the military authorities had heard, incorrectly it turned out, that there was a plan under way to free the four men.
Door to the dungeon when Dr. Mudd was there.
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Doorway to the Dungeon today. The wooden door and cannons are gone.
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Inside the Dungeon today.
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The dungeon was the most secure place in the fort. It had a locked wooden door, a slate floor, slimy wet brick walls and ceiling, and two gun ports. Although one port was open, the other was closed with metal shutters. As a result, there was no cross ventilation and the light admitted by the single open port was insufficient to brighten the room. Immediately outside the small open port was an area where the fort’s sinks, or toilets, emptied into the 70-foot wide moat. The architects had assumed that tidal action would flush the moat, but that often didn’t happen. Inside the dungeon, the smell from the moat was inescapable. The moat surrounded the fort, so the wind carried the smell into the fort no matter which way the wind was blowing. In a January 22, 1866 letter which he wrote from the dungeon, Dr. Mudd said:
The atmosphere we breathe is highly impregnated with sulphuric hydrogen gas, which you are aware is highly injurious to health as well as disagreeable. The gas is generated by the numerous sinks that empty into that portion of the sea enclosed by the breakwater, and which is immediately under a small port hole – the only admission for air and light we have from the external port.
The food in the dungeon was as bad as the air. Sam Arnold wrote:
The rations issued at this time were putrid, unfit to eat, and during these three months of confinement I lived upon a cup of slop coffee and the dry, hard crust of bread. This is no exaggeration, as many others can testify to its truthfulness. Coffee was brought over to our quarters in a dirty, greasy bucket, always with grease swimming upon its surface; bread, rotten fish and meat, all mixed together, and thus we were forced to live for months, until starvation nearly stared us in the face.
Six days a week, Dr. Mudd and the others were let out of the dungeon to work at hard labor. On Sundays and holidays they were confined all day inside the noxious cell. The men wore leg irons while working outside, but the irons were removed when inside the dungeon. Dr. Mudd suffered quite a bit both mentally and physically during his time in the dungeon. In a letter to his wife he said:
My legs and ankles are swollen and sore, pains in my shoulders and back are frequent. My hair began falling out some time ago, and to save which I shaved it all over clean, and have continued to do so once every week since. It is now beginning to have a little life. My eyesight is beginning to grow very bad, so much so that I can’t read or write by candlelight.
John Ford, Spangler’s boss at Ford’s Theater, described Dr. Mudd’s condition at this time in a letter he wrote to General Ewing. He said:
I am anxious to get a settlement with the Govt and then take measures with you looking to Spangler’s pardon.
I heard from him the other day by a returned prisoner. He is doing well and is a general favorite but is compelled to wear irons. Dr. Mudd looks very badly. His hair is nearly all out and he is nearly half crazy. With Arnold he is compelled by a Negro guard to sweep the Sally Port continually. I believe that is the name. He is ironed, as well as Arnold.
On January 26, 1866, following a complaint by Mrs. Mudd to President Johnson, Dr. Mudd and the other men were no longer required to wear leg irons. Shortly thereafter they were released from the dungeon and moved into the empty casemate gun room directly above the Sally Port entrance. The casemates on this second tier of the Sally Port wall were never fitted out with cannons, and instead were used to house the general prisoner population. The casemate above the Sally Port entrance would be the home for Dr. Mudd, Spangler, Arnold, and O’Laughlen during the remainder of their time at Fort Jefferson.
The atmosphere we breathe is highly impregnated with sulphuric hydrogen gas, which you are aware is highly injurious to health as well as disagreeable. The gas is generated by the numerous sinks that empty into that portion of the sea enclosed by the breakwater, and which is immediately under a small port hole – the only admission for air and light we have from the external port.
The food in the dungeon was as bad as the air. Sam Arnold wrote:
The rations issued at this time were putrid, unfit to eat, and during these three months of confinement I lived upon a cup of slop coffee and the dry, hard crust of bread. This is no exaggeration, as many others can testify to its truthfulness. Coffee was brought over to our quarters in a dirty, greasy bucket, always with grease swimming upon its surface; bread, rotten fish and meat, all mixed together, and thus we were forced to live for months, until starvation nearly stared us in the face.
Six days a week, Dr. Mudd and the others were let out of the dungeon to work at hard labor. On Sundays and holidays they were confined all day inside the noxious cell. The men wore leg irons while working outside, but the irons were removed when inside the dungeon. Dr. Mudd suffered quite a bit both mentally and physically during his time in the dungeon. In a letter to his wife he said:
My legs and ankles are swollen and sore, pains in my shoulders and back are frequent. My hair began falling out some time ago, and to save which I shaved it all over clean, and have continued to do so once every week since. It is now beginning to have a little life. My eyesight is beginning to grow very bad, so much so that I can’t read or write by candlelight.
John Ford, Spangler’s boss at Ford’s Theater, described Dr. Mudd’s condition at this time in a letter he wrote to General Ewing. He said:
I am anxious to get a settlement with the Govt and then take measures with you looking to Spangler’s pardon.
I heard from him the other day by a returned prisoner. He is doing well and is a general favorite but is compelled to wear irons. Dr. Mudd looks very badly. His hair is nearly all out and he is nearly half crazy. With Arnold he is compelled by a Negro guard to sweep the Sally Port continually. I believe that is the name. He is ironed, as well as Arnold.
On January 26, 1866, following a complaint by Mrs. Mudd to President Johnson, Dr. Mudd and the other men were no longer required to wear leg irons. Shortly thereafter they were released from the dungeon and moved into the empty casemate gun room directly above the Sally Port entrance. The casemates on this second tier of the Sally Port wall were never fitted out with cannons, and instead were used to house the general prisoner population. The casemate above the Sally Port entrance would be the home for Dr. Mudd, Spangler, Arnold, and O’Laughlen during the remainder of their time at Fort Jefferson.
