The Booth Escape Route
The map below shows the Southern Maryland road network in 1865. Gallant Green on the map is the location of Dr. Mudd's farm.
From Ford's Theatre to the Surratt Tavern
The night was pitch black. A third quarter moon was setting in the west, but gave no light through a solid cloud cover. It was cold. The temperature was in the 40's. It was wet. A cold drizzle dampened Booth and Herold, and made the dirt road slippery. Booth had broken his leg, either when jumping to the stage at Ford's Theater, or when his horse fell on the muddy country road after leaving Washington. Either way, the pain was intense.
Around midnight, Booth and Herold arrived at the Surratt Tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland, where they obtained a carbine, cartridges, field glass, and a bottle of whiskey from the tavern keeper John Lloyd. Lloyd would later be a key witness against Mrs. Surratt, who owned the tavern. Booth then decided that he had to abandon the escape route he had so carefully planned and try to find a doctor to treat his broken leg. He remembered that Dr. Samuel Mudd lived near Bryantown, and headed off on a detour to try to find Mudd’s farm house.
Surratt Tavern
From the Surratt Tavern to Dr. Samuel A. Mudd's Farm House
Cold, wet, muddy, and exhausted, Booth and Herold finally found the Mudd farm at about 4 AM Saturday morning. Herold knocked loudly on the door, awakening Dr. Mudd and his wife. Mudd went out, helped the injured Booth off his horse, and led him and Herold into the house. Dr. Mudd didn’t know it, but his life had just changed forever.
Dr. Mudd helped Booth up the stairs to the guest bedroom on the second floor. Working quietly in order not to awaken his four young children sleeping in the adjoining bedroom, Dr. Mudd cut the boot off Booth’s swollen left leg and examined it. He found a broken bone about two inches above Booth’s left ankle, fashioned a splint for the leg, and told Booth to rest.
Shortly thereafter, President Abraham Lincoln died in Washington at 7:22 AM. He had lived through the night without regaining consciousness. About 9 AM, Dr. Mudd had breakfast with his wife and David Herold. At mid-day, after checking Booth’s condition, he had lunch. Then he and Herold rode to his father’s adjoining farm to see if there was a buggy Herold could use to carry his injured companion. There wasn’t, so he and Herold started to ride to Bryantown to see if one could be obtained there. Herold soon changed his mind and decided to return to Dr. Mudd’s farm. Dr. Mudd continued to Bryantown alone to shop for his wife. When he arrived he saw that the town was full of soldiers and learned from the townspeople that President Lincoln had been assassinated. Rumors flew. One was that the Confederate guerrilla John H. Boyle was one of the assassins. Boyle had murdered local Union Army Captain Thomas H. Watkins just three weeks earlier. But most of the rumors said the assassin was a man named Booth or one of his brothers.
After finishing his shopping, Dr. Mudd set off for home. Along the way he stopped to chat with neighbors Francis Farrell and John Hardy. He told them he had heard in Bryantown that a man named Booth or one of his brothers had killed the President. At the trial, Farrell testified that Dr. Mudd said "he was very sorry this thing had happened, very sorry." Hardy testified that Dr. Mudd said there was "terrible news" - that the President had been assassinated, and that "it was one of the most terrible calamities that could have befallen the country at this time."
Dr. Mudd visited with Farrell and Hardy for about ten or fifteen minutes, and then continued home. It appears now that it was on this final stretch of his trip home that he began to put two and two together and it dawned on him that the man John Wilkes Booth who was resting at his farm house was most likely the same Booth who had murdered the president. Booth and Herold were just leaving when he arrived. Many years later, Dr. Mudd gave an account of how he then upbraided Booth for his treachery and told him to get off his farm.
In a statement Mrs. Mudd later made about Booth’s visit, she said that neither she nor her husband recognized that the man with the broken leg was Booth, but that upon returning from Bryantown, Dr. Mudd told her he was suspicious of the two men. She wrote that he then decided to return to Bryantown:
He then sent for his horse to go to Bryantown and tell the military authorities about those two men. I begged him not to go himself, but to wait till church next day and tell Doctor George Mudd or some one else living in Bryantown all the circumstances and have him tell the officers at Bryantown about it. He was very unwilling to delay and warned me of the danger from a failure to tell of these men at once. I told him if he went himself, Boyle who was reported to be one of the assassins and who had killed Captain Watkins last fall in that county might have him assassinated for it, and that it would be just as well for the authorities to hear it next day, because the crippled man could not escape.
Dr. Mudd’s wife said her husband told her Saturday evening that there was danger in not reporting the two strangers’ visit to the Army. But she also said she convinced him to stay with her and their children that night and report the two men’s visit in the morning. The next morning was Easter Sunday, the holiest day of the year for Christians. Families usually dress in their finest and go to church together on Easter Sunday morning. Dr. Mudd’s family had the choice of two churches: St. Peter’s, a small country church about two miles north of their farm, and St. Mary’s, a larger church about five miles south of their farm, in Bryantown.
Instead of going to church in Bryantown where he could have reported the two strangers to the Army, Dr. Mudd instead went in the opposite direction, to St. Peters. Records do not indicate if he went alone or with his family. The President’s assassination was a topic of great discussion at St. Peters that morning. After church, Dr. Mudd caught up with his cousin Dr. George Mudd who was riding back to his home in Bryantown. At the trial, Dr. George Mudd testified:
I had very little conversation with Dr. Mudd at church. He remarked that he regarded the assassination of the President, to use his own expression, was a most damnable act. He overtook me on the road after church, and stated to me that two suspicious persons had been at his house; that they came there on Saturday morning a little while before daybreak; that one of them had a broken leg, or a broken bone in the leg, which he bandaged; that they got while there something to eat; that they seemed laboring under some degree, or probably quite a degree, of excitement - more excitement than probably should necessarily result from the injury received; that they said they came from Bryantown, and were inquiring the way to Parson Wilmer’s; that while there one of them called for a razor, and shaved himself; I do not remember whether he said shaved his whiskers or moustache, but altered somewhat, or probably materially altered, his features; he did not say which it was that had shaved himself, that he himself, in company with the younger one, or the smaller one of the two, went down the road toward Bryantown, in search of a vehicle to take them away from his house; that he arranged or had fixed for them a crutch or crutches (I do not remember which) for the broken-legged man; and that they went away from his house, on horseback, in the direction of Parson Wilmer’s. I do not think he stated what time they went.
When I was about leaving him, he turning into his house, I told him that I would state it to the military authorities, and see if any thing could be made of it. He told me that he would be glad if I would, or that he particularly wished me to do it; but he would much prefer if I could make the arrangement for him to be sent for, and he would give every information in his power relative to the matter; that, if suspicions were warrantable, he feared for his life on account of guerrillas that were, or might be, in the neighborhood. This was about half-past 11 o’clock in the forenoon, and when I parted with him, I was within fifty yards of his house.
As I left Dr. Samuel Mudd, I went toward Bryantown. I dined at his father’s house that day, and on my way toward Bryantown I stopped to see a patient, and it was nightfall before I got to the village of Bryantown. What Dr. Samuel Mudd had told me I communicated to the military authorities at Bryantown the next morning.
Dr. Mudd clearly did not give his cousin the impression that alerting the Army to the visit of the two strangers was a matter of any great importance. Instead of going immediately to Bryantown with the news, George Mudd had a leisurely lunch at Dr. Mudd’s father’s home, visited some patients on his way back to Bryantown, and then went home for the night. The next morning, when he finally got around to telling the military authorities about Dr. Mudd’s visitors, he obviously didn’t lend any sense of urgency to the story. The military didn’t begin to look into the story until the next day, Tuesday.
From Dr. Mudd's Farm to Samuel Cox's Farm
Shortly after leaving Dr. Mudd's farm at sundown, Booth and Herold became lost in the darkness. They then ran into Oscar Swan, and asked him to guide them to Samuel Cox's farm. Swan was one of many people later arrested and brought to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington for interrogation. He gave authorities the following statement:
Oscar Ausy Swan: Live about two miles from Bryantown, Md. I know Capt. Saml. Cox. I met two men on Sat night 15 April about 9 o'clock. I had heard of the murder of the President. These men asked me the way to Mr. Burtle's; dark and could not see their faces. I was on foot when they asked. They told me to get my horse and show them the way. They asked me if I had any whiskey. I gave them some and some bread. They offered me $2 to take them to Mr. Burtle's. Before I got to Burtle's they asked me if I could take them to Capt. Cox. If so, they would give me $5 more. I took them. One man was a small man. The other was lame and had a crutch. The small man said there other man broke his leg. I saw it was the left leg that was broken. When they got to Cox they got off. it was near midnight. Cox came out with a candle. he said "How do you do." They went in and remained 3 or 4 hours. I staid outside. When they came out they were alone. Cox did not come out with them. The small man went some little distance, when the lame man called and said "Don't you know I can't get on?" The small man then came and helped. The small man told me to put my hand under his foot & lift him up, which I did. One said when they were mounted "I thought Cox was a man of Southern feeling." They did not come out of the gate as far as I saw. The gate is 1/4 of a mile from Cox's house. Before I got to Cox's the small man said "Don't you say anything. If you tell that you saw anybody you will not live long." I saw nothing more of them. I got back home which is 12 miles from Cox's about sunrise. In all they paid me $12.00.
After traveling about twelve miles from Oscar Swan's home, Booth, Herold, and Swan arrived around midnight at Rich Hill, the farm of Samuel Cox, a prosperous farmer, slave owner, and Southern sympathizer. Cox had once beaten to death one of his slaves who had escaped but been recaptured. He suspected his visitors were the assassins everyone was looking for. While sympathetic to them, he was afraid of later being accused of giving them refuge. He told them to hide in the woods while he decided how to help them.
Cox sent his son to see his foster-brother and neighbor, Thomas A. Jones. Jones had been employed by the Confederate government during the war to transport Confederate agents and mail across the Potomac between Maryland and Virginia. Jones later wrote:
The next morning, which was Easter Sunday, soon after breakfast, Samuel Cox, Jr, adopted son of my foster-brother, Samuel Cox, came to my house, Huckleberry, and told me his father wanted to see me about getting some seed-corn from me. He added, in an undertone, “Some strangers were at our house last night.”
Even had I not heard the evening before of the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, knowing Cox as I did, I would have been sure he had sent for me to come to him for something of more importance than to talk about the purchase of seed-corn. But putting together the intelligence I had the evening before received from the two soldiers, the fact that strangers had been at Cox’s the previous night and that Cox had now sent for me, I was convinced that he wanted to see me in reference to something connected, in some way, to the assassination.
When Jones arrived, Cox told him that Lincoln’s assassins had come to his farm during the night, and that his farm overseer, Franklin Robey, had hidden them in a pine thicket about a mile away. He asked Jones to help them get across the Potomac into Virginia, and Jones agreed. For the rest of that week, until Friday, April 21st, Jones would bring food and supplies to Booth and Herold in the pine thicket, asking them to be patient until it was safe to cross the Potomac.
Rich Hill, the home of Samuel Cox
From Samuel Cox's Farm to the Pine Thicket
Booth and Herold would remain in hiding in the pine thicket until Friday night, with food and supplies provided by Thomas Jones.
Monday, April 17, 1865
Dr. George Mudd finally told Lieutenant Dana about the two strangers at Dr. Mudd’s farm. The story apparently was not presented to Dana as an urgent matter, since Dana didn’t bother to assign detectives to investigate until the next day.
Also on Monday, five of the alleged conspirators were arrested. Samuel Arnold was arrested at Fortress Monroe, Michael O’Laughlen was arrested in Baltimore, Mary Surratt and Lewis Powell were arrested at the Surratt boarding house in Washington, and Edman Spangler was arrested at his boarding house a few blocks away.
Late Monday evening, Major James R. O’Beirne, Washington’s Provost Marshal, ordered Lieutenant Alexander Lovett to proceed to Southern Maryland and arrest anyone suspected of being implicated in the assassination of President Lincoln. Nine cavalrymen and two Special Officers (military detectives) of Major O’Beirne’s force, Simon Gavecan and William Williams, were assigned to assist Lovett.
Booth and Herold remained in the pine thicket a mile from Thomas Jones' home, and would stay there until Friday when they would try to cross the Potomac.
Tuesday, April 18, 1865
Enroute to Bryantown, another of Major O’Beirne’s Special Officers, Joshua Lloyd, joined Lieutenant Lovett’s group. Around noon on Tuesday, Lieutenant Lovett and his men arrived in Bryantown, where Lieutenant Dana told him of Dr. George Mudd’s report of two strangers at Dr. Samuel Mudd’s farm. Lieutenant Lovett immediately interviewed George Mudd, who repeated the story Dr. Mudd had told him. Lovett then took George Mudd and his men to Dr. Mudd’s farm.
When they arrived, Dr. Mudd was out working in the fields. You will recall that slavery was now dead. Farmers had to do their own work now. Adult field hands had all but disappeared in Southern Maryland. Many had fled to freedom in Washington, D.C. after slavery was abolished there in April 1862. Almost 4,000 male slaves from the Southern Maryland and Eastern Shore counties had fled their slave owners in late 1863 and early 1864 to join the Union Army at Camp Stanton in Benedict, Maryland. And when slavery was officially abolished in Maryland in November 1864, many of the remaining women and children also left their former owners.
While waiting for Dr. Mudd to return from his fields, Lieutenant Lovett interviewed Mrs. Mudd. She told about the two strangers coming to their house early Saturday morning, and how Dr. Mudd set the broken leg. She also mentioned that the man with the broken leg had shaved off his mustache, and that as he was coming down the stairs to leave the house in the afternoon, his chin whiskers became detached. She said she thought his beard was false. When asked about this later, Dr. Mudd said he didn’t know if the beard was real or false.
When Dr. Mudd came in from the fields, his cousin George Mudd told him why Lieutenant Lovett and his men had come to see him. Lovett then proceeded to interview Dr. Mudd about his visitors.
At the trial, Lieutenant Lovett testified that Dr. Mudd told him that he didn’t recognize either of the two men, that they had stayed but a short time, leaving that same morning, and that he first learned of President Lincoln’s assassination on Easter Sunday morning at church. None of these claims proved to be true. After interviewing Dr. Mudd for about an hour, Lieutenant Lovett and his men left. He wrote in his report:
Dr. Mudd seemed to be very much reserved and did not care to give much information. I was then satisfied that it was Booth and Herold, and made up my mind to arrest Doctor Mudd when the proper time came.
Wednesday, April 19, 1865
While Dr. Mudd worked quietly on his farm, the Government still had no definite idea where Booth was. Some thought Booth was hiding in Washington. Others thought he had escaped north to Canada, or west to Chicago, or east to the Chesapeake Bay, or even to London. Several men resembling Booth’s description had been arrested in error. The two strangers who had been at Dr. Mudd’s farm may or may not have had something to do with the assassination. Dr. Mudd had said he didn’t recognize them.
Near Washington, George Atzerodt was found at the home of a relative, and arrested as a suspected conspirator in the assassination of President Lincoln. Six of the eight persons who would stand trial for conspiring to assassinate President Lincoln had now been arrested. Only David Herold and Dr. Mudd remained free.
Thursday, April 20, 1865
On Thursday, the Federal Government posted a $100,000 reward ($2,000,000 in today’s dollars) for information leading to the arrest of Booth ($50,000), John Surratt ($25,000), and David Herold ($25,000). Surratt had served as Booth’s right-hand man during Booth’s planning to kidnap Lincoln. When that plan fell apart, Surratt left Washington, and was in Elmira, New York when Booth assassinated the President. The reward poster included the following statement:
All persons harboring or secreting the said persons, or either of them, or aiding or assisting their concealment or escape, will be treated as accomplices in the murder of the President and the attempted assassination of the Secretary of State, and shall be subject to trial before a Military Commission and the punishment of DEATH.
Dr. Mudd worked on his farm Thursday, hoping he had seen the last of detectives hunting for Booth. But he hadn’t. He would be arrested the next day.
Friday, April 21, 1865
On Friday morning, Lieutenant Lovett procured a fresh squad of mounted men of the 16th New York Cavalry and returned to Dr. Mudd’s farm for the purpose of arresting him. Lovett was again accompanied by Special Officers Simon Gavecan, William Williams, and Joshua Lloyd.
At the trial, Lieutenant Lovett testified:
When he found that we were going to search the house he said something to his wife, and she brought down a boot and handed me the boot. He said that he had to cut it off the man’s leg in order to set the leg. I turned down the top of the boot and saw some writing on the inside, saw the name “J. Wilkes” written in it. I called his attention to it, and he said he had not taken notice of that before.
With the discovery of the boot, Booth’s pursuers now knew with certainty the route he had taken after escaping from Washington. With Dr. Mudd under arrest, and Booth’s boot in hand as evidence, Lovett and his men left the farm. During the ride back to Bryantown, Dr. Mudd surprised Lieutenant Lovett by disclosing for the first time that he knew John Wilkes Booth. Lovett testified:
After I left, we got our horses, and going on the main road I told one of the men to show him Booth’s photograph. The man held it up to him and he said it did not look like Booth.
He said it looked a little like him across the eyes. Shortly after that he said he had an introduction to Booth last fall, in November or December. He said a man named Johnson had given him the introduction... at church, I think he said.
This was an important revelation. Dr. Mudd had repeatedly insisted that he did not recognize the stranger, but he now admitted that he had personally met Booth and therefore knew what he looked like.
Arriving back in Bryantown around noon, Lieutenant Lovett took Dr. Mudd to the Bryantown Tavern which was being used as a temporary headquarters by Colonel Henry H. Wells, Provost Marshal of defenses south of Washington. Wells testified at the trial that he questioned Dr. Mudd three times that Friday over the course of five to six hours, and more than twelve times in all over the course of the next three days. In the end, Dr. Mudd’s story of the visit of the two strangers was written down, signed by Dr. Mudd, and notarized by Colonel Wells.
Colonel Wells testified that Dr. Mudd said he knew the man with the broken leg was Booth, but that he didn’t learn of Lincoln’s assassination until after Booth had left his farm.
I asked him then if he at this time had heard of the murder of the President. He said he had not. I think, however, he remarked to me in one of these interviews that he heard of that for the first time either on Sunday morning or late in the evening of Saturday. I think - so my impression is - that in any event it was after the person had left his house.
Subsequent testimony showed that Dr. Mudd’s claim wasn’t true. Neighbors Francis R. Farrell and John F. Hardy testified that Dr. Mudd told them of Booth’s assassination of Lincoln when he stopped at their houses on his way back from Bryantown, while Booth was still at Dr. Mudd’s farm.
Dr. Mudd’s written statement to Colonel Wells said he did not see Booth again between Booth’s November visit to his farm and the assassination. But this would also be exposed as a lie when Louis Weichmann testified about the December meeting he attended with Dr. Mudd, John Surratt, and Booth in Washington.
From the Pine Thicket to Mrs. Quesenberry's, but Trouble Crossing the Potomac
Meanwhile, Thomas Jones decided it was time to try to get Booth and Herold across the Potomac. That Friday night, he led the two men from their hiding place to the Potomac shore, and helped them into a small boat. Booth and Herold then set off into the dark Potomac but the current prevented them crossing to the Virginia shore. They wound up on the Maryland shore again, some distance from where they started, and found a place to hide until they could try to cross again the next night.
On Saturday in Washington, Colonel Henry L. Burnett, the military prosecutor assigned by Secretary of War Stanton to build criminal cases against the alleged conspirators, had been following reports concerning Dr. Mudd. Following Dr. Mudd’s arrest and statement to Colonel Wells, Burnett ordered that Dr. Mudd be transferred from the Bryantown jail to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington. His order said:
Send forthwith a sufficient cavalry force to bring Dr. Mudd and his family to this city at once and report to me on their arrival. Take the necessary precautions to bring safely and hold securely after their arrival.
By specifying “and his family” Colonel Burnett clearly intended that Mrs. Mudd was also to be arrested. She and Dr. Mudd had told the same story to investigators, so she had also placed herself under suspicion. In the end though, probably due to the fact that she had four small children at home, she was not arrested.
Meanwhile, in Bryantown, Maryland, Colonel William P. Wood arrived from Washington, where he was the Superintendent of the Old Capitol Prison. He had been sent to Bryantown by Secretary of War Stanton to assist in the hunt for Booth. After consulting with Colonel Wells, he took Dr. Mudd back to the Mudd farm where he acquainted himself with what had happened there. He then returned to Bryantown, and turned Dr. Mudd back over to Colonel Wells.
Colonel Wood then returned to the Mudd farm without Dr. Mudd and left three of his men at the farm overnight in case Booth or Herold should return. On his way back to Bryantown he met Dr. Mudd returning alone to his farm. Dr. Mudd had been paroled and sent home for the night by Colonel Wells.
Later that Saturday night, Booth and Herold set out again in their small boat. This time they successfully crossed the Potomac, arriving about sunrise Sunday morning on the Virginia shore at the mouth of Machodoc Creek near the home of Elizabeth Quesenberry.
Mrs. Quesenberry's house
From Mrs. Quesenberry's Home to Dr. Stuart's Home
Elizabeth Quesenberry had sheltered Confederate agents crossing the Potomac during the war, but she didn't know who these two strangers were, didn't trust them, and told them to move on, suggesting that the man with the broken leg find Dr. Richard Stuart who lived a few miles away. When they arrived at Dr. Stuart's later in the day, Stewart refused to admit the two men to his house, only allowing them to spend Sunday night in his slave quarters.
Back in Bryantown on Sunday, Colonel Wood and Colonel Wells went to the Mudd farm to examine the route Booth and Herold took when they left the farm. Afterwards, they returned to the Bryantown Tavern with Dr. Mudd, who would not return home for almost four years.
Colonel Wood filed two reports on Sunday, April 23, 1865. In the first report, he says "The Dr. tells a tale not to be believed." However, in his second report later the same day, he writes that "Dr. Mudd's statement I now believe to be true." Both reports may be read in the Reference Library.
On Monday, April 24, 1865, Dr. Mudd was taken to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. to join other witnesses. He was not yet considered a conspirator.
Colonel Wood filed two reports on Sunday, April 23, 1865. In the first report, he says "The Dr. tells a tale not to be believed." However, in his second report later the same day, he writes that "Dr. Mudd's statement I now believe to be true." Both reports may be read in the Reference Library.
On Monday, April 24, 1865, Dr. Mudd was taken to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. to join other witnesses. He was not yet considered a conspirator.
Cleydael, the home of Dr. Richard Stuart
From Dr. Stuart's Home to Richard Garrett's Farm
Booth and Herold continued their flight on Monday. They went from Dr. Stuart's home to the farm of Richard Garrett, a few miles south of Port Royal, Virginia.
Garrett allowed Booth to spend the night indoors for the first time since leaving Dr. Mudd’s farm. Herold continued down the road to Bowling Green, Virginia, where he spent the night.
(Note: The Garrett farm no longer exists. Route 301 now runs through where the farm used to be. A sign in the wooded median of Route 301 commemorates the location of Booth's demise.)
Tuesday, April 25, 1865
Herold rejoined Booth at the Garrett farm where they rested for the day. That night, becoming suspicious of the two men, the Garretts did not let them sleep in their home, making them sleep in the barn.
Wednesday, April 26, 1865
Union soldiers hunting for Booth had learned he was at the Garrett farm. About 2 A.M., they arrived at the farm, cornering Booth and Herold in the barn. Herold surrendered, but Booth refused to surrender and was fatally shot. He lingered in pain until about 7 AM when he finally died. The twelve day hunt for Booth was finally over.
