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Vascular Surgery PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS From the Southern Association for Vascular Surgery Vascular surgery: Is our name Mudd or Quasimodo? Stanley O. Snyder, Jr, MD, Nashville, Tenn Sic semper tyrannis (Thus always to tyrants) was the In fact, Dr Mudd had met John Wilkes Booth on at phrase uttered by John Wilkes Booth as he leaped 10 feet to least 3 previous occasions. Six months earlier, on Nov 13, the stage floor below from the Presidential box at Ford 1864, Booth had attended St Mary’s Church near Bryan- Theater after firing the fatal bullet into the brain of Presi- town and was introduced to Dr Mudd, and possibly spent dent Abraham Lincoln on Good Friday, Apr 14, 1865. the night in his home. On Dec 18, 1864, in the Bryantown Booth, an accomplished actor, was known for daring jumps Tavern, and again on Dec 23, 1864, Dr Mudd had meet- and leaps during his performances, but on this occasion, ings with Booth, and introduced him first to Mr Thomas after struggling in the Presidential box and stabbing Major Harbin and later to John Surratt, both known Confederate Henry Rathbone, Booth was off balance and caught his Secret Service operatives with extensive local knowledge of spur in an American flag draped over the balcony, and the countryside, which Booth would need to aid him in a landed awkwardly on the stage. This misstep resulted in a grand scheme to kidnap President Lincoln and take him to fractured fibula, and although Booth was mobile, he was Richmond, Virginia, as a hostage to exchange for Confed- now in need of medical attention. The resulting treatment erate prisoners of war or to force a peace treaty favorable to of this fracture dramatically altered the life of one of our the South. early medical colleagues, Dr Samuel Alexander Mudd. Booth recruited additional help for his abduction plan, Dr Mudd was born on Dec 20, 1833, in Charles including David Herold, Louis Payne, George Atzerodt, County, Maryland, where he became a farmer and a prac- Michael O’Laughlin, and Samuel Arnold. An initial plan for ticing physician after attending Georgetown College in abduction of Lincoln on March 17 failed when President Washington, DC, and ultimately graduating from the Uni- Lincoln changed his schedule, and some of the conspirators versity of Maryland in Baltimore in 1856 after studying lost heart and abandoned the group. Booth, however, had medicine and surgery. Times were hard because the coun- previously confided to his friends a desire to kill Lincoln. try was in a depression, but Dr Mudd developed a success- After the surrender of General Robert E. Lee to General ful medical practice and married his childhood sweetheart, Ulysses S. Grant on Apr 9, 1865, Booth began to organize Sarah Frances Dyer, on Nov 26, 1857. When shots were a new plan, one of assassination. The evening of Apr 14 was fired at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on Apr 12, selected for George Atzerodt to assassinate Vice President 1861, additional southern states seceded to join the fledg- Andrew Johnson; Lewis Paine and David Herold were to ling Confederacy, but Maryland was not among them. kill Secretary of State William Seward; and John Wilkes Maryland was a border state, with a large number of Con- Booth made plans to assassinate President Lincoln. (It is federate sympathizers, including Dr Mudd. He continued interesting to note, considering today’s world, that Booth his life as a physician and farmer during the ensuing Civil was able to visit the President’s box on the afternoon of the War, but was most likely a member of the Confederate assassination to drill a peephole in the door of the box and underground and subsequently became acquainted with to later enter the box unchallenged because the single some soon-to-be famous people. guard, Mr John Parker, had left the area to get a better view From Edwards Eve Clinic. of the play!) During a key moment of laughter in the play, Competition of interest: none. Our American Cousin, Booth entered the Presidential box, Presented at the Twenty-eighth Annual Meeting of the Southern Associa- fired a single shot from his .44-caliber derringer into Lin- tion for Vascular Surgery, Rio Grande, PR, Jan 14-17, 2004. Reprint requests: Stanley O. Snyder, Jr, MD, Edwards Eve Clinic, 4230 coln’s head behind his left ear, stabbed Major Rathbone, Harding Rd, Ste 252, Nashville, TN 37205 (e-mail: and leaped to the stage. Atzerodt had done some heavy [email protected]). drinking, but still lost his courage, and abandoned the J Vasc Surg 2004;40:194-8. attack on Vice President Johnson; Lewis Paine had seri- 0741-5214/$30.00 Copyright © 2004 by The Society for Vascular Surgery. ously wounded Secretary of State Seward with a knife. doi:10.1016/j.jvs.2004.03.035 David Herold was outside guarding Paine’s mount, but 194 JOURNAL OF VASCULAR SURGERY Volume 40, Number 1 Snyder 195 subsequently fled on hearing screams from the Seward conduct a further search. At this time Sarah presented the household. soldiers with the patient’s cut boot that she had found, and Herold and John Wilkes Booth met each other en route in it was inscribed “Henry Lutz, Maker, 445 Broadway, to Lloyd’s Tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland, which was New York, J. Wilkes.” Now the identity of the injured man owned and operated by Mary Surratt (the mother of John was confirmed, and the officer, Lieutenant Alexander Surratt). Whiskey was retrieved for self-medication, along Lovett, abruptly changed his demeanor and “invited” Dr with a package containing field glasses and a Spencer rifle Mudd to accompany him to Bryantown for further ques- that had been previously stored. Whether the original es- tioning. The questions continued through the weekend, cape route was to proceed to Dr Mudd’s home or was and on Monday, Apr 24, Sarah received news that her required because of Booth’s injury is the subject of contin- husband had been arrested for participation in the murder ued debate. At 4:00 AM on Apr 15, 1865, Dr Mudd and his of President Abraham Lincoln! The assassin, John Wilkes wife Sarah were awakened by 2 men banging loudly on the Booth, was still at large. door of their home near Bryantown, Maryland. The horse- While Dr Mudd was in jail and the other conspirators men identified themselves as “strangers from St Mary were being rounded up, the search intensified for David County” who were on their way to Washington, DC, when Herold and John Wilkes Booth. Booth and Herold had one of the men’s horses fell and the rider’s leg was broken. traveled to the home of Samuel Cox, where they were given The injured man had a mustache and long chin whiskers. food and hid in the woods for 3 days before crossing the Dr Mudd later told interrogators that he did not recognize Potomac River to the presumed safety of Virginia. There either man. He cut off the patient’s boot, and after exam- was, however, a $100,000 reward on their heads, and ining the leg concluded that the patient had a simple Union soldiers were searching everywhere. Despite the fracture of the fibula, 2 inches above the ankle. Dr Mudd set reward, their escape attempt was aided by many southern the fracture, and cut up a wooden box to fashion a splint for sympathizers, and they arrived at Richard Garrett’s farm it. The injured man was put to bed, and Dr Mudd and the south of the Rappahanock River near Port Royal on Apr 24. other traveler went to Mudd’s father’s farm and subse- Time was running out, however, because a fellow passenger quently to Bryantown in search of a carriage or wagon to on the river ferry tipped off the Union soldiers, who on Apr transport the patient. When none was available, the 26 surrounded the Garrett tobacco barn in which Herold stranger returned to Mudd’s farm while Mudd stayed in and Booth were hiding. The soldiers threatened to burn the Bryantown to do some shopping. Soldiers were bustling barn, and David Herold surrendered. Booth refused to about, and there was news of the assassination of President come out, and the barn was set on fire. As Booth hobbled Lincoln, possibly by a man named Booth. The soldiers, within the burning barn, he was shot in the neck by however, had inadvertently picked up fliers with a picture of Sergeant Thomas “Boston” Corbett and sustained a fatal Edwin Booth, John Wilkes Booth’s brother, and Dr Mudd spinal cord wound that severed the cord at the C4-5 level. would later testify that while in Bryantown he did not He was paralyzed, but lived for 3 more hours, and stated recognize the face on this flier as anyone he knew. On later before dying, “Tell my mother that what I did, I did for the returning to his farm around 5:00 PM, Mudd found the 2 men saddling their horses and preparing to leave. He good of the country.” Herold was returned to Washington directed the riders on a route through the Zekiah swamp. and imprisoned with the other accused conspirators: Atze- Mudd had his handyman make a pair of rough crutches for rodt and Paine, who had come to the boarding house (and the injured man, and was paid $25 for his “global” services frequent conspirator meeting place) of Mary Surratt while to the patient, but later testified he would have been willing she was in the process of being arrested; Ned Spangler, who to accept a lesser fee.
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