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From Primedia Publications
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On the Track of Assassin John Wilkes Booth (cont.)

Pandemonium ensued. Holding up his bloody knife, the actor shouted, "Sic Semper Tyrannus!"—So Always To Tyrants—the Latin motto adorning the Virginia state flag. Then he rushed out a stage door, got on his horse, and galloped down Baptist Alley, up F Street, and across the Navy Yard Bridge (today the 11th Street Bridge). Several hours passed before authorities knew in which direction he'd fled.

Others were involved in the evening's violence. While Booth did his job, near the White House co-conspirator Lewis Powell, a large, young ex-Confederate, broke into the Lafayette Square home of Secretary of State William H. Seward, assaulted his family, carved up the Secretary with a knife, then left. Powell would shift for himself. Booth would have help. By arrangement, he rendezvoused with co-conspirator David Herold at a spot in Prince Georges County, Maryland, called Soper's Hill. From there, they rode for the Surratt Tavern, a Confederate "safe house" in Surrattsville, Maryland. Today, both places sit along modern roads.

There is a mound of convincing circumstantial evidence linking Mudd to Booth. But don't whisper a word of this to his granddaughter, Louise Mudd Arehart.
A dozen or so miles from Ford's, in what is today Clinton, Maryland, the Surratt Tavern was used by Rebel agents traveling through southern Maryland's staunchly Confederate, but Union army-occupied counties. The tavern was owned by another person caught up in the crime, Mary Surratt.

The fugitives didn't linger at the tavern; Booth stayed on his horse. They fortified themselves with whiskey and picked up a carbine and field glasses hidden there. The items were part of a cache of weapons deposited at the tavern a month earlier by Herold and Mrs. Surratt's son, John Surratt, Jr.—a Confederate Government agent.

The Surratt House and Tavern, now just off Maryland Route 5, is roughly a half-hour drive from Ford's and a "must" stop on an escape route tour. Built in 1852, in recent years restored to depict rural middle class life during the Civil War era, it's attended by docents in period costume who offer tours. Assassination photographs and artifacts and items that tell the tragic life story of Mary Surratt are also on exhibit.

The Surratt House sells guidebooks and maps of the escape route and has an elaborate electronic point-to-point map/display of Booth's trail. As well, the tavern hosts a series of seasonal events and special historical exhibits.

Leaving the tavern, Booth and Herold next stopped at Dr. Samuel A. Mudd's house. They arrived early on April 15th. Mudd set the assassin's leg and allowed the two men to rest awhile on his property.

Did Mudd know Booth had killed Lincoln when the assassin showed up? Were Booth and Herold strangers to the good doctor? Had Mudd known the actor before, maybe been involved earlier in clandestine activity?

There is a mound of convincing circumstantial evidence linking Mudd to Booth. But don't whisper a word of this to his granddaughter, Louise Mudd Arehart. She oversees the Samuel Mudd home, a popular stop on the escape route tour, and she has a point of view.

Louise Arehart maintains the restored 150-year-old Mudd farmhouse just outside Bryantown, Maryland, more than fifteen miles down Route 5 from Clinton. Perched on the edge of Zekiah Swamp in the midst of Charles County, Maryland's placid tobacco country, it, like many escape route sites, is on the National Register of Historic Places. It's also nothing less than a museum and shrine devoted to rehabilitating the long-dead doctor's reputation. But rehabilitation isn't easy. Arehart and other Mudd descendants have spent decades trying to clear the doctor's name. Fascinating, though historically biased, tours of the house are given by docents dressed in period costumes. The 10-acre Mudd farm also hosts Civil War reenactments and other seasonal events.




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