Cleydael, King George County, Virginia

Cleydael's History:
The Stuarts:
Booth @ Cleydael:
Lees & Other Relations:
1. Lee Family Connections
2. Other Relations
Cleydael Today:
Living History, Tours & Film Work:
Links & Blogs:

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Coincidences and Connections:

...with Booth and Other Figures in the Assassination

John Wilkes Booth:
In addition to Booth's well-know visit to Cleydael on his attempted escape where Dr. Stuart refused his request for accommodation for the night, there were other, less well known connections to the Stuart family. Dr. Richard Stuart inherited from his father in law George Calvert a substantial interest in Washington's fashionable National Hotel, held in trust for his wife. The National Hotel was where Booth lived when he was in Washington, so in one sense, Dr. Stuart had already "provided accommodation" to Booth as one of his Washington landlords.

Mary Surratt:
Julia Calvert Stuart's brother, Charles Calvert, may have been indirectly responsible for Mrs. Surratt's downfall. Her ill-fated journey to Princes Georges County teh day before the assassination provided the evidence that sealed her doom. On this trip, she visited John Lloyd, the tenant renting the Surratt Tavern, and delivered Booth's binoculars and gave Lloyd the message that Booth had asked her to relay, 'have the shooting irons ready". The underlying reason for her making the trip was that she urgently needed to pay the mortgage on the tavern itself and the surrounding land, which her late husband had bought but not paid for. The seller of the land and holder of the mortgage was none other than Charles Calvert of Riversdale, former Unionist Congressman for the area (1861-63), and brother of Julia Calvert Stuart!

Dr. Mudd:
When Booth and Herold showed up on Dr. Stuart's doorstep, they said they had been referred to him by Dr. Mudd. In his testimony, Dr. Stuart stated that he'd replied that he didn't know Dr. Mudd and that nobody was authorized to recommend patients to him. He staunchly maintained that "he did not know Dr. Mudd but knew of Mudds in Maryland". He repeated this assertion twice in his testimony to the point where it looks somewhat like "methinks he doth protest too much." Did, he in fact know Dr. Mudd or know of him? Dr. Stuart was twice imprisoned by the Yankees for blockade running. We have not yet researched the details of the charges against him. They may have focused solely on the fact that Stuart's Wharf, off Mathias Point, and Boyd's Hole, both on his land, were major centers for the underground Confederate supply line. However, it is likely that, as a doctor he would have focused on helping to get scarce medicines from Washington to Richmond. He had plausible business reasons for obtaining passes to Washington and powerful family connections in Maryland and DC, many of whom were unionists. Doctors played a prominent role in this underground supply line. Booth was introduced to Dr. Mudd by another Charles County doctor heavily involved in the Confederate underground supply system. Doctors had a reason to visit people's houses and therefore made excellent mail couriers. Some researchers have even referred to this supply system as "The Doctors' Line"

Dr. Stuart was a key part of this supply line and owner of the land where many of the agents and contraband goods arrived in Virginia. He knew at least two major players in the system, his neighbor Harbin and Samuel Cox, whom he admitted meeting in the early part of the War in his testimony. Perhaps he DID know Dr. Mudd by reputation as a fellow doctor involved in the same supply system, but not having met him personally was able to couch his words carefully without incriminating himself while under oath. The fact that Dr. Mudd had already been imprisoned must have have some impact of Dr. Stuart's testimony.

Davy Herold:
History has unfairly portrayed Davy Herold as some sort of half-wit. This was in large part due to the defense mounted by his family, in hopes of his life being spared. In fact, he had studied pharmacy at Georgetown College (now University), then as now a highly rated academic institution not known for admitting half-wits into its student body. He is generally described as a "pharmacists clerk" but he did more than an ordinary store clerk and was in fact a trainee pharmacist. During the War, he worked at Thompson's Pharmacy at 13th and E Streets, just four blocks from the White House. Reportedly, he once delivered castor oil to the President. Thompson's was in the heart of fashionable Washington, convenient to Willard's Hotel at 14th and Pennsylvania and the National Hotel at 6th and Pennsylvania. Before working for Thompson's he worked for other downtown pharmacies. As a doctor with family and business reasons to go to Washington on occasion, it is quite possible that Dr. Stuart may have encountered him before the War, and possibly during, as both were involved in different ways in the underground supply of medicines to the Confederacy. Did Herold look vaguely familiar when he arrived on Dr. Stuart's doorstep the night of April 23rd?

Cleydael is a private home. please respect our privacy and do not visit without an invitation. (Unless, of course, you're somebody we know, in which case y'all come!!
-- but phone first and give us a heads up and be expected to be handed a paint brush!)