Cleydael, King George County, Virginia

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The Mad Booths of Maryland

by Stanley Kimmell (published 1940)

Author Stanley Kimmell visited Cleydael in 1934 while researching his book and interviewed Mr. and Mrs. Richardson, the then-owners, who showed him where the Lucas cabin had been located and shared what local lore on the Booth episode they had been able to pick up. Kimmel's account in his book is heavily based on Dr. Stuart's testimony to the assassination enquiry, with additional information from other sources, many of them probably local people who had either known Bryant or Harbin or Mrs. Quesenberry or the Stuarts or whose parents had. Sadly, he did not footnote all his sources:

Pages 240-242

"Late that Sunday afternoon, Bryant, Wilkes and Herold arrived at his summer residence slightly drunk. Dr. Stewart had just finished tea with his family when they came. He went to the door and found them all on horseback except Herold. As it was dark, he could not very well distinguish them and asked "Who are you?" Herold answered, "Two of us are Marylanders in want of accommodations for the night." Dr. Stewart replied it was impossible to keep them as he had no room. Herold then mentioned Wilkes' broken leg and acquainted him with the fact that Dr. Mudd had set it and recommended him to aid them on their journey.
Dr. Stewart answered that he was a physician not a surgeon, that he had heard of the Mudds in Maryland but did not know them, and that no one was authorized to recommend anyone to him. Again Herold appealed for assistance, saying that they were very weary and hungry. The doctor insisted that he had no room but would give them something to eat. Wilkes then urged, "If you will listen to the circumstances of the case you will be able to do it." Dr. Stewart was firm. Their appearance and actions made him suspicious of them and he had no desire to hear anything they had to say. Herold was still carrying the carbine and Wilkes' face was partly obscured by a large shawl. The doctor thought the leg injury and crutches merely a sham to get his sympathy and aid. He was beginning to fear that they might be connected with Lincoln's assassination of which he had heard the previous Tuesday. Since he had returned only recently from his second imprisonment, he did not want to take chances on harboring fugitives.

Herold would not cease chattering and disclosed that they wished to get to Mosby. Dr. Stewart bluntly informed him that this leader of a rebel band engaged in guerrilla warfare had surrendered. Herold next asked if he knew of anyone who could take them to Fredericksburg, and Stewart suggested a colored man named William Lucas who lived near by and sometimes hired out his wagons. Lucas had often conveyed the doctor's "guests" to port Conway on the Rappahannock River. After Wilkes and Herold had gone into the house for supper, the doctor questioned Bryant about them. Bryant alleged all he knew was that they had come to him from the marsh and asked if he could take them to Doctor Stuart. The doctor retorted, "It is very strange; I know nothing about the men; I cannot accommodate them; you will have to take them somewhere else," and went into the house. Bryant started for home, but the doctor, hearing him depart, ran out and chased him to or three hundred yards up the road, "I can't accommodate these men," he shouted. "You must take them away!’”

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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!)