Product Review

The Assassin’s Doctor is the story of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, one of the eight persons convicted in the 1865 Abraham Lincoln assassination trial. The book could just as easily have been entitled The Dr. Samuel A. Mudd Encyclopedia. It is a large 730-page book, and contains just about everything there is to know about Dr. Mudd.

The Assassin’s Doctor covers Dr. Mudd’s life as a doctor/farmer/slave-owner before the assassination, his involvement with John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln assassination, the assassination trial, his incarceration in the Fort Jackson military prison after the trial, his heroic work during the terrible yellow fever epidemic at Fort Jefferson, and his life after being pardoned.

The Assassin’s Doctor also includes the full text of all the most important primary source documents concerning Dr. Mudd gathered into one convenient location, and arranged in chronological date order. Some of these documents have never been published before.

The Assassin’s Doctor is the story of a Confederate sympathizer, a celebrity convict, and a hero who saved the lives of those who imprisoned him. It also definitively answers the question of Dr. Mudd’s guilt.

Anyone interested in the Lincoln assassination story will enjoy The Assassin’s Doctor, but it will be of particular interest to researchers and students who will find everything there is to know about Dr. Mudd gathered into one convenient reference work.