Conspiracy trial for the murder of the president
Yüklə 2,75 Mb.
|
[419] A. Yes, sir. Q. What hour was he there? A. I do not know exactly: I had no time. I judged that it was between four and five o’clock. Q. How is your house situated in reference to his and to the town of Bryantown? A. I think, about half-way from Bryantown; between the two. Q. From which direction did he come when he came to your house? A. He came down from the main road,—left the main road, and turned into the road that leads to my house. Q. Was he coming from Bryantown? A. I do not know. Q. Did you learn from his conversation whether he was from Bryantown? A. I did not. Q. Does that main road lead to Bryantown? A. It does. Q. Did you observe the direction he took when he left your house? A. He went out the same way he came in. Q. He came there between four and five, you think? A. I think so. It was not long before night. Q. While he was at your house, was the assassination of the President a subject of conversation between him and yourself? A. Yes, sir: he told it there.
The Judge Advocate. The gentleman objects to our giving the statements of Dr. Mudd in evidence, I suppose. Mr. Ewing. I object to it on the ground that it is not rebutting evidence. The Judge Advocate. I could offer it on another and distinct ground,—that it is, so far as we understand it, a confession on the part of the prisoner,—which is at all times competent evidence,—and that it has come to our knowledge since the commencement of this trial, and since the close of our testimony on this point. On [420] that ground alone, I think the Court, in the exercise of a sound discretion, would allow it to be introduced; but I think also it is strictly rebutting testimony offered for the defence. Mr. Ewing. I will state to the Court, that, if this testimony is admitted, it will be indispensable to the rights of the accused to have one or more witnesses from that neighborhood who have not already been subpoenaed. The Commission overruled the objection. Q. [By the Judge Advocate.] Now state to the Court what Dr. Mudd said in regard to the assassination of the President in that conversation with you. A. When the doctor came to my house, I was in the house; and Mr. Hardey was in my house also. He walked out, and had some talk with the doctor; I do not know what. He hallooed to me directly after he went out, and told me that the President was assassinated, and also Seward and his son, I think. Then I got up and went out to my yard-gate, where the doctor and Mr. Hardey were. I asked if it was so. I understood the doctor to say that it was so; and that the President was assassinated, and also Mr. Seward and his son. I asked the question who assassinated the President; and the doctor replied, and said, “A man by the name of Booth.” Mr. Hardey then asked him if it was the Booth that was down here last fall. The doctor said he did not know whether it was or not; that there were three or four men of the name of Booth, and he did not know whether it was that one or not: he said, that, if it was that one, he knew him. That was all he said about it, excepting that he said he was very sorry that this thing had occurred,—very sorry. Q. Do you remember whether, in the course of that conversation, he spoke of two men having been at his house that morning and during the day? A. He did not. Q. He made no allusion to it? A. No, sir. Q. How long did he remain at your house? A. I do not think he staid over fifteen minutes. [421] Q. You say he went down the same road he came. Did you suppose he was going home when he left you? A. I cannot say which way he went. Q. You did not see which way he turned when he got to the main road? A. I did not, from my house. Q. And did not see from which way he had come when he turned into the lane as he came to your house? A. No, sir. Q. Did he give you any of the particulars of the assassination? A. He did not. Cross-examined by Mr. Ewing: Q. What Mr. Hardey was it that was there? A. John F. Hardey. Q. Did Dr. Mudd say why he was sorry that the President had been killed? A. He only said it in this way: That, at this time, it was the worst thing that could have happened, he thought. That was the only reason he gave why he was sorry, according to my recollection. Q. Did he say how it would operate badly for the country? A. I think he did. I think he said that it would make it a great deal worse for the country. I shall not be certain; but I think he said he was afraid it would make it a great deal worse for the country than it was while the war was going on. Q. Did he seem to be entirely in earnest in expressing his sorrow for the crime? A. I think he did, from his appearance. Q. Did you notice him as he was coming towards your house out of the main road? A. I did. Q. Was there anybody riding with him? A. No, sir. Q. There was nobody in the main road riding with him as he turned into your house?
Q. And as he was approaching your house? A. Yes, sir; and, instead of his coming directly to my house,—there is a man who lives right close to me, who was fencing on the branch above my house; and he rode up to the man who was fencing, and said to him when he got there,—so the gentleman told me himself,—that he thought it worried me, and that caused him to ride there. Q. Who was that man? A. Mr. William Roby. Q. If any one had been riding on the main road with him, and parted with him as he turned down to go to your house, would you probably have noticed this person? A. I could not see the main road from my house. Q. Could you see no part of the main road from your house? A. No, sir. Q. Was Mr. Hardey present through the whole of this conversation? A. He was. Q. What did Dr. Mudd go there for, do you know? A. He came there to see Mr. Hardey about getting some railtimber, so he said. Q. Did he transact his business with Mr. Hardey as to the railtimber? A. He did not. Mr. Hardey told him where he could get some; but he did not say whether he would take it or not. I think he said it was too far to haul it from where Mr. Hardey told him he could get the timber. Q. Had there been any previous bargain about the timber? A. There had been. Q. Mr. Hardey was unable to furnish the timber that had been bargained for? A. Yes, sir; he told him so. He had let Mr. Sylvester Mudd have the timber Dr. Mudd had first bargained for. Q. And he said he could let the doctor have some timber in another place? [423] A. Yes, sir. Q. About how far do you think it is out of the main road to your house? A. I do not think it is a quarter of a mile exactly. Q. And you think Dr. Mudd was there how long? A. I do not think he was there longer than fifteen minutes. Q. And what time in the day do you think it was? A. I cannot say. It was late in the evening. I suppose it to have been between four and five o’clock. I had no time. It was cloudy; and I did not see the sun, and could not tell the exact time. Q. Do you not think it was as late as five o’clock? A. I do not know that it was not. It seemed to me to be a very short time from the time he left until night. Q. It is dark about half-past seven o’clock at that time of the year? A. I think it is. Q. How long do you think it was before that? A. Indeed I do not know: I cannot tell. I would not have thought it more than a couple of hours to dark, anyhow, when they left. Q. At the furthest, not over a couple of hours? A. I do not think it was over a couple of hours. Q. Then that would make it about half-past five o’clock? A. I cannot say positively what time it was; but I think it was likely between four and five o’clock when he came there. I do not know positively.
A. Yes, sir. Q. How long have you known him? A. I have known him ever since he has been in the county. I [424] can hardly date the time: it seems to have been about ten years, though, as well as my memory serves me now. Q. Do you know of his having been in Port Tobacco about the latter end of February or the beginning of March, this year? A. He was down there somewhere about that time; but I cannot fix the date. Q. About how long did he stay during that visit? A. As well as my memory serves me, not over a day or two. He might have staid longer. Of course, I cannot tell. I think I saw him for a day or two. Q. What is his general character in the community down there? A. He is looked upon by us folks down there that have known him a long while as a good-natured kind of a fellow. We never gave him credit down our way for much courage. Outside of that, I know nothing at all about him. Q. Is he not rather remarkable for not having courage? A. I think my attention has been called to that since he got into this difficulty; and I have called to mind two difficulties in which I saw him, in both of which I thought he lacked courage: one of them happened in my shop; the other, at an oyster-saloon in our place.
A. In St. Louis, Mo. Q. Have you been residing there for some years? A. I have been residing there, and making it my home, for the last nine or ten years. Q. Do you remember that, within the last year or two, there have been extensive burnings of steamboats on the Western and Southwestern waters, with the details of which you are probably acquainted? State to the Court what knowledge, if any, you have of those burnings, and the persons connected with them, and the
Q. The parties are these: Tucker is one; Majors is another,—he is a Missourian. Q. In the service of the Confederate Government? A. Yes, sir. Thomas L. Clark is another. They are the only agents I know. Q. Were they all agents of the Confederate Government so called? A. Yes, sir. Q. In what business were they engaged in that connection? A. They were engaged in burning steamboats. Q. Where? A. On the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. There was another agent too, whom I had forgotten; a man by the name of Barrett. Q. Is he a Missourian, who was formerly in Congress from that State? A. I cannot say whether he was in Congress or not. I believe he was a Missourian. Q. Is he a lawyer by profession? A. I cannot say whether he is a lawyer or not. Q. Do you know his given name? A. I do not. I never heard his given name. Q. Did he have any title? A. I have heard him called “Colonel Barrett.” Q. State whether these men were associated together, and what were their operations. A. Their operations were in burning, on the Mississippi, Ohio, and other rivers, steamboats carrying Government freight, or used as transports for the army, and some that were not. Q. Do you know through what combustible materials, and in what way, those boats were burnt or supposed to be burnt? A. No, sir; I do not. All I know about it is, that I suppose they were burnt by matches. Q. Was it done secretly, at night, or under what circumstances generally? What was the plan of operations? A. It was done secretly. [426] Q. Will you enumerate the boats which were burnt under the operations of these parties? A. The steamboat “Imperial,” and three others; the steamboat “Robert Campbell,” the steamboats “Louisville,” “Daniel G. Taylor,” and others; and some in New Orleans that I do not know the names of. Q. Were these large vessels? A. Yes, sir: some were large, and some small. Q. Owned by private individuals? A. They were owned by private individuals. Q. Was there any loss of life connected with the conflagration of these vessels? A. There was in the case of the “Robert Campbell.” Q. Were they burnt in the stream, or lying at the shore. A. The “Robert Campbell” was burnt in the stream. Q. When under way? A. Yes, sir. Q. Was it understood that the agent was on board, or merely that he had deposited his combustibles? A. He was on board. Q. Where was that vessel burnt? A. At Milliken’s Bend, twenty-five miles above Vicksburg. Q. You say there was loss of life? A. Yes, sir. Q. Considerable? A. Considerable. Q. State whether or not this plan of operations embraced the Government hospitals and storehouses. A. It embraced any thing appertaining to the army. Q. Do you know any thing of the burning of a hospital of the United States at Louisville? A. No, sir: I do not. All I know about that is, that there was a man put in jail; but I do not think he did it. Q. Do you know the man who claimed compensation from the Confederate Government for that service? What was that man’s name? A. Dillingham. [427] Q. What amount did he claim for having burnt that hospital? A. He did not claim any particular amount at Richmond. Q. When was that hospital burned? A. It must have been burned along in June or July, 1864. Q. Do you remember how the fire occurred? Was it at night? and was it attended with any loss of life? A. It was at night. Q. You do not know whether there were any patients burned up or not? A. I believe there was nobody burned up; at least, I never heard of anybody being burned. Q. State whether you have been at Richmond, and whether, while there, you had an interview with Jefferson Davis, the so-called President of the Confederacy, and with Benjamin, the Secretary of State. A. I was in Richmond on the 20th, and until the 25th or 26th day of August, 1864. I there had an interview with the Secretary of War, the Secretary of State, and Mr. Jefferson Davis. Q. Now state what occurred in those interviews. A. Thomas L. Clark, Dillingham, and myself went there in connection with the boat burning, and put in claims to Mr. James A. Seddon. Mr. Clark introduced me to him, and he said he had thrown up that business. It was in the hands now of Mr. Benjamin. We went to Mr. Benjamin. Mr. Benjamin looked at the papers; asked me if I was from St. Louis. I told him I was. He asked me if I knew any thing about those. I told him I did; that I believed they were right. He asked Mr. Clark if he knew me to be right. Mr. Clark said that I had been represented to him as being all right by Mr. Majors, and Mr. Majors had left my name there when he was down before. He had been there before that. He said for me to call back the next day with Mr. Clark and Mr. Dillingham. I called back next day, and he said he had shown those to Jefferson Davis. Q. Shown the papers you had left with him? A. Yes, sir; and he wanted to know if we would not take $30,000, and sign receipts in full. We told him we would not do it. Then he said, if Mr. Dillingham was to claim this in Louis- [428] ville, he wanted a statement of that for Louisville. We went back to the hotel, and drew up a statement of it. I wrote the statement out myself. It read that Mr. Dillingham had been hired by General Polk. Q. Bishop Polk? A. Yes, sir; and sent to Louisville expressly to do that work. Q. Burning the hospital? A. Yes, sir. I signed Mr. Dillingham’s name to it. That was given to Mr. Clark. Mr. Clark took it over to Mr. Benjamin, and we made a settlement with him. We made the settlement for $50,000,—$35,000 down in gold, $15,000 on deposit,—to be paid in four months afterwards, provided those claims proved correct. He gave us a draft on Columbia, S.C., for $34,800 in gold, and $200 in gold in Richmond. That we got cashed in Columbia, and went along with it. Q. Did you receive the gold on that draft? A. Yes, sir. While there, Mr. Benjamin and Mr. Davis wanted to see me. I went in. Mr. Benjamin and myself and Mr. Davis sat there and talked. The conversation went on about a bridge between Nashville and Chattanooga,—the Long Bridge, they called it. Mr. Benjamin, I believe, was the one who mentioned it first. Mr. Davis wanted to know if I knew where it was. I told him I did; but I do not: I have never been there. He wanted to know what I thought about destroying that bridge, he said that he had been thinking about it there, they had been thinking about sending some to have it done. I told him that I did not what to think about it. He said I had better study it over. I finally told him that I thought it could be done. Mr. Benjamin—I believe it was Mr. Benjamin—first made the remark that he would give $400,000 if that bridge was destroyed, and wanted to know if I would not take charge of it. I told him that I would not have any thing to do with it unless all passes were taken away from those men down there; that nobody should be allowed to go up any more; and they said it should be done. Then the conversation turned on the burning of steamboats. I told Mr. Davis that I did not think it was any use in burning steamboats: and he said no; he was going to have that stopped. I then told
Q. Were these passes permits or authority to do this work? A. Yes, sir. Q. He knew that you had received this pay for the work done, did he? A. I presume Mr. Davis did. He knew that I had received money there. Q. The papers of which you speak were simply bills for this service? A. They were statements made out. They were written by Mr. Clark, in South Carolina and Mississippi. Q. Stating the service rendered, and the amount claimed? A. Yes, sir. Q. What was the sum originally demanded? A. Fifty thousand dollars was what we settled for. Q. Did you demand a larger sum, which was reduced to that? A. No, sir. Thirty thousand in greenbacks is what he first wanted to pay us. Q. You expressed the opinion to Davis that there was no good to be accomplished by burning these boats in this manner? A. I did. Q. He said he was going to abandon that policy? A. He did. Q. He fully approved what you had done? He did not condemn what had been done, did he? A. He did not condemn what had been done. Q. He was fully aware of what had been done? A. He appeared so. Q. Did you come to any understanding about the bridge? or was it a mere conversation? A. It was a conversation rather, that, if the bridge was destroyed,
Q. Do you know Majors’s full name? A. Minor Majors. Q. Do you know where he is now? A. I have every reason to believe that he has been in Canada; and he left from there, and went to Bermuda Hundred, I believe; and he was there when last heard from. Q. Do you know whether or not these men were members of any secret society? A. Yes, sir: they principally all belonged to secret organizations. Q. What was the name of the society? A. It goes by the name of the O. A. K. organization. Q. Is it the Order of American Knights? A. Yes, sir. Q. Will you state, if you think proper to state it, whether you are also a member of that order. You are not bound to state it if it will criminate you in any way. No answer. Q. You say you are not able to describe precisely the process through which those boats were burnt, whether any combustible beyond matches was used or not? A. I do not think there was. Q. Do you remember the position which Barrett held in that association? A. I understood that he held the position of Adjutant-General for the State of Illinois. Q. For the O. A. K.? A. I cannot say whether for the O. A. K. or the Sons of Liberty. Q. Do you know whether Majors and Barrett were at Chicago in July last? [431] A. Mr. Majors left St. Louis either last June or July to go to Canada; and, I presume, went through by the way of Chicago. By the Court: Q. Was the steamer “Hiawatha” one of those that were burnt? A. She was. Q. Do you recollect the number of lives that were lost on the “Hiawatha”? A. I do not. Q. Do you recollect the number of lives that were lost on the “Imperial”? A. I do not. I do not think there were many lost on the “Imperial.” Q. She was one of the largest and finest transports on the Western waters, was she not? A. She was. Q. Are you a steamboat-man? A. I am.
Q. What boats have you been running out? A. I have been running on the “Von Phul” last, Captain Gorman. Q. Did you ever run on the “G. W. Graham?” A. I never did. Q. Do you know the “Graham”? A. I do.
a witness called for the prosecution in rebuttal, being duly sworn, testified as follows:— By the Judge Advocate: Q. Are you not acquainted with the prisoner at the bar, Dr. Samuel Mudd? A. I am.
Q. Do you live near him? A. I live about two and half or three miles off him, I think. Q. Will you state whether or not he was at your house on Saturday, the day after the assassination of the President?
Q. At what hour did you see him on that evening? A. Very near sundown. Q. At whose house? A. It was just below the house of a man that I employ. Q. Mr. Farrell? A. Yes, sir. Q. Will you state what, if any thing, he said to you on that occasion in regard to the assassination of the President? A. He said to me that there was terrible news now; that the President and Mr. Seward and his son had been assassinated the evening before. Something was said in connection with Boyle (the man who is said to have killed Captain Watkins) assassinating Mr. Seward. I remember that Booth’s name was mentioned in the same connection; and I asked him if Booth was the man who had been down there, and was represented as Booth. His reply was, that he did not know whether it was that man, or some of his brothers: he understood that he had some brothers. That ended the conversation, except that he said it was one of the most terrible calamities that could have befallen the country at this time. Q. Did you say that it was understood or said that Booth was the assassin of the President? A. There was some such remark as that made; but I do not exactly remember the remark.
A. Yes, sir; Easter Saturday. By Assistant Judge Advocate Bingham: Q. About what time in the afternoon? What time before sundown? A. I do not think the sun was fifteen minutes high on that Saturday evening. By the Judge Advocate: Q. Did he or not say any thing to you in that conversation about Yüklə 2,75 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
|