His Name was Mudd: April 3......... from K & P

Although I wasn't reaching freedom like the Cubans, I was very excited the reach Fort Jefferson. The towering fort seems to rise out of the water like a mythical castle and encompasses the entire island. It was ten times bigger than I expected and so much more interesting to explore than even the old ruins of castles in Europe. It is actually the second largest masonry structure on earth, after the Great Wall of China. Sixteen million bricks were shipped to this place beginning in 1846.

We spent two days exploring the bastions and listening to stories of how Civil War prisoners, soldiers, doctors and nurses lived on this isolated, water-starved island. The moat was used for sewage and the temperature and humidity stayed at 100. It was substantially completed just in time for the War Between the States, but was never actually finished, nor fully armed. It is unbelievably huge, with casemates to house 420 heavy cannon, 37 powder magazines, and barracks for 1,000 soldiers. The design and firepower of the fort is why it is called “the stealth bomber of its day.” The Union held the fort throughout the unpleasantness, but the south had its chance. A confederate ship was poised to invade, but the Union commander sent message that if the ship was not gone by dawn, all 420 heavy cannon would blow him out of the water, so the captain figured it best to leave. The Southern captain would have had no way of knowing that only one cannon had yet been delivered to the new fort.

The most famous prisoner here was Dr. Mudd, the physician who set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth. For doing that, he was convicted of treason and sent to the fort to serve a life sentence. Legend has it that Booth had disguised himself when he sought Mudd’s medical assistance for the infamous broken leg, so Mudd acted out of innocence only to be caught up in history. More factual accounts say Mudd was part of Booth’s group of southern sympathizers. In any event, after yellow fever killed the other doctors and nurses in the fort, Dr. Mudd cared for the troops and eventually earned himself a pardon. Despite that, he became the inspiration behind the saying “if I mess this up, my name will be Mudd!”

The enemy's view.

A view down one of the corridors. Each alcove is a cannon casemate.

Cannoneer's view.

Looking from the top of the fort wall, over the old coal dock and the Gulf of Mexico. We snorkeled around this structure - lots of fish!