While working as a doctor in Southern Maryland, Mudd also ran a tobacco farm, on which he employed slaves. He declared his belief in slavery as a God–given institution. His business was seriously damaged by the Civil War, especially when Maryland abolished slavery in 1864. It was at this time that he first met John Wilkes Booth, who was planning to kidnap Lincoln, and Mudd was seen in company with three of the conspirators. But his part in the plot, if any, remains unclear.
After shooting and mortally wounding Lincoln on 14 April 1865, Booth rode with conspirator David Herold to Mudd's home in the early hours of the 15th, for surgery on his fractured leg, before crossing into Virginia. Mudd must have learned of the assassination at some time on that day, but he didn't report Booth's visit to the authorities for another 24 hours. This appeared to link him to the crime, as did his various changes of story under interrogation, and on 26 April he was arrested. A military commission found him guilty of aiding and conspiring in a murder, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment – escaping the death penalty by a single vote.
In 1869, Mudd was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson and released from prison. Despite repeated attempts by members of his family and others to have it expunged, his conviction has never been overturned.
It's often said that Mudd's alleged involvement in the Lincoln assassination gave rise to the saying "your name is mud!". But The Phrase Finder gives a reference from Slang: A Dictionary of the Turf etc., published in 1823:
"Mud – a stupid twaddling fellow. 'And his name is mud!' ejaculated upon the conclusion of a silly oration, or of a leader in the Courier."
This was 42 years before the assassination. Samuel Mudd wasn't even born until 1833 – ten years after this instance.
The Phrase Finder goes on to cite a definition of the word 'mud' meaning "a Fool, or thick skull Fellow", dating from 1703.
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