Editing Samuel Mudd (section)

==Early years==
Born in [[Charles County, Maryland]] into a Roman Catholic family, Samuel Mudd was the fourth of 10&nbsp;children of Henry Lowe and Sarah Ann (Reeves) Mudd. He grew up on Oak Hill, his father's tobacco plantation of several hundred acres, which was worked by 89 slaves and was located about {{convert|30|mi|km}} southeast of [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Mudd |first=Richard D. |year=1951 |title=The Mudd Family of the United States |edition=2nd |volume=1 |publisher=Dr.&nbsp;Richard D. Mudd |location=Saginaw, MI |pages=520 ff}}</ref><ref name=Steers-Holzer-2007/>{{rp|page=[https://archive.org/details/lincolnlegendsmy0000stee/page/161 161]}}

At age 15, after several years of home tutoring, Mudd went off to boarding school at St.&nbsp;John's Literary Institute, now known as [[Saint John's Catholic Prep (Maryland)|Saint John's Catholic Prep School]], in [[Frederick, Maryland]]. Two years later, he enrolled at [[Georgetown College (Georgetown University)|Georgetown College]] in Washington, D.C. He then studied medicine at the [[University of Maryland, Baltimore]], writing his thesis on [[dysentery]].

Upon graduation in 1856, Mudd returned to Charles County to practice medicine, marrying his childhood sweetheart, Sarah Frances Dyer, one year later.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mudd |first=Nettie |title=The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofdrsamuel2018mudd |quote=nettie mudd.  |edition=Fourth |publisher=Neale Publishing Company |location=New York and Washington |year=1906}}</ref>

[[File:Dr. Samuel Mudd House (21603494465).jpg|thumb|right|Dr. Samuel Mudd House, known as [[St. Catharine (Waldorf, Maryland)|St. Catharine]], now preserved as a museum]]
As a wedding present, Mudd's father gave the couple {{convert|218|acre|ha}} of his best farmland and a new house named [[St. Catharine (Waldorf, Maryland)|St. Catharine]]. While the house was under construction, the Mudds lived with Frankie's bachelor brother, Jeremiah Dyer, finally moving into their new home in 1859. They had nine children in all: four before Mudd's arrest and five more after his release from prison.<ref>Andrew Jerome Mudd (1858–1882), Lillian Augusta "Sissie" Mudd (1860–1940), Thomas Dyer Mudd (1862–1929) and Samuel Alexander Mudd, II (1864–1930), Henry Mudd (born 1870, died at eight months), Stella Marie Mudd (1871–1952), Edward Joseph Mudd (1873–1946), Rose De Lima "Emie" Mudd (1875–1943), and Mary Eleanor "Nettie" Mudd (1878–1943).</ref> To supplement his income from his medical practice, Mudd became a small-scale tobacco grower, using five slaves according to the 1860 census.<ref>{{cite report |year=1860 |series=Federal Slave Census |department=Bryantown, Charles County, Maryland |title=Slave Owner: Samuel Mudd}}</ref> Mudd believed that [[slavery in the United States|slavery]] was divinely ordained and wrote a letter to the theologian [[Orestes Brownson]] to that effect.<ref name=Steers-Holzer-2007>{{cite book |last1=Steers |first1=Edward |author-link1=Edward Steers |last2=Holzer |first2=Harold |year=2007 |title=Lincoln Legends |publisher=[[University Press of Kentucky]] |isbn=978-0-8131-2466-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/lincolnlegendsmy0000stee |url-access=registration |quote=Samuel Mudd scolded.}}</ref>{{rp|page=[https://archive.org/details/lincolnlegendsmy0000stee/page/164 164]}}

With the outbreak of the [[American Civil War]] in 1861, Southern Maryland's slave system and the economy that it supported rapidly began to collapse. In 1863, the [[Union Army]] established Camp Stanton, just {{convert|10|mi|km}} from the Mudd farm, to enlist black [[freedmen]] and runaway slaves. Six regiments totaling over 8,700&nbsp;black soldiers, many from Southern Maryland, were trained there. In 1864, [[Maryland in the American Civil War|Maryland]], which was exempt from Lincoln's 1863 [[Emancipation Proclamation]], abolished slavery, making it difficult for growers like Mudd to operate their plantations. As a result, Mudd considered selling his farm and depending on his medical practice. As Mudd pondered his alternatives, he was introduced to someone who said he might be interested in buying his property: 26&nbsp;year-old actor [[John Wilkes Booth]].