For those who aren’t familiar with the Lincoln Assassination and its various players, Dr. Samuel Mudd was the physician who treated John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s assassin. Booth broke his leg jumping from Lincoln’s presidential box at Ford’s Theater. It was never clear whether Mudd knew of Wilkes’ plans in advance, whether he was a part of a conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln or whether he even knew of Wilkes’ involvement when he splinted Wilkes’ broken leg. Regardless, he was found guilty of treasonous conspiracy by a military tribunal appointed by President Andrew Johnson.

Booth escaped hanging by a single vote of the military commission members and was instead sentenced to life imprisonment. He was shipped to Fort Jefferson, a Civil War military base on Dry Tortugas, the westernmost Florida Key, which was being used as a…