Butler woman had role in aftermath of fateful day
Few local Butler residents could have guessed the brief role Lettie Hall played in the most tragic story of the Civil War when she arrived in 1922 from Alexandria, Va., to become the wife of Pastor David Brown Dade of the Shiloh Baptist Church on Snyder Avenue. That role included making breakfast for John Wilkes Booth during his daring escape following his assassination of President Abraham Lincoln 156 years ago this April 14.
Lettie Hall had been born a slave in Maryland. Her parents had been sold to another plantation owner sometime during her early childhood and she never saw them again. According to the 1860 census slave schedule, at the age of 8, Lettie belonged to farmer/physician and confederate sympathizer Dr. Samuel Mudd in Charles County, Md.
At approximately 10:15 p.m. on the night of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth quietly opened the door to the presidential box at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., during the comedic play “Our American Cousin.” Booth secretively approached the seated president and aimed the barrel of his .44 caliber Derringer pistol behind Lincoln's skull and pulled the trigger. The one ounce, round lead ball would end the life of our 16th president at 7:22 a.m. the next morning.
Booth leaped from the presidential box to the stage below and while brandishing a knife was heard to shout, “Sic Semper Tyrannis (Thus Always to Tyrants)” as he ran across the stage. He exited the rear stage door, mounted his awaiting horse and began his escape into southern Maryland.
Somewhere along the escape route, Booth's horse had fallen, causing Booth to suffer a broken leg just above his left ankle. In the need of a doctor, John Wilkes Booth and his fellow conspirator Davey Herold arrived at 4 a.m. April 15 at the home of 31-year-old Dr. Samuel Mudd.
Though Booth and Mudd knew each other, it is unlikely that the famous actor had informed the doctor about shooting Lincoln. Mudd proceeded to examine Booth and set the broken leg. Both men were given comfortable lodging in the upstairs bedroom.
Knowing of the hunger of his two guests, the doctor awoke his two young slave girls Lettie Hall and her sister, Louisa Cristie, to prepare a meal for the escaping fugitives.In 1929, Lettie Hall Dade gave an interview to J.A. Roberts of Butler about her role in the saga of John Wilkes Booth's visit to the Mudd home. The interview was conducted at the request of an author of a never-to-be-published book, “Unwritten History of the Negro in the United States.” The unedited interview was published in the Butler Eagle on March 16, 1929.“One morning when I was about 15 or 16 years old (I never knew my age), my master called me about 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, and said, 'Lettie, get up quick and get a fine breakfast, for we have some distinguished people here for breakfast, and get Louisa up to serve.' I never knew anything else but to obey. So I got up, killed a chicken, and had the finest biscuits I believe I ever baked. I put cream in for shortening, and they were so pretty and nice.”“A Mr. Harold, who had come horseback with Mr. Booth, came down with the family to breakfast, but Louisa was ordered to take Mr. Booth's breakfast upstairs where Dr. Mudd was setting his broken leg. I learned later that Mr. Booth gave my sister two 25-cent pieces, and told her to give me one.“I shall never forget that first piece of money I ever had. I wanted to put a hole in it and a string to put around my neck, but my master said that would spoil it, so he put it away for me. I did not get to see Mr. Booth, as I was in the kitchen downstairs, but sister said he was a very handsome man.”
“When breakfast was over, Mr. Booth was helped into his saddle, and both he and Mr. Harold galloped on down the road. In a short time the United States soldiers rode up and surrounded our ho5use. My, but I was scared!“They hurriedly searched the house, although my master told them those folk had gone on down the road. I heard one man, who seemed to be the leader, say, 'He's not here. We are losing time.' And then they rushed out of the house, got on their horses and galloped on down the road.”Eleven days later, after leaving the Mudd farm in the late afternoon of April 15, John Wilkes Booth and his accomplice, Davey Herold, were found hiding in the Garratt farm's tobacco barn in northern Virginia.Surrounded by 26 Union soldiers led by Lt. Col. Everton Conger, Herold surrendered, but Booth refused and was shot through a hole in the barn's siding by Sgt. Boston Corbett. Booth, now paralyzed from the neck down from the bullet striking his fourth vertebrae and severing his spinal cord, died three hours later on the porch of the Garrett farmhouse.Sometime after 1870, Lettie Hall moved from the Mudd farm to Alexandria, Va., where she married twice and had two children.After marrying for the third time to Rev. David Brown Dade, whose Shiloh Baptist Church still stands on Snyder Avenue, she lived in Butler for the next 14 years. She died in 1936 at the family residence 114 Madison Avenue in the Island section of the city and was buried in unmarked grave in Butler's Rose Hill Cemetery until five years ago when the Dr. Samuel Mudd Society erected a stone marking her final resting place.Bill May is a local historian, speaker and tour guide.
