Gifts from Fort Jefferson

A few weeks ago, I posted a thank you note that Edman Spangler wrote while incarcerated at Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas.  In it, he mentioned several items he was sending along to John T. Ford as tokens of his appreciation.  Spangler also included other carpentry items created by the conspirators and asked for them to be passed along to their respective families.  Though undated, I deduced that the note must have been written in mid 1867, during the John Surratt trial but before Michael O’Laughlen’s death.  Today, I stumbled across a related newspaper article that seems to agree with that conclusion:

Gifts from Fort Jefferson articleWhile it is unknown if any of the items contained in this package exist today, there are several items on display at the Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum made by Dr. Mudd (with assumed guidance from Edman Spangler) while he was imprisoned at Fort Jefferson:

Jewelry box 2

Cribbage board

Decorative table

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , | 3 Comments

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3 thoughts on “Gifts from Fort Jefferson

  1. Craig Hipkins

    Dave,
    Great information on Spangler. You seem to have uncovered a lot of new material. Have you thought of writing a bio on him?

  2. Richard Sloan

    I believe these items may have been donated to the Mudd House Museum either by Dr. Richard Mudd before his death, or by his children after he died. Dr. Richard showed them to me in his house in Saginaw, MI many years ago. He was quite proud of them.

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