This is a 50-word short story based on a tragic event in U.S. history as well as an historic figure whose name was believed to have become an expression. See if you can piece it together from this short story, then read the real back story at the end.
@miniature-tiger specified the prompt for this story as follows: "Produce a fiftywords story in the genre of 19th CENTURY HISTORICAL FICTION. Your story can be set anywhere in the world but time-wise we're talking 1800 to 1899."
Read on.
Conspirators and lies
Image credit: Pixabay
Union soldiers surrounded the physician’s house.
Rodney, the lieutenant, knocked loudly. “Open up! We know you may be harboring the run-away, John Wilkes Booth!”
The door opened a crack. “I am innocent! I only set his broken leg.”
“What is your name, doctor?”
“My name is Mudd. Doctor Samuel Mudd.”
Okay, I'm sure you figured it out, but here's the backstory. The story is based on the events following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln at Fords Theater in Washington D.C. on the night of April 14, 1865. President Lincoln then died early the next morning.
The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, went on the run on horseback with a conspirator, even though he had broken his leg jumping to the stage from a balcony. The two were harbored briefly by a physician, Dr. Samuel Mudd, who set Booth's leg and let him go. The soldiers caught up with Mudd. He claimed his innocence, but there was proof that he had met previously with Booth, and he was jailed as a conspirator.
It has long been believed that the expression, "My name is Mudd," originated from this event, when Mudd fell from grace. However, that is a myth. The expression was developed long before Lincoln was shot.
Thanks for reading!
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