1869 – Dr. Samuel Mudd left Fort Jefferson aboard the US schooner Matchless bound for Key West on this date. Mudd had been convicted of aiding and conspiring with John Wilkes Booth in the 1865 assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.  Mudd was sentenced to life imprisonment and was sent to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, about 70 miles west of Key West. It was at this desolate post that Mudd would reside until being pardoned by President Johnson on February 8^th, 1869. Mudd was officially released from confinement on March 8^th. During his time at Fort Jefferson a Yellow Fever epidemic broke out and Mudd agreed to take over for the prison doctor after he had succumbed to the disease. Soldiers stationed at the fort wrote petitions to President Johnson on Mudd’s behalf because of his efforts during the outbreak.