Village of Bryantown

Village of Bryantown. Commercial Center. , This building is the Bryantown Tavern, constructed about 1815. On April 15, 1865, the morning after President Lincoln’s assassination, Lt. David D. Dana made it his headquarters while pursuing John Wilkes Booth, the assassin, with a detachment of the 13th New York Cavalry. Unknown to Dana, Booth was only four miles north at the home of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, who treated Booth’s broken leg. Though Booth had visited Bryantown several times in 1864, he did not pass through here during his escape, but swung east after leaving Mudd’s house. Col. Henry H. Wells, in overall command of the pursuing forces, soon occupied the tavern, and it later served briefly as the headquarters of Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, who arrived on April 27. In the interim, Mudd and others were brought here for questioning, and several (including the doctor) remained here before they were transferred to jail in Washington., The crossroads village of Bryantown dates to the colonial era, and by its heyday in the 1850s, it had become a commercial center with stores, mills, and taverns. During the Civil War, James H. Montgomery operated the tavern. Of its seventeen antebellum buildings, only four remain standing, and one of these is the Bryantown Tavern. The tavern is the oldest commercial structure in Charles County. It served as an inn and post office for more than a century, and is now a private home.