A hundred kilometers to the west of the island of Key West (Florida, USA), you can see a huge hexagonal fortress, which seems to be floating on the water.
 |
| en.wikipedia.org |
This Fort Jefferson is luxurious and sinister place intended to protect shipping routes from pirats of the Caribbean. Construction of Fort Jefferson was started in 1846 on the reef, known as Garden Key. At the time of the Civil War, the fort was home to more than 1,700 soldiers and hundreds of civilians.
After the war, the soldiers - deserters, were sent to the military prison at Fort Jefferson. Also here were brought common criminals: thieves, crooks and murderers.
 |
| en.wikipedia.org |
In 1865, to the prison came four suspects of aiding and conspiring with John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's assassin. One of the suspects - an American physician named Samuel Mudd. It was found that John Wilkes Booth stopped at the home of Samuel at four o'clock during the night of the tragedy in Ford's Theatre. Fleeing, he broke his leg, and Samuel Mudd gave the killer first aid. When Mudd and three convicted persons landed at Fort Jefferson, there were already about 600 prisoners.
 |
| youtube.com |
In 1867, the fort suffered from the outbreak of yellow fever, that killed the prisoners, and prison doctors. Mudd was a new doctor and was able to limit the further spread of the deadly disease. In gratitude, Samuel Mudd was pardoned by President Johnson and left Fort Jefferson in 1869, despite the protests of members of the Lincoln family.
By 1874 the fort became too expensive to maintain and was no longer an important part of the sea defense strategy, in connection with which it was decided to abandon it. Today, Fort Jefferson is a part of the National Park Dry Tortugas, which covers seven small islands.