Commentary: Truth blown away in sugarcoated 'Gone With the Wind'

sacbee ^ | 11-13-04

[rustbucket]

I remember seeing somewhere that at least some of the bridges were simply disabled rather than burned. That is not to say that some bridges were not burned then or later. In May, 1861, I think, Union supporters painted bridges with fire retardant and stood guard over them.

BTW, there are contemporary statements by people other than the mayor that say the governor agreed with the decision to block the troops coming into the city by destroying or disabling the bridges. I don't know how believable these statements are, but the governor is on record publicly opposing sending troops through the city.

[GOPcapitalist]

On April 20th Lincoln himself sent a letter to Hicks reading as follows and thanked both Hicks and Brown for their efforts to "keep the peace" in Baltimore:

Gov. Hicks, & Mayor Brown Washington, April 20. 1861

Gentlemen: Your letter by Messrs. Bond, Dobbin & Brune, is received. I tender you both my sincere thanks for your efforts to keep the peace in the trying situation in which you are placed. For the future, troops must be brought here, but I make no point of bringing them through Baltimore. Without any military knowledge myself, of course I must leave details to Gen. Scott. He hastily said, this morning, in presence of these gentlemen, ``March them around Baltimore, and not through it.'' I sincerely hope the General, on fuller reflection, will consider this practical and proper, and that you will not object to it. By this, a collision of the people of Baltimore with the troops will be avoided, unless they go out of their way to seek it. I hope you will exert your influence to prevent this.

Now, and ever, I shall do all in my power for peace, consistently with the maintainance of government. Your Obt. Servt.

A. LINCOLN

The day after the order to burn the bridges Lincoln personally invited Mayor Brown to the White House where the two met and agreed that future troop shipments should not go through Baltimore.

[Non-Sequitur]

"... WHOSE OBJECT IS TO REINFORCE FORT SUMTER...."

Why would the administration lie to Major Anderson?

Official Record, The War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol 1, Page 235

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, D. C., April 4, 1861.

Major ROBERT ANDERSON, U. S. Army:

SIR: Your letter of the 1st instant occasions some anxiety to the President.

On the information of Captain Fox he had supposed you could hold out till the 15th instant without any great inconvenience; and had prepared an expedition to relieve you before that period.

Hoping still that you will be able to sustain yourself till the 11th or 12th instant, the expedition will go forward; and, finding your flag flying, will attempt to provision you, and, in case the effort is resisted, will endeavor also to re-enforce you.

You will therefore hold out, if possible, till the arrival of the expedition.

It is not, however, the intention of the President to subject your command to any danger or hardship beyond what, in your judgment, would be usual in military life; and he has entire confidence that you will act as becomes a patriot and soldier, under all circumstances.

Whenever, if at all, in your judgment, to save yourself and command, a capitulation becomes a necessity, you are authorized to make it.

Respectfully,

SIMON CAMERON,
Secretary of War.

FOOD WAS SUPPLIED TO FORT SUMTER UNTIL APRIL 7, 1861

Beauregard acknowledged the order to stop food supplies to the fort on April 7th. The order ending those supplies was issued on April 2nd.

Official Record, The War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol 1, Page 285

WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A.,

Montgomery, April 2, 1861.

Brigadier General G. T. BEAUREGARD,
Commanding Charleston Harbor, Charleston, S. C.:

SIR: The Government has at no time placed any reliance on assurances by the Government at Washington in respect to the evacuation of Fort Sumter, or entertained any confidence in the disposition of the latter to make any concession or yield any point to which it is not driven by absolute necessity, and I desire that you will govern yourself generally with strict reference to this as the key to the policy of the Government of the Confederate States.

You are specially instructed to remit in no degree your efforts to prevent the re-enforcement of Fort Sumter, and to keep yourself in a state of the amplest preparation and most perfect readiness to repel invasion, acting in all respects - save only in commencing an assault or attack, except to repel an invading or re-enforcing force - precisely as if you were in the presence of an enemy contemplating to surprise you.

The delays and apparent vacillations of the Washington Government make it imperative that the further concession of courtesies such as have been accorded to Major Anderson and his command, in supplies from the city, must cease; and, in general terms, the status which you must at once re-establish and rigidly enforce is that of hostile forces in the presence of each other, and who may at any moment be in actual conflict; but as past conditions have allowed this Government to continue thus far courtesies of personal convenience to Major Anderson and his officers, it is proper now, as these courtesies are required to be determined by the necessities of your position, that you signify in respectful terms to Major Anderson that all communication with the city from the fort and with the fort from the city, for any purpose of supply is absolutely inhibited; and after having so notified that gentleman at the very earliest moment practicable you will make your surveillance of the harbor and the enforcement of the rule of instruction indicated in the notice to the commander of Fort Sumter as rigid as all the means at your command and the most watchful vigilance can secure.

Until the withdrawal of the Commissioner of this Government from Washington - an event which may occur at any moment - no operations beyond what is indicated in the foregoing would be admissible. Promptly, however, on the receipt by this Government of the intelligence of such withdrawal the Department will transmit to you specific instructions for your guidance.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

L. P. WALKER,
Secretary of War.

[nolu chan]

The diary caused then-Congressman Benjamin Butler to exclaim, "Who spoliated that book?" and to ask while pointing to the White House, "Who suppressed that evidence?"

Of course, the diary with the pages missing is only one anomaly.

Well-known photographer Alexander Gardner photographed the body of the deceased, allegedly Booth, before the autopsy. The negative and print were delivered to Stanton. They were never seen again. Alexander Gardner was not called to testify at the assassination trial.

In my #2383:

The New York Daily Tribune article is dated April 24, 1865. The pic of Booth's ladies is dated by the NDP as 6-24-65. Booth was supposedly killed on 4-26-65. The initials "EC" stand for Dr. Edward Curtis.

The pic of John Wilkes is of one who identified himself as John Byron Wilkes of India, taken in 1873 in Groom's Studio, Philadelphia, negative number 1292.

When it came time for Congress to authorize the rewards, the debate shows that there was doubt that Booth was, in fact, dead and there was only questionable evidence available.

July 28, 1866 page 4288 Congressional Globe, U.S. Senate

Page 4291

ASSASSINATION REWARDS

The Senate, as in Committe of the Whole, resumed the consideration of House bill No. 801, authorizing the payment of the rewards offered by the President of the United States, &c.

Page 4292

Mr. DAVIS. I should like some Senator to give the Senate some assurance that Abraham Lincoln's murderer was in fact killed. I have never seen myself any satisfactory evidence that Booth was killed.

Mr. HOWARD. In order to prove it demonstratively, perhaps we should be compelled to send for Boston Corbett, who shot him. I suppose the honorable Senator is speaking of Booth.

Mr. DAVIS. Yes.

Mr. JOHNSON. I submit to my friend from Kentucky that there are some things that we must take judicial notice of, just as well as that Julius Caesar is dead.

Mr. DAVIS. I would rather have better testimony of the fact. I want it proved that Booth was in that barn; I cannot conceive, if he was in the barn, why he was not taken alive and brought to this city alive. I have never seen anybody or the evidence of anybody that identified Booth after he is said to have been killed. Why so much secrecy about it? Why was not his body brought up publicly to Washington city and exposed to the gaze of the multitude, that it might be identified? It may be that he is dead; but there is a mystery and a most inexplicable mystery to my mind about the whole affair. He may come back some of these days and murder somebody else.

I merely got up to make this suggestion. I supposed that some gentleman was in possession of facts going to show that Booth was identified. Identify Booth, and these men ought to have their reward, but I doubt whether this man Baker ought to have anything. I believe he was a much bigger villain than any man he was pursuing. I do not doubt that at all; and I believe he is just such a man as to get up now a story of the capture of Booth when Booth had not been overtaken at all. If gentlemen will refer me to where I can get a narrative of facts to prove the identity of Booth, I will at my leisure read it with much interest. I want to be assured of the facts, not with a view to vote on this bill but with a view to the history of the transaction.

I do not see why, if Booth was in the barn, he should have been shot. He could have been captured just as well alive as dead. It would have been much more satisfactory to have brought him up here alive and to have inquired of him to reveal the whole transaction, to have implicated all who were guilty and to have exculpated all who were innocent. I do not see any reason why the matter had not taken that course. Bring his body up, carry it to the City Hall, expose it there to public gaze, let all who had seen him playing, all who associated with him on the stage or in the green room or the taverns and other public places, have had access to his body to have identified it. That was the way, where $100,000 was offered as a reward for capturing the man. I am certain I was as innocent of that murder as the child that is yet unborn; but I should have disliked to have $100,000 offered for me as an accomplice in that murder; it would have caused me to be hung or shot just as certain as fate.

Mr. CONNESS. That would be a big price.

Mr. DAVIS. I have no doubt that the honorable Senator from California could have had me captured or shot for $2.50 by some of his myrmidons.

Mr. ANTHONY. I am happy to relieve my friend from Kentucky by informing him that a small part of the skeleton of Booth is in the anatomical museum of the Surgeon General.

Mr. JOHNSON. Who knows that?

Mr. ANTHONY. I do not know how it is identified, but it is certified to be that.

Mr. SPRAGUE. I hope we shall have the question.

The bill was passed.

[nolu chan]

The pic I posted in my #2383 was taken in 1873 in Groom's Studio, Philadelphia, negative number 1292.

You may take judicial notice of the fact that Booth was killed in 1865.

I don't know who the John Wilkes in the photo is, but when compared to known photos of Booth in 1971, Dr. Lawrence Angell, the Smithsonian Institution's curator of physical anthropology and opined the licknesses were "sufficiently similar... to allow the possibility that they are all pictures of one man, taken at different times of his life.... details of ear formation (strong antihelix), of the right eyebrow, and of the chin, appear very similar."

Booth relatives tried, in recent years, to have what was identified as the body of Booth exhumed for DNA testing. Their efforts at exhumation were blocked in court.

[nolu chan]

Wow, it is tinfoil hat time!

Wow, it is Radical Republican QUOTE time.

"By God, the sooner he is assassinated the better!"
-- Senator Benjamin Wade

Congressman George Julian declared Lincoln's reconstruction policies, "as distasteful as possible to Radical Republicans."

After Lincoln's assassination, Congressman Julian wrote, "while everybody was shocked at [Lincoln's] murder, the feeling [among Radical Republicans] was nearly universal that the ascension of Johnson to the presidence would prove a godsend to the country."

Senator Zachariah Chandler said, "God placed a better man in Lincoln's place."

And just to round it out,

Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, in a speech at Grand Rapids, September 8, 1900, said that in 1864, "on every hand Lincoln was denounced as a tyrant, a shedder of blood, a foe to liberty, a would-be dictator, a founder of an empire...."

[Non-Sequitur]

Booth relatives tried, in recent years, to have what was identified as the body of Booth exhumed for DNA testing. Their efforts at exhumation were blocked in court.

Their efforts were blocked for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that the exact location of Booth's grave was unknown, and that the 'relatives' connection were so far removed from Booth (a first cousin, twice removed and a great, great, great niece) that they could not qualify as next of kin.

Brief filed for Green Mount Cemetary

[nolu chan]

Quoting from the post of capitan_kerryfugio

"By the authority of the Governor of Maryland "

"One such messenger arrived shortly after midnight at Ravenhurst, the beautiful Victorian home of Isaac Ridgeway Trimble in north central Baltimore County. Trimble was Superintendent of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad and a Colonel in the state militia."

Whether it was the Governor or a lying Mayor who authorized the bridge-burning, John Merryman was a member of the State Militia carrying out orders which were valid on their face.

Assuming the Governor or Mayor acting improperly, charges could have been preferred against the Governor or Mayor.

Naturally, Merryman was only involved with bridges near Cockeysville where he lived.

[capitan_refugio]

I bet you enjoyed the film, "The Lincoln Conspiracies."

Nut case.

[capitan_refugio]

"Whether it was the Governor or a lying Mayor who authorized the bridge-burning, John Merryman was a member of the State Militia carrying out orders which were valid on their face."

Only an insurrectionist would accept those orders as valid.

[capitan_refugio]

NC - "Naturally, Merryman was only involved with bridges near Cockeysville where he lived."

Naturally.

And as I've been told, repeatedly, Cockeysville is nowhere near Baltimore! LOL!!

As it was, Merryman led a company of militia shadowing Federal troops almost back to the Pennsylvania border. Who knows what bridges he might have burned or which telegraph lines he may have cut.

[capitan_refugio]

#2346 - bushpilot - got it started.

I don't know the source or the authenticity of your photo of "John Wilkes." I do know that your conspiracy theories regarding the assassination, the Booth diary, the unsourced and out-of-context quotations, ad nauseum, are a (to use a term of yours) "pantsload."

[capitan_refugio]

In 1899, Joel Chandler Harris, a contemporary of Booth's who would become famous for his Uncle Remus folk tales, wrote that Booth "had all the elements of genius.... "

All evil people aren't stupid. Klinton, for instance, was a Rhodes Scholar ... and a serial rapist.

[capitan_refugio]

It is unlikely Lincoln would have known immediately of the mayor's complicity. Brown was arrested in September, when his treason became known.

[capitan_refugio]

Throughout most of the war, newspapers in the North fell over each other as they showered praise on John Wilkes Booth's acting engagements. Phrases like "Star of the first magnitude", "the youngest star in the world" and "the most handsome man on the American stage" were commonplace in theatre columns from Boston to Washington, New York to Chicago."

Some people considered Scott Peterson to be "charismatic" and "likable" too. I doubt he'll die peacefully, either.

[GOPcapitalist]

Assuming the Governor or Mayor acting improperly, charges could have been preferred against the Governor or Mayor.

...and instead Lincoln invited them both to the White House the very next day.

[GOPcapitalist]

Only an insurrectionist would accept those orders as valid.

Why? Does not the government of Maryland have the power to control access to transportation within Maryland in order to maintain the public safety? Even Lincoln apparently had little objection to what Hicks and Brown ordered - he invited them to the White House the very next day to commend them for preserving the peace!