A Bit of Levity re: O'Reilly's "Killing Lincoln"

[Wesley Harris]

I checked out an audiobook of Killing Lincoln from the library for a long road trip. I found it very entertaining storytelling. I see it as a way to familiarize more people to the assassination. But for anyone who is knowledgeable of the facts, the errors are distracting. However, many of the errors I caught have been repeated over and over in other publications. For example, the ball fired into Lincoln's skull was made of lead, not "Brittania metal" as O'Reilly states. But this error is made numerous times in assassination literature. I never heard the "Oval Office" error on the audiobook. Maybe corrections were made from the original print edition.

[L Verge]

I hope some errors have been corrected. And, it's not unusual that Mr. O'Reilly repeated other people's errors because he basically lifted his work from other people's renditions of the history.

Quite a few visitors to Surratt House this season have mentioned reading the book, but few have said much about it history-wise. It certainly has not had the impact that James Swanson's Manhunt has had. We still have people raving about it.

[Gerald D. Swick]

I've been asked to verify whether or not 87 Union soldiers drowned in the Maryland swamps while looking for Booth. Thus far I haven't been able to find any reference to that outside of O'Riley's book or people writing about the book. Does anyone here have any info confirming these drownings did or did not occur? I'd appreciate it.

[BettyO]

Interesting, but have NEVER heard of such a thing.....anyone else?

I have not read O'Reilly's book.

[L Verge]

I have lived near those Maryland swamps nearly all my life and had never heard nor read anything about Union soldiers drowning in them until I read O'Reilly's book. Those soldiers stood a better chance of getting eaten alive by mosquitoes than drowning in the swamps unless it was a very wet spring.

I wondered at the time if Messrs. O'Reilly and Dugard mistook the deaths for the drownings of the Alexandria firemen and others who were on the Black Diamond boat in the Potomac when struck by another ship. Those men were part of the search for the fugitives.

[Gerald D. Swick]

BettyO and L Verge, thanks for your response; sorry I haven't been able to get back to you sooner. Your responses match what we found, that the "87 drowned" was probably inspired by the collision between the barge Black Diamond and the steamer Massachusetts on April 24, although even the numbers don't match. Possibly the authors came across some erroneous newspaper report of soldiers drowning in Maryland - anyone who's spent much time reading old newspapers has probably run across some totally bogus stories - but O'Riley's co-author, Martin Dugard, didn't respond to our request for information on where they got their statistic. Thanks again for your response.

[Gene C]

This latest video from Fox News - Watters' World.
Kind of sad and funny at the same time

http://video.foxnews.com/v/3966326508001...6326508001

[Dave Taylor]

Though I meant to watch it, I completely forgot about the supposed Lincoln edition of the O'Reilly Factor that aired right before "Killing Lincoln" last night. From what I can gather from the O'Reilly website, however, I didn't really miss anything new other than an interview with the co-author Martin Dugard. That interview has not been put online yet. The rest of the show appears to have comprised of various interviews O'Reilly did when he was hawking the book. If you click here (http://www.billoreilly.com/show?action=v...D=3832#2), you can see one he did with radio personality Don Imus. He equates Swanson's best selling book, Manhunt, as having been written in a traditional "history way", which it absolutely is not. O'Reilly goes on to say that he wrote his own book for "high school dropouts", which doesn't surprise me.

My favorite part, however, is when O'Reilly shows his true lack of knowledge on the subject of Lincoln's assassination aside from a few non-descript stories. At one point, Imus asks for reassurance that Lincoln was killed on the 14th of April. This, of course, is incorrect as Lincoln was shot on the 14th but did not die until the 15th. So Imus asks O'Reilly, "Lincoln was killed on the 14th right?". O'Reilly answers, "Yeah" and gets a strange look on his face which Imus responds to with, "You don't know do you?". O'Reilly, straining now, looks up to the heavens as if he is trying to recall a very elusive piece of trivia and says, "I'm pulling it out of my hat but I think you're correct." Well, that was enough for me. If you don't even know the date of Lincoln's death, stop hawking your book and go back to spouting your diatribe to the "high school dropouts" that watch your show.

I apologize that my political leanings soaked into that a bit, but I don't care for Mr. O'Reilly's manner of news reporting.

I also found it funny in the video Gene linked to that it seems very obvious that the host guy does not know that Lincoln was from Kentucky originally.

[Thomas Thorne]

Now that people have cited the staggering quantity of errors of the book, I want to actually read it. I spent a few moments flipping thru it and saw the howler about Johnson being impeached for his harsh Reconstruction policies.

As the few remaining bookstores-you remember them-have dining facilities, you can spend considerable time reading a book without buying it.

I invite you all to cite yr favorite O'Reilly travesty. If enough of you do so, I won't have to read it.
Tom

[RJNorton]

It's been awhile since I read it, but I recall he referred to Lincoln's office as the Oval Office. There was no Oval Office at that time.

http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/phot...D=3&ID=217

[BettyO]

Quote:It's been awhile since I read it, but I recall he referred to Lincoln's office as the Oval Office. There was no Oval Office at that time.

I love to pick out such errors - it's like Shaara's Gods and Generals....years ago, I was going to read it; however there were so many glaring historical errors, I just couldn't. The opening scenes in the book (circa about 1858) has Joshua Chamberlain repairing a "barbed wire fence" - in Maine! The first patent in the United States for barbed wire was issued in 1867 - and it was introduced primarily to keep cattle confined out west! Also in the book, the Shockoe area in Richmond was referred to as "Shockoe Slip" - a Yuppie term not utilized until the 1980s......

Don't you just love it?!

[LincolnToddFan]

(01-03-2015 02:17 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  It's been awhile since I read it, but I recall he referred to Lincoln's office as the Oval Office. There was no Oval Office at that time.

http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/phot...D=3&ID=217

He also describes Lewis Powell smashing Fanny Seward hard in the face with his fist and knocking her cold. All I can say is that Fanny must have been steel plated. A frail, tiny young woman like her would have been dead as Lincoln if that had truly happened!

I don't remember reading about the 1860's "Oval Office". I must have blocked it from memory!