Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels

[Anita]

Roger, thanks for this trivia question. I read Emmon's poem. Perhaps Robert sang the song to Lucy when he gave her the book.

Gene, you'd make a great infomercial book seller. Do you have a a two for one if I order now?

[RJNorton]

Nancy Hanks Lincoln died in 1818. In 1819 Thomas Lincoln departed Indiana for Elizabethtown, Kentucky. His intention was to propose marriage to Sarah Bush Johnston. Thomas hoped to return to his children in Indiana with a new wife.

How many days elapsed between when Thomas first came to see Sarah Bush Johnston in Elizabethtown and his marriage to her?

[Gene C]

Three ?

[RJNorton]

Close enough, Gene. According to Samuel Haycraft it was one day. According to Haycraft, Thomas arrived in Elizabethtown on December 1, 1819, asked Sarah to marry him, paid off Sarah's debts that evening, and the couple married the next day.

Haycraft described it as "a very short courtship."

Dennis Hanks noted, "Tom has a kind of way with women, and maybe it was something she took comfort in to have a man that didn't drink and cuss none."

[AussieMick]

WHO AM I ?

I wrote a love letter to Ella shortly ( about a week) before Lincoln died.

[Dennis Urban]

John Wilkes Booth

[AussieMick]

Sorry, Dennis. But since you were so quick, you deserve a hint.
The love letter was enclosed in another letter sent to an intermediary.

---

I'm not yet 21

[Steve]

It's Willie Clark, the young clerk on who's bed the President was cared for and died at Petersen House. Willie was away when the President was shot.

Here's a link to images of a letter written after the assassination where the former letter to Ella is mentioned:

https://rememberinglincoln.fords.org/node/707

Willie later married Ella.

Note: There are a couple of forged letters by an Augustus Clark (as an alleged roommate of Willie) which claim to be an eyewitness account of Lincoln's death at Petersen House but were in fact written years later.

[AussieMick]

It's Willie Clark, the young clerk on who's bed the President was cared for and died at Petersen House. Willie was away when the President was shot.

Here's a link to images of a letter written after the assassination where the former letter to Ella is mentioned:

https://rememberinglincoln.fords.org/node/707

Willie later married Ella.

Note: There are a couple of forged letters by an Augustus Clark (as an alleged roommate of Willie) which claim to be an eyewitness account of Lincoln's death at Petersen House but were in fact written years later.

Very well done, Steve. A good piece of thinking outside the square. ... and obviously a very good memory. I was going to somehow bring in the fact that Wille slept (before and after) in the bed on which Lincoln died.

[David Lockmiller]

James S. Pleasants
March 25, 1863.

The sentence of death in this case is hereby commuted to imprisonment for during the war, in one of the military prisons to be designated by the Secretary of War. A. LINCOLN

AGO General Orders No. 76, March 31, 1863. Lincoln's endorsement is on the court-martial record of James Snowdon Pleasants, a citizen of Montgomery County, Maryland, convicted March 8, 1863.

For what crime had James Snowdon Pleasants been convicted and sentenced to death?

[RJNorton]

Treason?

[David Lockmiller]

Treason?

You are technically correct, Roger; treason being defined as the crime of "betraying one's country." However, Maryland contained a number of citizens sympathizing with, and even supporting to some degree, the Southern Cause. In the same manner, a number of citizens in the seceding states, such as Virginia, had citizens sympathizing with, and even supporting to some degree, the Union cause.

In essence, it is the nature of the actual support for the Southern Cause by James Snowdon Pleasants that is at issue for President Lincoln. In a manner of speaking, President Lincoln is "setting a precedent" for the governments of both the North and the South.

President Lincoln's Generals ordered the death penalty for the particular violation; President Lincoln commuted the sentence for the crime "to imprisonment for during the war."

So, the question remains: "What did this citizen of Maryland do wrong?"

Hint: The question involves specific interaction by a Union citizen with enemy soldiers.

[RJNorton]

Giving food to the enemy.

[AussieMick]

Giving shelter to the enemy?

[Steve]

Since Mick and Roger have already given the correct answers, I'm posting a link to images of the General Order referred to by David for everybody to look over for themselves:

https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/bookview...1/mode/1up