David Gaddy

[wpbinzel]

I join in the well deserved salute to David Gaddy. While I never met General Tidwell, Mr. Hall or Mr. Gaddy, Come Retribution was a real game-changer. In the scholarship of Lincoln’s assassination, there are many excellent books on what happened, Come Retribution was the first serious investigation into why it happened. So much of the “traditional history” theories of Booth’s motivation; his travels in late-1864 and early-1865; his introduction to Dr. Mudd and John Surratt; the recruitment of the other conspirators; the course of his escape and the assistance he received; the notion of his being a “crazy, drunk Southern Sympathizer”; etc., simply did not seem plausible. For me (and I suspect others), Come Retribution did more to stimulate my thinking and re-examination of what I thought I knew about Lincoln’s assassination than any other single book. While it may not have all the answers (and its authors would likely be the first to admit that), I believe that Come Retribution has influenced the authors who have come after it, and will have a greater influence on research into Lincoln’s assassination over the next 50 years than any other one book had in shaping it in the first 100 years. Thank you, Mr. Gaddy.