Assassination Trivia

[Steve Whitlock]

(01-20-2021 11:06 PM)Steve Wrote:  Steve W.,
I just found a more indepth article about Oliver Gatch and his story about the night of the assassination from the December 1908 edition of McClure's magazine:


https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=m...up&seq=225

Steve Williams,
As usual you find the better sources. Thank you! However, I have a 2 part news story about the brothers which is very similar in portions, but has a significant difference. In the newspaper it says that Charles was dressed in civilian clothing, which would eliminate him as the person Clara Harris mentioned.

I see I also got bad information for Charles being in the 89th OH Reg't. It appears that was Oliver, according to both of our articles.

I can't add the newspaper story myself, since it exceeds the allowance. With no corroboration beyond Dr Gatch being named in the 15 Apr 1865 article it's hard to give credence without reservation to Oliver's account. He may have read other accounts and placed Charles in the position of Dr. Leale, who has more sources. That makes the Oliver Gatch account of events suspect. But I do believe they were there, and Charles would have had to be in the service to be on furlough, if that part of the account is true.