Surratt Courier

[HerbS]

I still have NOT gotten my Courier this Fall or Winter!-Herb Swingle.I hope it is a basic snafu!

[wpbinzel]

(01-03-2015 05:14 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Thanks, Bill, for your work on this article. I loved it.

Thank you, Roger. I inherited several boxes of old books from my uncle, including the bound Volume XVI of Scribner's Monthly (1878) and I "discovered" the article while perusing it. While I suspect that Viele may have embellished portions of his article, I thought that it was so rich with details and anecdotes that it was worthy of being "resurrected." That article may be the source of a number of Lincoln stories and quotes. (For example, with regard to his inability to say "no" to requests, the article quotes Lincoln as saying: "Thank God for not making me a woman, but if He had, I suppose He would have made me just as ugly as He did, and no one would ever have tempted me." While I have seen that quote (or a version of it) before, I have not seen it referenced to a source.) It was just too good not to share.

(PS - I have donated the volume to the James O. Hall Library at the Surratt House Museum.)

[L Verge]

(01-03-2015 05:55 PM)HerbS Wrote:  I still have NOT gotten my Courier this Fall or Winter!-Herb Swingle.I hope it is a basic snafu!

Herb, I changed your address to the new one a long time ago. Send me an email at work laurie.verge@pgparks.com, and we will get you caught up and work out any snafus that might have occurred. Nothing has been sent back to us.

Did you renew your dues? We sent reminders out in November to those who had not and are up-to-date on catching those that came in after November 15.

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(01-03-2015 05:14 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Kudos to Bill Binzel for the article he edited in the current (January 2015) Surratt Courier. The article is entitled A Trip with Lincoln, Chase, and Stanton by Egbert L. Viele. I won't give away too much away, but I was overjoyed to read that in May 1862 Abraham Lincoln had performed the same feat with an ax that he performed at City Point on April 8, 1865. At City Point Lincoln picked up an ax by the butt and held his arm straight out with the handle parallel to the ground. He held the 7-pound tool motionless for several minutes. I have always believed in that story, and I once email-argued with an author (not a forum member) over its veracity. I wish I had known (at that time) about Lincoln doing the same thing in 1862 to the sheer amazement of all the sailors who watched him do it.

Thanks, Bill, for your work on this article. I loved it.

I loved that article also, and as soon as I read it, I thought of you, Roger, because it gave a second affirmation to the ax story. And, one that was totally separate and a different time from the one usually cited. I also thought this article was another one of those that put some life and blood into Lincoln and the men around him.

[LincolnToddFan]

Hi Roger, thanks for mentioning another confirmation of the famous axe story. I had begun to doubt it after reading all the rebuttals of Dr. Soros(the man who recently came forth with the theory that AL was fatally ill at the end of his life) It's quite an amazing feat, really Herculean in fact. And I definitely believe that it happened.

And a big THANK YOU to Bill as well!

[Eva Elisabeth]

I 100% second Roger, Laurie (!!!) and Toia and say thanks for the great article, too!

[RJNorton]

Kudos to forum member David Keehn regarding his excellent article in the current Surratt Courier. It is entitled Knights of the Golden Circle and the Lincoln Assassination: Credible Connections. David covers many topics including Michael O'Laughlen and his April 13th and April 14th actions. I have always been interested in O'Laughlen's reported casing of Stanton's house on the night of the 13th at a time when the Grants were attending a reception there.

There is a thread on David's book here.

[david keehn]

(03-05-2015 02:10 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Kudos to forum member David Keehn regarding his excellent article in the current Surratt Courier. It is entitled Knights of the Golden Circle and the Lincoln Assassination: Credible Connections. David covers many topics including Michael O'Laughlen and his April 13th and April 14th actions. I have always been interested in O'Laughlen's reported casing of Stanton's house on the night of the 13th at a time when the Grants were attending a reception there.

There is a thread on David's book here.

Thanks Roger. I wrote the article because I feel that there's still much more to uncover regarding the Lincoln assassination. Whille Stanton initiated one of the largest dragnets in history to identify and arrest potential conspirators, the follow-up was often superficial and many were rather quickly set free (e. g. Louis Carland, Augustu Casauran, Chester, Cox, John Matthews, John McCullough, T. William O'Laughlen). When comparing my knowledge of the Knights to the assassination evidence, I'm left with numerous suspicions and unanswered questions. You mention the testimony of David Stanton and Major Kilburn Knox at 226-27 of the Pittman transcript that Michael O'Laughlen cased Stanton's house around 10 p.m. on April 13. Benjamin Early and O'Laughlen's other friends from Baltimore questioned this, but if they were KGC, it sheds a whole new light on the situation. And who was "Mr. Heard" of Georgetown that Arnold said received the box of weapons from O'Laughlen in Jan. 1864 (see Memoirs of a Lincoln Conspirator, 137)? And what about Ed Hanson and his fellow conspirators that were supposed to kill Johnson (see LAE, 674)? And why would H. C. Young, the head of the KGC around Memphis, who nursed Booth back to health at Cincinnati in Feb. 1864, send Stanton a letter date April 20. 1864 to help the government identify Booth's body (LAE 1400-01)? There's so many things that are mysterious that really haven't been explored. I'd be interested in the thoughts of your members regarding these.