|
 |
Blast from the Past
Articles from the Charger Archives |
|
|
Confederate Complicity
In the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
By John C. Fazio
From May, 1984, until his arrest in
November, 1985, Jonathan Pollard, a 31-year old head of the Middle
Eastern desk at the U.S. Navy’s Suitland, Maryland, Intelligence
Complex, spied for Israel. The classified documents that he gave
Israel access to would fill a space 10 ft. by 6 ft. by 6 ft. (360
cu.ft.). It was said that he did it for money and jewelry, but we
may be certain that he did it for political reasons as well. His
treachery is said to have caused one of the worst security disasters
in United States history. In 1987 he was convicted and
sentenced to life imprisonment. All efforts to have him paroled or
pardoned have failed.
What is significant is that from
the date of his arrest until 1998, Israel insisted that his
activities were a rogue operation. In 1998, then Prime Minister
Netanyahu admitted that it wasn’t so, that in fact Pollard was, at
all relevant times, an Israeli intelligence agent and that Israeli
intelligence had recruited him and handled him, i.e. supervised his
activities, until he was caught.
Does anyone suppose that United
States intelligence services, or any intelligence service in the
world, for that matter, bought the “rogue operation” explanation? Of
course not. Why not? Because all intelligence services know that the
business of intelligence is incredibly complex and sophisticated,
that it is imperative that agents follow orders at all times,
especially when major policies of a government can be and likely
will be affected by their actions, and that “rogue operations” are
all but unknown in the intelligence world.
So let it be with the assassination
of Abraham Lincoln. The notion that it was a rogue operation by a
disgruntled actor and a little band of cut-throats, mental retards
and cowards is ridiculous on its face, and the evidence that it was
not this is very strong to overwhelming.
CONTINUE ARTICLE>>
Editor's
Note: This article
was originally published on the CCWRT website in 2008 and has since
prompted much discussion within the Roundtable. It, in fact, was at
least partially responsible for the debate that took place at our June
meeting.
Whether or not you're a believer in the complicity of the Confederate
government in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, this article provides
an excellent overview of the argument.
 |
|
 |
The (Secret)
Life and Letters
of General George Gordon
Meade |
|
In Order of Disappearance
Headquarters of the Army of the Potomac,
Burkettsville, Va.
April 27, 1865To Mrs. George G.
Meade
I have received your letters of the 22d
and 23d insts. Such exhibitions as are now being made of the body of Mr.
Lincoln, are always in my judgment in bad taste, and are never solemn or
impressive. Still, as public ceremonies, I suppose they always will be, as
they ever have been, necessary for the masses of people.
Before this arrives, you shall have heard
the news received this morning of the capture and untimely demise of John
Wilkes Booth, the actor, after desperate chasings through the mud of
Maryland and Virginia. Should the lesser conspirators maintain silence, we
may never know the impulses of that rich and handsome young man. I cannot
imagine the motives of the perpetrators of such foul deeds, or what they
expect to gain.
You must remember meeting him at a rather
desperate soiree of Canning’s, who found it more lucrative to be Booth’s
agent than to improve upon his practice of law in Philadelphia? How
providential that I did not take up Booth’s offer to join him, and his
musical friend from Cleveland, whose name I have misplaced, in the
Dramatic oil company. You chided me upon their early success, but remained
quite silent when they accidentally exploded their only well, the
Wilhelmina, in November last. Booth lost his entire investment. Perhaps
there is a connection between the oil business and the mad assassination
of the President. The whole affair is a mystery. Let us pray God to have
mercy on our country and bring us through these trials.
I may tell you of an odd occurrence last
night. A disreputable character was escorted to my tent shortly after one
in the morning. He was clad in farmer’s rags, leaning heavily on a stick,
for his leg was injured, and gave altogether the impression of a man
anxious to avoid prolonged examination. Not yet having word of Booth’s
fate, there was much excitement spread through the camp that this was the
fugitive. Crowds of soldiers gathered to hear my stern interrogation.
The man said he was a Union soldier,
medically discharged at Petersburg, by name John St. Helen from Texas.
This accounted for his southern accent, but he was unable to explain why
his left hand bore a tattoo, which I made out as JWB, though it was
recently much scratched about and scarred. Unaware that Booth was already
dead, I sensed that a great and signal triumph was to be mine. I was saved
from embarrassment by Private Kowell, who astutely observed that the
tattoo might not read JWB if examined from another angle. I saw at once
that 8MI could indicate the confederate 8th Mississippi. Taxed with this,
St. Helen admitted that I was too sharp. He was a sergeant of that
regiment, of company K, the Ellsler Invincibles, he said with a curious
smile. Something about that name was strangely familiar but, given my
successful closure of the war, I graciously dismissed him to continue his
forlorn journey to Texas.
I hope I may not one day regret promoting
Kowell to sergeant for his deed. This morning’s telegraph confirms Booth’s
death but also lists the 8th Mississippi as giving their parole just
yesterday at Greensboro, North Carolina. A man without a wounded leg could
not reach Burkettsville from there so swiftly, and it is not at all in the
way to Texas. It must be that he made an early exit when it was clear that
all was lost, and that at first he went quite in the wrong direction,
until I set him properly on the road.
MORE MEADE>>
Note: In the more than 100 years since
his decease, the General has been busy reconstructing from memory his secret,
lost letters which shed new light on topics of great interest to the members
of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. He currently is living in Bloemfontein
South Africa working on a complimentary biography of General D. E. Sickles (decs'd)
and may be contacted at Majgenlmeade @
aol.com.

|
|
 |
From the Charger
Newsletter of
the Cleveland CWRT |
|
A Report from the Field...
The 18th Annual Sarasota Civil War Symposium
By John Hildebrandt
There are relatively few Civil War
sites in Florida, but for 3 days every winter Sarasota is the center
of the Civil War universe. This past January, my wife, Marie, and I
attended the Civil War Education Society’s 18th Annual Civil War
Symposium at the Helmsley Sandcastle Resort on Lido Beach in
Sarasota, Florida. For most of us, the Civil War is best studied on
the field of battle—be it Gettysburg, Antietam, Shiloh, Ft. Sumter,
or Vicksburg—but in the midst of an Ohio winter the beach on Lido
Key is a better than fair substitute. This was our fifth symposium,
spaced over the past 8 years, and it has become a January tradition.
The event begins with a reception on Wednesday night. The symposium
presentations run Thursday and Friday until mid-afternoon—allowing
plenty of time for personal pursuits—and conclude by noon on
Saturday. This year’s faculty was excellent, including Ed Bearss,
William “Jack” Davis, Joseph Glatthaar, Gary Ecelbarger, Robert
Krick, Charles Roland, Dale Phillips, and Terrence Winchell. Jeffrey
Wert was a last-minute scratch. Each year the symposium attracts
about 100 participants, Civil War enthusiasts from all around the
U.S., though the biggest representation is from Florida and the
southeast. This year, Marie and I were the only representatives from
the Buckeye State.
CONTINUE ARTICLE>>
Blue and Gray on the Silver
Screen
By William F.B. Vodrey
Michael
Kraus, curator of the Pittsburgh Soldiers & Sailors Monument and Museum,
offered a very interesting and original program at the Roundtable's
October 14 meeting. He spoke about the Civil War on film, and his own
involvement in the productions of Gettysburg and Cold Mountain.
Hollywood turned to the Civil War as a dramatic topic very early on, with
dozens of movies (most of them very short) being made about the war
annually by the 1920s. Kraus discussed how Lost Cause mythology took early
root on the Silver Screen, with both Birth of a Nation and Gone
with the Wind sympathetically reflecting it. (He was intrigued
afterwards when I told him that a 10-year-old Martin Luther King Jr. had
sung with the Ebenezer Baptist Church choir at the segregated premiere of
GWTW in Atlanta in 1939.)
He said he usually has only a few weeks'
notice when a production company needs his help as a consultant. He got
involved in Gettysburg, for instance, on very short notice. The
1993 Turner Entertainment film was originally called by the Michael Shaara
novel's name of The Killer Angels, but studio research showed that
the title confused potential audiences, so it was changed. Much of the
movie was filmed on Pennsylvanian countryside near Gettysburg that was
very similar to the battlefield itself, but Pickett's Charge was filmed on
the actual hallowed ground. (The on-set rumor was that Ted Turner used his
White House contacts to get an order for the Park Service, with great
reluctance, to let them film there). The scene of Gen. Robert E. Lee
riding along the lines and being cheered by his men was completely
spontaneous, with cameras rushed in to capture it. Kraus said that actor
Martin Sheen, as Lee, was a little taken aback - if not scared - by how
loud and excited the troops were.
CONTINUE ARTICLE>>
 |
|
 |
From the Bookshelf
Recent Additions to
the Civil War Literature |
|
|
In the Shadow of the Civil
War:
Passmore Williamson and the Rescue of Jane Johnson
By Nat Brandt with Yanna Kroyt Brandt
 |
William Still
|
It was "very warm," William Still
thought, "intensely hot" in fact for a mid-July day in Philadelphia.
Still was wearing a top hat as a shield against the blazing
late-afternoon sun, but otherwise he had chosen to don the jacket of
the suit he wore to work. It couldn't have been comfortable in the
heat, for Still was striding quickly down Fifth Street, an urgent
note in his hand. A "colored boy" he had never seen before had
handed him the note at the office of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery
Society.
Still was the society's clerk, a
title that belied his critical duties. He was entrusted with running
the storefront operation at the society's headquarters at 31 North
Fifth, where he distributed abolitionist literature and sold books,
tracts, and subscriptions to newspapers dedicated to the
abolitionist cause. But more importantly, he was the society's
"receiving agent." He kept in touch by mail with
abolitionists in other northern states as well as with sympathizers
in the South, becoming widely known in abolition circles as a
go-between, forwarder of information, and arranger of escapes. A
journalist would describe him as "somewhat tall, neat in figure and
person" with, as the journalist added, "a smiling face."
It is doubtful that Still was smiling
that day. The note he was carrying demanded immediate attention.
Still served as secretary of the society's General Vigilance
Committee. One of its functions-a controversial one that brought it
into direct conflict with the federal government-was to inform
slaves brought by their owners into Pennsylvania, a free state, that
they were entitled to their freedom "without another moment's
service." The committee would assist them and even provide "counsel
without charge" if' requested.
CONTINUE ACTICLE>>
Editor's Note: This
article is excerpted from the book
In the Shadow of the Civil War: Passmore Williamson and the Rescue
of Jane Johnson and appears here through the courtesy of the
authors. Nat Brandt spoke to the CCWRT at its
March 2010 meeting.
 |
|