Anne Adams
River Ridge, Louisiana
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Let Them Rest In Peace
Brian Pulito laments the fact that no federal holiday has been designatedto honor Robert E. Lee. Lee swore an oath of allegiance to the UnitedStates to protect it from its enemies, yet he broke that vow when he turnedhis back on his flag and on his duties as an officer in the U.S. Army. Tohonor Lee with a federal holiday is to dishonor the memory of thousands ofUnion soldiers who died in that senseless, costly, and tragic war. Topetition for such a federal mandate can only result in a revival of formerdivided loyalties, hatreds, and intolerance. Johnny Reb and Billy Yank died130 years ago. Let them rest in peace.
Helen Giangregorio
Anaheim Hills, California
Late-Breaking News
Fresh history, thanks to author Bob Zeller (”Smoketown Hospital”). A U.S.Army surgeon’s letter to his wife stating he was at Ford’s Theater thenight of Lincoln’s assassination: “a sharp quick report of a pistol washeard and instantly a man jumped from the box, in which was the President,to the stage-and rushing across the stage, made his escape” [emphasisadded]. A clear view by a physician and no mention of any limp from aninjury is strong evidence to me that John Wilkes Booth did not fracture hisleg in the leap onto the stage, as recorded in Booth’s diary. Indeed, hisaccomplice and escape companion, Davy Herold, stated that Booth broke hisleg in a horse fall, escaping through Maryland.
E.H. Rucker, Jr., M.D.
Newport News, Virginia
The Mysterious “Miss Hall”
The article on Smoketown Hospital (May) and Doctor Childs’ letters togetherwith the heretofore unpublished photographs were most interesting. Ofparticular interest was the reference to a “Miss Hall” in two of thephotos. Maria M.C. Hall, turned down by Dorothea Dix for the Nursing Corpsbecause of her youth and attractiveness, started a nursing career on herown that would extend through the war. She served in the Patent OfficeHospital in Washington; aboard a Sanitary Commission vessel, the DanielWebster; performed her duties on the Peninsula; and then on to Antietamassigned to the Smoketown General Hospital, where she stayed for ninemonths. Her next assignment was to the Naval Academy Hospital at Annapolis,where she tended the sick and wounded to war’s end.
William Harris
Mt. Laurel, New Jersey
ErrataMay: “Smoketown Hospital”-Point Lookout is in Maryland, not Virginia.”Blind Justice”-December 4, 1863, is the date Lieutenant General JamesLongstreet gave up his siege of Knoxville, Tennessee, not the date theFederals captured the city.
© 1996, The History Group of Cowles Enthusiast Media. Allrights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express
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