The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1868-01-07
Abrahan, Lincoln.
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"a ~ ~ AAftt b. t&Ns
oGes eu9fSY EuJrD
The charge that President Lincoln IN
duiged ~ unaeel@y leyity on the ba,tl
field Of Antetam calling forribald song
and vulgar jokes h Tie presence of th
wounded, the dying, aud the unburie,
dead has from tlmo to time been 10
peated, and inaustriously circulated 1,
the enemies Of the Union party, thro'
opt the country. Mr. Horton, late ed
itor q the Nen Hort Dag Boat, has en-
bodied the story h his "Youth's Histo
4 ~ Of the Civil War" written from Ia,
Southern standpoint to, offset similaI
work from the Northern point Of view
published in Boston aud the Boston
( poa, Of 50 reqen date as September Is
1861 rgerrls Gto criticism in thc
Ae,c f0rt Tribune upon Presiden
Johnson's spe II al the Antietam Gem
etery ceremonies, says Perhaps it,
I the tribune would have preferred
that Goary or'@me one else had sung
the song whicb t-a late lamented Presi
dent Lincoln sag, when galloping al
the head Of parry of visitors over that
field of battle.
Believing this. charge to have been n
malignant fabrication, / have long
sought for eyidenee to prove the fact. E
Very lately There has proyidentially
come into my hands the most complete
i and incontestil.e yindication Of Mr..
Llncoln's character; and / am now pre-.
pared to prove the origin and author
ship of this calunny
It's author was Mr.. Joseph Scovill,
the New York correspondent during
the war OF the LVaaoa Herqtd and Lon
don Standard, hose letters over the
signature Of Manhattan, will be long
remembered by 'be American public for
their virulont disloyalty and peryersion
Of all facts which favored the Northern
cause
Two or three seeks after the battle
OF Antietam, nose of Mr.. Scovall' 5 gos-
siping London atters, he mentioned
the fact Of Mr Lincolns visiting the
battlefield, and thereon invented and
wrote the slander since republishcd So
many times by Mg. Lincoln : enemies
Reference to the newspapers OF that
date will show that the first time the
story was printed ii this country it was
as an extract from letter to the Lon
don Herald by its New York Correspon-
dent Manhattan"
Mr.. T. II. Jenny, we'll known cit
tizen of New York city, met MIR. Scoyil
in Cartoons book tore shortly after the
publication Of th, letter containing this
charge. He saic%.l .sim. "Scoyiu, how
came you to write that nonsense to the
London press about President Lincoln
at Antietam ?"
"Why, replied Scoyill, ''it was in
tended only as joke ] received, he
continued ten ponds steriiag for H,at
letter. ] have to put just such stuff as
that in my letters to please such fellows
as they are over there,
Mr.. Jenny fortunately put this state,
ment in writing soon atterward, and
has thus on record the very words of
the conversation,
Subsequently Scovill wrote letter to
the London Herald purporting to give
an account of Gen. Grants advance
toward Richmond; and 50 grossly mis-
represented the battle of Spottsylvania
that when the letter came back to this
country, as published both in the Lon
don Herald and London &aadard Gen.
Dix wrote Scoyill to consider himself
under arrest, and report at his Office
Scovill told Gen, Dix that he was very
Ill, and thought he had not three weeks |
10 live and begged not to be sent to
Fort lafayette. Gen. Dix said the mat
ter would be referred to Washington,
and IN the meantime he must consider
under arrest Scovill subse- |
quently exhibited his "orler Of arrest
to Mr., Jenny at the Controllers Office
Of the city Of New York; and in answer
to inquiries as to the nature Of the |
charges against him, replied: "My ac-
count Of Grants fighting on the Rapi-
dan and at Spottsylvania. When Mr. /
j. suggested that it might be his Sian
der OF President Lincoln at Antietam, I
instead, he replied "That was inten :
only as joke; nobody believes it here;
IT was written to please those follows
over there, reiteratiug his assertion
that the letter containing the fabrication |
produced him e10 sterling"