Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1892-09-05
a Card From o. 5. Marshal White.
u lhs Ealtgr 81 ~ RlQis.sr.

To he EtiitUr OF TIE Rooster:
DEAR SRI am sure that you will not
be willing 10 allow your readers TO 60 so
badly misinformed about the JEFF Davis
episode between the Democratic candidate
for Governor (MacCorkle) and myself,
mat occurred in the Hotel Ruhner at
Charleston, December 5, 1889 as the article
in Saturday mornings REGISTER would
lead 10.
The ''Wheeling gentleman" that your
reporter got MS information from, has
simply drawn on his imagination, and pol
itical prejudice, for all he told him. Not
one single item of his story is correct, and
l am the more sstonished when he says
that he knows me well, and is on terms of
intimacy aud yet makes such mistate-
ment Of facts as the entire interview con-
tains.
First, he says Judge Jackson. Clerks
Dellicker and Moore, District Attorney
Sturgiss, MacCOrkle, and myself were
seated at q table in the Hotel Ruffner.
This IS mistake No. l. No one was at the
table that Judge Jackson has always set
apart for himself and his officers, but Dis
trict Attorney Sturgiss, Clerk Dellicker
and myself MacCOrkle occupied table
on the other side Of the hall, and three or
four tables farther up towards the Kitchen,
had finished his breakfast, and was coming
out OF the UGll, as We udu given Jul OAOCA
to the waiter for our breakfast.
was reading the Cincinnati Enquirer'S
headlines as he came up, and stood for
moment at our table, all speaking 10 him.
The question of JEFF Davis burial place
was discussed, and made the remark that
the American people would make no fuss
about il, a hundred years hence, If he was
buried in pOtter's field. AT this MacCOrkle
said his father was killed in the Confeder-
ate army. l said nothing more, and every
one who knows me- will give me credit Tor
mauliness enough 10 not knowingly or
wantOnly insult anyone All were silent
for a moment, and MacCOrkle passed out.
Not one of the three at the table thought
enough Of all that occurred to evon refer 10
10 after he left, aud never for q moment
thought he was angry. l did not use the
prOfane language your reporter quotes.
After breakfast Col. Dellicker and l
walked two miles and back, and when
got my key and started 10 my room, heard
a voice among half dozen gentlemen or
more, that were seated along the wall, 10
my left say, "Mr. White"
turned and saw MacCorkle rising. l
offered TO shake hands, not thinking for
moment that he was going 20 strike me,
out that some business in our court was 10
be discussed, (he had defended and cleared
one Of ms political friends the day before
of the charge Of bribery at the polls), when
he refused TO shake hands, saying that my
remarks at the table were insulting.
l replied that he need not shake hands
and started on, when to my utter astonish-
ment he struck me above the right ear and
eve He was on my left, and when started
on was directly IN my rear and could not
have struck me differently, except with his
left hand got hold of chair and dealt
him a blow, but some bystanders caught it
from me, when the second chair was taken
from me.
l was very much excited and felt for my
revolver At this motion MacCorkle held
up, but as | had left my revolver in my
ROOM l hurried up stairs for it, but on re-
turning my assailant had left, nor did l see
him for three or four days.
His attack was uuprovoked, wanton, and
cowartly.
Then again your informant says that
was in the militia called TO guard bridge,
ana that nv army service ended right there
when wounded.
Now, this statement has as much truth
IN IL rs any other part OF his story.
l enlisted early in 1861, IL the 9th W.
Va. Inftv., served three years, and in 1854
re-enliSted again aud was mustered out on
Wheeling Island the latter part Of June,
1865. The Wheeling man who has made
YOU believe he was SO conversant with this
episode has drawn so frequently on his
Imagination that it's easy for him 10
weave a fairly plausible story out Of
whole cloth.
/ never intended any insult. The re-
mark was made ct private table, at which
MaCCOrkle never sat, nor was invited, or
expected, and il was the smallest business
in tho world TO coniure up in his mind any
notice ofeit.
To strike me two hours afterwards when
my back was 20 him was cOwardly in the
extreme.
Since you were fair enough to pub
lish on Decem Ger 10, 1889, my version Of
this affair. which was in substance the
same as the IBtclliJ6ncor published the
other day, ask you 10 give this place in
your columns, 70 correct the misstatements
Of your informant in Saturday mornings
REGISTER,
Very Respectfully,
II. 5. WHITE.
a