I picked up my granpa's friend on Sunday afternoon at his house. I had invited him to go along wiht me to the hospital to see my grandpa. Although Mutt still drives himself, the hospital is an hour's drive away into the city.
I arrived at his house and he was having a cake and cup of coffee. He is a widower and lives alone. I was browsing the photos in his living room and I saw a samurai sword hanging on the wall. He told me that he got that at Iwo and he stuck it down the side of his pants leg and walked stiff-legged onto the ship. By the time someone found it they were days out to sea and let him keep it.
At this time I was feeling pretty bad about arriving in a Jap car and asking him to get in it, but he didn't mind. Actually he loved the convertible and we enjoyed the drive and the sunshine. He told me for the a while after the war whenever he saw something was made in Japan he threw it down, but he got over it a long time ago.
He lent me a book on the 5th Marine Div. When I opened it up that night a little notebook fell out. It was his story
I wanted to share this photo with you. I'm sure you will recognize the face of the little boy if you've ever watched a documentary about the Liberation of Buchanwald. It came from the estate of the GI who took the photo, who wrote the description on the back.
Posted by: civilwargal - 04-03-2009, 12:02 PM - Forum: The US Civil War
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On April 14,1865 Abraham Lincoln was assasinated by John Wilkes Booth at Fords Theater in Washington. Every year around the anniversary, people forward the email about the "coincedents" surrounding the events of JFK's and Lincolns deaths. A good portion of the "facts" are wrong or ambigous. It's too bad because the story of the Lincoln assasination is one of the most interesting parts of American History.
John Wilkes Booth is described as an "Insane, failed actor" He was still very much in demand as an actor (although he did not accept many jobs). He was not insane by the "legal" sense of the word. He did suffer from several forms of mental health issues including alcoholism, narcissistic personality disorder and probably bi-polar disorder.
The plot was originally to kidnap Lincoln and offer him in exchange for Confederate prisoners. This plot was much larger. Several people dropped out of this plot when Booth suggested that they kidnap Lincoln in a crowded theater. Several of the conspirators felt this was not a good idea as the Washington Theaters were crowded with soldiers. It was felt people might react to Lincoln being lowered to the stage by rope surrounded by kidnappers.
John's older brother, Edwin saved Lincoln's Son Robert from falling in front of a train when the crowd surged forward as the train approached the platform they were standing on.
Mary Surratt, one of the assasination conspirators, was the first woman to be executed in the United States. The hangman was so sure that she would receive a reprieve, he did not complete the number of turns in the hangmans noose used on her.
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