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Post by Scout on Apr 9, 2007 15:40:48 GMT -6
It's starting to look like a different Morris was involved in the shooting incident. Elisabeth, you're right, but I think all of the newspapers of the day were like the National Enquirer. Truth was not paramount in any story they printed.
Never heard the Wallace "killed' story. Most likely some other Wallace who got shot, but the other Wallace wouldn't have sold papers would he? I mean we have all gone through old newspapers and some of the stories I've run across..oh man, bizarre. They were really big on people getting shot in love triangles which no one blinks an eye at today. Scandal!
Don't know if we are any closer to the truth here about Morris, but then again, is there ever any definitive answer to any LBH question? Billy, I think you have something there about the Denise named...and you're right...nothing is ever smooth when researching this regiment.
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Post by d o harris on Apr 9, 2007 16:40:50 GMT -6
If it was smooth going would we be interested? Any lubber can sail calm seas. On good days we ought to be joyously grateful we only encounter force 8 winds from the LBH.
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Post by markland on Apr 10, 2007 0:27:17 GMT -6
7CRR1277 states William E. Morris, co. M, discharged due to disability, 12/11/1877 at Ft. A. Lincoln. 7CRR1178 states George E. Morris was discharged due to disability on 11/28/1878 at Camp Ruhlen, DT [Ft. Meade]. There is no mention of anyone with a surname of Denise or any variant being discharged through 04/1879. However, in the 1178 return, there is a recruit assigned to co. M named Jacob Neince (or something close) on detached service at Ft. Lincoln since 11/20/1878. Perhaps the recruit shot G. E. Morris rather than Morris shooting him? Of course that is a major assumption with no relationship to facts! Isn't anything ever straightforward about this blessed regiment?? Billy Sheesh folks, my apologies! I neglected to state that George E. Morris was also in co. M! <expletive deleted> 7th Cav.! Billy
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Post by Diane Merkel on Apr 10, 2007 10:08:38 GMT -6
As Barbara, who started this thread, has known since she first contacted me, I have a hard time reconciling William Morris the soldier with William Morris the judge. I have a nagging feeling that the judge wasn't the soldier at LBH. Obviously, more research has to be done on his life to get him from Montana to law school (or, more likely, reading the law) to being a judge.
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Post by Scout on Apr 10, 2007 11:50:08 GMT -6
I don't know why Diane, he was a person of 'worthless character.' sounds like lawyer/judge material to me.
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Post by harpskiddie on Apr 10, 2007 17:01:20 GMT -6
Diane:
While digging through my junk for something else [ain't it always the way?], I found a note that William Morris, the judge, was first an alderman in NYC. Since judgeships were and are still mostly [?] political positions in the U.S., there likely was no requirement that the judge be learned or have a law degree. I don't think that there is now, is there? At least at the local level.
I also have a note that he at one time [but not when] served as a Captain in the 69th New York Infantry - the famous Fighting 69th - but I doubt that he saw service in the Great War. I don't know about the Spanish-American festivities.
To clear up matters even further [hardee har har] I have his DOB as 1 May 1859, enlisted 22 September 1875 at age 21. He was, it says here, related by blood to Byron Tarbox of L Company, who was killed at LBH. I don't have the specifics of the relationship, but since it's a blood relationship, they must have been first cousins or half-brothers.
I have his widow's name as Sarah, and his surviving son's name as William Ephraim Morris Jr.
Gordie, always happy to spread a little darkness where once there was light..................................
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Post by d o harris on Apr 10, 2007 19:31:39 GMT -6
Scout, in particular, it sounds like a NY judge, since he has no obvious connection to Memphis.
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Post by Scout on Apr 10, 2007 19:38:45 GMT -6
Here's something I'm confused about. 'Men with Custer' says "discharged on December 11, 1877, at Fort Lincoln, for disability, as a private of worthless character" and yet it states he recieved a pension of"$20 dollars per month." This for his gunshot wounds...
Would his release as a person of worthless character be a dishonorable discharge? And if so how could he receive a pension?
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Post by Diane Merkel on Apr 10, 2007 21:38:32 GMT -6
Gordie, you are probably correct that he was first a politician, rather than a lawyer, then a judge. Good point. This guy has more birth dates than anyone I've encountered in LBH or genealogy (see Barbara's original post), and the excuses for them are rather weak. Since he was a politician, it seems more likely that he became a hero by mouth rather than by deed. He might be another one for you, Scout! I do remember Barbara writing something about Tarbox. I'll have to go back to our early correspondence, but there was a connection.
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Post by Scout on Apr 11, 2007 11:09:55 GMT -6
I hadn't noticed that before Diane. 'Men with Custer' has him born on May 1, 1854...22 at the time of the battle... but when he registered at the 1926 LBH Anniversary he put his age at 66, which means he was born in 1860. By that measure he would have been 16 years old at the time of the battle.
Could there be a more confusing group of troopers anywhere?
Anyone see the recent Wild West 'Custer issue?' I don't know who's running that magazine but it's filled with blatant errors through out. A picture labeled as Libbie which looked nothing like her. A photo of the late singer Frankie Lane which was of God-who-knows. And the absolutely rididculous Frank Finkel article with the facts slightly 'tweaked.' Don't get me started on that guy.
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Post by rch on Apr 11, 2007 15:34:50 GMT -6
According to Nichols, Morris was discharged for disablity. . That would be an honorable discharge. I think the remarks about character on discharges at that time were meant to be character references.
Also according to Nichols, Tarbox was Morris' older half brother. It's not clear from Nichols whether Tarbox was a child of Morris' mother by a previous husband or the son of Morris' father. In any case they both enlisted in Boston on the same day. That sounds like something a kid brother might do.
Young men often lied about their age to get into the service. In the same cemetery where John Martin is buried, there is a grave for a 16 year old killed in action in 1918. He would have had to have been about 15 when he enlisted.
rch
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Post by Diane Merkel on Apr 11, 2007 21:50:31 GMT -6
rch, you are correct about that. Morris' story is that he lied about his age in order to enlist. The puzzler is that it seems he never gave the same birth date twice. If I recall correctly, the range is 1854 - 1861. You would think that somewhere along the line he would pick a date and stick to it!
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Post by Scout on Apr 13, 2007 5:34:05 GMT -6
Diane, I dug through my files and found a newspaper clipping from a 1914 NY newspaper concerning Morris. It seems there was a 'fake' Curley touring the country, a guy named Ben McIntosh, who also claimed he was also known by the name Bloody Knife. He was two people at the LBH! You can't make this stuff up...but they did. Anyway Morris wrote a denouncement article of this character in the newspaper. It identifies Morris as a veteran of the fight and a NY city judge. I believe they are one and the same person.
I don't think he was the same Morris who shot Denise though.
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Post by d o harris on Apr 13, 2007 6:48:46 GMT -6
How could a $13 a month pvt get a $20 a month pension except through politics?
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Post by Diane Merkel on Apr 13, 2007 11:55:05 GMT -6
Scout, I've seen the same (or a similar) article. I've got to admit that he tells a convincing story. I would like to know more about the in-between years from soldier to judge. I think the Army got it right in giving him a dishonorable discharge. DO poses an interesting question.
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