Post by blaque on Mar 2, 2007 6:51:06 GMT -6
DO,
I fully agree with you. Last year I wrote in another forum (answering a post by Walt) that Thompson didn’t wait too long before writing down his LBH experiences. As told to W. M. Camp on 1909, he did so in September 1876, putting in writing 26.000 words on the subject. According to Thompson’s daughter, Susan, “after his hand healed but while he was still in the cavalry, Thompson bought a small notebook and, in this, he jotted down events of the campaign of 1876 as he recalled them and at random”. It’s well known that Camp harbored some doubts about Thompson’s story, but he never questioned Thompson’s integrity, and was completely sure of the fact that he did write his reminiscences long before 1913.
Magnussen dated Thompson’s manuscript in 1912, because of some quotes supossedly reproduced from an Americana Magazine issue published that year. However, unknown to Magnussen, the quotations made by Thompson had been published earlier, in the November 1887 issue of The Army and Navy Journal.
All this comes from a recent research made by M. Wyman and R. Boyd, who conclude that Thompson probably “compiled his account beginning before 1880, that he later added material, and that the account was initially typed up for local distribution around 1902”. Name of the typist was Clara Melom, and her grandson told the researchers that she typed the manuscript about the turn of the century. At least seven carbon copies of this typescript still exist, some in private hands, others in public institutions.
I think all of this point to the fact that Thompson started to write down his recollections pretty early, and not intending to make any profit, at least until many years later.
I fully agree with you. Last year I wrote in another forum (answering a post by Walt) that Thompson didn’t wait too long before writing down his LBH experiences. As told to W. M. Camp on 1909, he did so in September 1876, putting in writing 26.000 words on the subject. According to Thompson’s daughter, Susan, “after his hand healed but while he was still in the cavalry, Thompson bought a small notebook and, in this, he jotted down events of the campaign of 1876 as he recalled them and at random”. It’s well known that Camp harbored some doubts about Thompson’s story, but he never questioned Thompson’s integrity, and was completely sure of the fact that he did write his reminiscences long before 1913.
Magnussen dated Thompson’s manuscript in 1912, because of some quotes supossedly reproduced from an Americana Magazine issue published that year. However, unknown to Magnussen, the quotations made by Thompson had been published earlier, in the November 1887 issue of The Army and Navy Journal.
All this comes from a recent research made by M. Wyman and R. Boyd, who conclude that Thompson probably “compiled his account beginning before 1880, that he later added material, and that the account was initially typed up for local distribution around 1902”. Name of the typist was Clara Melom, and her grandson told the researchers that she typed the manuscript about the turn of the century. At least seven carbon copies of this typescript still exist, some in private hands, others in public institutions.
I think all of this point to the fact that Thompson started to write down his recollections pretty early, and not intending to make any profit, at least until many years later.