Ned Spangler

[Randal]

Rich, If you have the Nettie Mudd book, see page 322.I believe it did survive. Read my previous post, or it survived to be included in her book.

[Tom]

The handwriting on the 1867 Gleason notarized version is not Spangler's (as evidenced in letters in the John T. Ford Papers at the Maryland Historical Society and Library of Congress), but rather, I would think, of a paid scribe. It is original, and Spangler would doubtless have been provided with a fair copy, which I believe was the one stored in his trunk (and, being a fair copy, would at first reading appear to be an original). Remember, too, that some of Spangler's letters (e.g., the one written aboard the Florida en route to Ft. Jefferson, in the LofC Rare Book room: “Friend, still thinking of old times,..." ) are in a different hand, and use a far more ornate, melodramatic diction, than the uneducated Spangler would have used (as evidenced in his real letters to Ford). My guess is that dramatic actor Sam Arnold wrote them for Spangler (one is even mis-signed "Edward Spangler").

[Tom]

Sorry, Rich: forgot to add: Yes, it is in the Benjamin Butler Papers at the LofC, along with statements by Mudd and Arnold.

[rich smyth]

Thanks guys. Very interesting.

[Crowza]

Tom - Thanks for your information. I'm looking forward to reading your book on the subject!

John - I had read that article once when I found that on newspaper archive a while back, saved it and then couldn't find where I stored it. Beyond that, I could never find it on newspaper archive again. Thanks for posting it! I guess I'm not crazy after all.