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["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

Copies of his letters.  Yes, they are in books but the letters are actually 
photocopies.  Also, I have a complete set of the written works of Lincoln 
plus some books that have photo copies of letters to and from him.  Some of 
the to and froms are letters of Grant and Sherman and Sheridan.

As to previous references to Grant, he was stationed in my hometown.  I have 
my grandfather's letters about the happenings.  He was quite the journal 
keeper, also.  Plus our local library has the complete works, one set is 
actual photocopies, of local journalists.  And, Fort Humboldt had a letter 
Grant wrote to his wife that wasn't mailed.  It was in a display case on the 
wall until the Fort was gifted to the state.

I think that by reading what was actually written by the person in question 
that one gets a pretty good idea of who they are and where they were coming 
from.  Sherman wrote routinely about how the citizens of the South had to be 
"punished."  Not someone's opinion of what he thought, not something that 
was filtered through faulty recollection but his actual words.

So, I would posit that one should read the writings of those who lived the 
history.

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gene GeRue" <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
> I started to reply to this by saying where I had read differently when
> I started laughing inwardly. Your previous post was about books and
> lies. So where did you get the above information but from books? Even
> an ancestor, how many generations back, would have done the human
> thing and embellished his stories and then with each retelling, more
> embellishment. The point is that we really only guess about history
> based on what we have read. Hell, three people can see something
> yesterday and tell different stories about it today. Imperfect memory.
> Selective memory. Biased memory. Undependable memory.