TEETHING PROBLEMS, 1856–1867 59
in nine days. I also assisted General L. P. D. Cesnola to make out these
plans and forward them to President Lincoln. I saved General Cesnola’s
lifeHe often writes thanking me for saving his lifeOn the ninth
day of May 1863, I was working in the government building, in which
Lincoln was assassinated, when part of the building fell, killing 25 and
injuring nearly 200. I was one of the latter and being unable to perform
my duties was discharged.^57
Internal contradictions in his own writing did not seem to bother him much
either, although one wonders how he managed to fight off the rebel hordes
on 29 June 1864 when he had been invalided out of the Union Army in
- It was also somewhat startling to an historian to discover that Ford’s
Theater was a government building, or that it collapsed on 9 May 1863.
Having received no satisfaction from the War Office or Horse Guards,
Morely decided to go straight to the top. On 20 October 1902 he wrote
King Edward a long letter describing the particulars of his heroism in
the Crimea in 1854. He claimed a Victoria Cross for ‘saving the day’ at
Balaclava 25 October 1854. He claimed a bar to that Cross for recovering the
mortally wounded Coronet Cleveland off the field at the Battle of Inkerman
5 November 1854. He claimed a second bar to the VC for rescuing ‘part of
the Land Transport Corps from the hands of the Russians’ on an unspecified
date. However, the modest Morely did not want to paint too glorious a
picture of himself: ‘But as this incident (although proving I was ever brave
and ready to die for my country) does not count for anything compared to
the others, I am not desirous of troubling your majesty with the particulars
but leave my claim based on the other two.’^58 Modesty would have to be its
own reward, for the government was not about to give its highest gallantry
decoration to a man that was at best deranged and at worst a shameless
huckster.
Regardless of the difficulties of selecting the deserving heroes, their
presentation to the Empire was a gala event that served all the desired pomp
and circumstance to an eager crowd.The Timeswaxed positively republican
in extolling the egalitarian virtues of the new award:
A new epoch in our military history was yesterday inaugurated in Hyde
Park. The old and much abused campaign medal may now be looked
upon as a reward, but it will cease to be sought after as a distinction, for
a new order is instituted – an order for merit and valour, open, without
regard to rank or title, to all those whose conduct in the field has rendered
them prominent for courage even in the British Army. A path is left open