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I have also read under date of Aug. 31 an article from France giving a lengthy thesis by Dr. Andre Jager-Schmidt, French historian, who claims to have examined the archives and contemporaneous writings, and also stating this is the first time an authoritative voice from France has undertaken to puncture the Carolina belief that our Peter Stuart Ney, schoolteacher, was Marshal Ney. This article states that the French Embassy in Washington ignored a request for a statement as to the official view of the North Carolina story. I wish to state that on July 31 I wrote this Embassy informing them of my planned exhumation of the body and I stated that I desired either the Embassy, or one of the French historians, submit me a document giving something important about Marshal Ney, to be incorporated in my records.
I received a most delightful letter and the writer was truly a diplomat. The article stated that France would not be disposed to change her history books.
I wish to state most emphatically that I have in my private files, information which would startle the world—and I say to all French historians PREPARE TO REWRITE YOUR HISTORIES.
CHARLES W. ALLISON Charlotte, N. C.
Sirs:
For the first time since the legend prevailed, a French historian has made reply to the long-existing claim in Eastern North Carolina that Marshal Michel Ney lies buried there, that he escaped execution in Paris on Dec. 7, 1817, was smuggled to Charleston, S. C. and died many years later after serving the families of Southern planters as a teacher.
Dr. Andre Jager-Schmidt, historian of Paris, learning of the North Carolina story for the first time on hearing that the schoolmaster's grave was to be reopened, delved into the records which, by a queer thrust of fate, happen to be housed in the very suite of Luxembourg Palace where Ney was held a prisoner during his court martial. He finds abundant evidence to show that Ney was really shot. . . .
The Marshal died a brave man in a little garden on the Avenue de l'Observatoire. He stood without a blindfold and told the soldiers to aim at his heart. Three of the firing squad were good shots and put three bullets through his chest, three more pierced his skull and one hit his arm. His body, following the usual custom was allowed to remain as it lay for 15 minutes. Many of his friends saw it and the representative of the military governor of Paris made the physical examination and reported back that the tribunal's order had been carried out.
The body was taken to a nearby Maternity Hospital where Sisters of Mercy said their rosaries around it in a constant vigil until the next day when the corpse was interred at Pere Lachaise where tourists view it almost everyday. . . .
GERARD TETLEY Danville, Va.
Sirs:
I had intended writing TIME Letters after reading article in July 20 issue on the Marshal Ney mystery. I am now glad to corroborate information given in Charles W. Allison's letter. Aug. 24 issue, on this same subject.