War message found inside Lincoln's watch

I guess this is the right place to put this?

This is just a neat story from the Smithsonian's Museum of American History that i found. Apparently alot of watchmakers recorded things on the inside of watches and it wasn't unusual. Pretty cool that its from the very first shots of the civil war, and they Just Now found it.

Watchmaker Jonathan Dillon was repairing Lincoln's watch in April 1861 when he heard about the attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, and wrote a short message on the metal inside the watch, the Smithsonian said.

www.cnn.com...

reply to post by Lombardy Inn


Very interesting Lombardy.

Particularly the discrepancy between the two accounts of what was inscribed inside the watch .It may be over a 100 years since he gave his interview to the New York Times ,but the urge to 'not let the facts spoil a good story' is as still as strong today.

That's very cool! I wonder how many other watches of that era had inscriptions inside them? I can't believe the museum hadn't examined the watch, inside and out?

Thats exactly what i thought.

Why wouldn't they take the watch apart until now?

My grandfather used to work at the Smithsonian American history museum in DC, I used to hear alot of stories like this.

[edit on 10-3-2009 by Lombardy Inn]