What Did He Do?!?
12 Nov 4
Columbus Nov 4
Maj Eckert
I will never forgive you
for what you did at Baltimore
David
There are many tantalizing glimpses into peoples’ everyday lives during the Civil War lurking in the Eckert ledgers, but this one has been teasing me for months. One of the benefits of having access to all of the ledgers is that I can go hunting through the nearby pages for related messages, but in this case I was unsuccessful. It’s unclear who David was or what on earth happened in Baltimore, and I can only hope that some eagle-eyed transcriber is able to catch what I’ve missed!
It can’t have been too bad though, for only a few days later he sent a telegram to Eckert that ended:
Hope to see you Saturday
David
Decoding the Civil War 
That is some excellent detective work, Craig! I have to confess that I didn’t really look more than 50 pages in either direction to see if I could find some kind of explanation, and I hadn’t given much thought to “David” being shortened to an initial. This is definitely a lead!
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Hi @kpeck,
A couple of days ago I transcribed a letter press, Subject 2317989, from a DH Bates to Major Eckert coming from or going to Baltimore. Bates is asking for sick leave.
This suddenly brought to mind your blog post of March 17, 2017 “What Did He Do?!?”.
Have you already considered this David Homer Bates as a candidate for the mysterious “David”? Bates would seem to have been an intimate of Eckerts in that Bates was in the War Dept telegraph office administered by Eckert. Here’s a short blurb on Bates: http://loc.gov/exhibits/civil-war-in-america/biographies/david-homer-bates.html
I have searched but cannot find a direct link putting Eckert-Bates together in Baltimore. Has anyone?
Obviously your blog has been in the back of my mind for some time – it’d be great to put it to rest!
Detective-Inspector crmiller211
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