EMAIL RECEIVED JAN. 17, 2007
David (Heesen)
- also c.c. David at Bright Star Productions
I was cataloguing a second-hand copy of the booklet Charlie Coulson for sale, and Googled to see if I could find any background on the booklet.
Your page
http://beloit.edu/~heesendr/drummer2.htm
about your enquiries to Gettysburg came up, and since that rang alarm bells
(though not conclusive, by any means) I started to look further.
I even for a few moments thought, if it's possible Charlie Coulson didn't exist under that name, is it possible Max Louis Rossvally didn't either?
But no, he did exist. But can one find anybody who has anything good to say about him? (on the internet, which is very limited on historical material admittedly).
What I found so far was:
* http://members.aol.com/bettymaes/cox/wfw1.htm
"Max Rossvalley signed on as surgeon, but was later dishonorably discharged
for refusing to appear before the Medical Board of Examiners for a check of
his qualifications."
(Service Records of Albert Ruttkay and Max Rossvalley, National Archives, quoted
by by Dale A. Cox at the above web page, THE WEST FLORIDA WAR A New Look at
the 1864 Raid on Marianna)
* http://www.cw-chronicles.com/blog/?m=200612
"To-day, Gen. Winder’s account for disbursement of ” secret
service” money was sent in. Among the persons who were the recipients
of this money, I noticed Dr. Rossvally, a notorious spy, and S____w, one of
his policemen, who, with W____ll, very recently fled to the enemy, and is now
in the service of the United States, at Washington!"
(A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary by John Beauchamp Jones, quoted by "mike"
in the above blog)
* http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0814321887
(search for Rossvally - mentioned on Page 362):
"There is no question that some of these Christian converts were men of
ability and religious devotion; it is also well-established that some of them
were no good. Mordechai Rosenthal (b. 1828) was typical of this latter group.
After this native of Germany Anglicized his name, "Valley of Roses,"
he emerged as Max L. Rossvally. He said in his memoirs that he was a surgeon,
but it would seem that he served in the Civil War as a double agent or spy.
He was caught robbing a collection plate and was sent to the penitentiary for
passing counterfeit bills"
(United States Jewry, 1776-1985: Volume III - The Germanic Period Part 2; by
Jacob Rader Marcus, page 362. The endnotes quote a source but are not available
in the Google Books preview so I don't know what the source is)
* http://fultonhistory.com/Process%20small/Newspapers/Fulton%20Times/Newspaper%20(Fulton%20Times%201883)%20pdf/Newspaper%20(Fulton%20Times%201883)%20-%200373.pdf
Newspaper cutting in which Rossvally's daughter apparently refutes an allegation
of impropriety against her father - but the newspaper editor believes Rossvally
ought to be able to refute it more effectively by other means if he so chose
(i.e. implies he can't).
Now all of this could be false. It could be all based on slander. I'm not saying there's anything to it, but it's worth investigating further, especially if a film is being made about Rossvally (http://www.brightstarprod.com/rossvally.htm).
>From http://books.google.com we find that he also wrote two booklets
Claims of Jesus Christ as the Jews' Messiah
published 1886 by
Goodall and Suddick
Urim & Thummim and Extracts from the Talmud (spelled Rosvally)
Published 1887
Teanby & Marshall
There are a couple of Civil War-related books on http://books.live.com that mention Rossvally, but I do not know the significance of what is said about him there. Likewise a search for "Rossvalley" on http://books.google.com yields a result which may shed some light if it could be followed up.
Kind regards
Peter & Rachel Reynolds www.peterreynoldsbooks.com
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