[bksvol-discuss] (no subject)

  • From: Nan Hawthorne <hathorn@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "bks >> bls-vol-discusws" <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:13:50 -0800



-------- Original Message --------
Date:   Mon, 3 Mar 2008 14:43:19 -0600
From:   Brandy848@xxxxxxxxx (Brandy Purdy)
To:     hathorn@xxxxxxxxxxx



I know who you're talking about. Peter Stuart Ney though I don't know
that I would class him with Anna Anderson who claimed to be the Grand
Duchess Anastasia since P.S. Ney never made the claim as far as I know
except on his deathbed. Anyway, the theory goes that Marshal Ney, called
"the bravest of the brave" of Napoleon's marshals, faked his death, he
always had the loyalty of the men who served under him, the firing squad
used blanks and he had pouches of blood or red dye under his clothes
which burst, then he was spirited away to America,  others like old
soldiers who had served under Marshal Ney recognized him, I believe
after coming to America he moved at least once because of this before he
finally settled in North Carolina where he became a popular school
teacher. He possessed knowledge that would supposedly support this
claim, after his death notations were found in history books about
Napoleon and his wars correcting what he considered errors on the
authors' part, also studies of the handwriting of Marshal Ney and Peter
Stuart Ney have been declared identical for whatever that's worth,
handwriting analysis being a much debated science, and P.S. Ney was said
to have scars where the real Marshal Ney was known to have had them.
Peter Stuart Ney is buried in a churchyard in North Carolina and as far
as I know there are no plans to use DNA testing to resolve the case. I'm
just relating all this off the top of my head, I've always been
intrigued by the case and have read whatever I could find on it, but I
haven't read anything in a long time because of various other projects
and obligations and illness. I don't have any plans to write about it,
there's just too much military stuff involved and as a writer that's one
of my weaknesses, sports, battles, politics, I'm more interested in the
personal issues. While it would be very interesting to explore P.S.
Ney's mind, if he were really Ney or delusional, there would be just too
much of the military and political issues in it for me to feel I could
do justice to it. There's one man who has studied the case for years, he
wrote a self published book called Execution Denied, I have it around
here somewhere, though he chose to present his research in the form of a
novel instead of a nonfiction work, personally I think he should have
done the latter, but that's just my personal opinion as the only other
books on the case were written decades ago and are out of print and
usually in excess of $50 each though I know of a couple of older
unsolved mysteries books that can be had much cheaper that have brief
chapters about the case. Hope this info helps.
Visit my website www.brandypurdy.com to learn about the historical
novels I've written "The Confession of Piers Gaveston," and "Vengeance
Is Mine A Novel of Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard, and Lady Rochford."





--
Cordially,

Nan Hawthorne
www.nanhawthorne.com
Historical fiction blogs, books, and a Celtic music radio show!

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