On one of the courses, between the 14th and the 15th hole, Trump had a stone pedestal built with a flagpole on it, and had a plaque placed on the pedestal,[1] with the inscription:
Many great American soldiers, both of the North and South, died at this spot. The casualties were so great that the water would turn red and thus became known as "The River of Blood".[1]
The plaque bears Trump's name and the Trump Organization's crest.[2] The accompanying text reads, "It is my great honor to have preserved this important section of the Potomac River!"[1]
Historians say no such event ever took place at this site. One local historian, Craig Swain, cited the killing of two soldiers by citizens in 1861 as the only Civil War event that occurred on the island.[3] The site lies near Rowser's Ford, over which on June 27, 1863, General Stuart led 5,000 Confederate soldiers with no record of fatalities, and according to the president of the Mosby Heritage Area Association, the only Civil War battle in the area was the Battle of Ball's Bluff, 11 miles away.[1] Other historians consulted by The New York Times for a story in 2015 agree; one of them had written to the Trump Organization about the falsehood. Trump himself disputed the historians' statements:
"That was a prime site for river crossings. So, if people are crossing the river, and you happen to be in a civil war, I would say that people were shot — a lot of them."
"How would they know that?" Mr. Trump asked when told that local historians had called his plaque a fiction. "Were they there?"[1]
Trump said that "numerous historians" had told him the story of the River of Blood, though he later changed that to say they had spoken to "his people".[1] The story broke while the Donald Trump presidential campaign was in full swing, and the Daily Telegraph noted that at that time he "had more weighty facts to clarify, such as his claim that Muslims in New Jersey cheered on the day of the 9/11 attacks – an old rumour that has long been discredited – and his latest boast, that he watched people jumping to their deaths from the Twin Towers from his Manhattan flat, four miles away".[4]
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The River of Blood
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Originally Posted by Tgo01
