"Secret" message inside Lincoln's watch uncovered

BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhuanet) -- A "secret" message,
unseen for almost 150 years and making the start of the U.S. Civil War
(1861-1865), has been uncovered in Abraham Lincoln's gold pocket watch, U.S.
media reported on Wednesday.

"Lincoln never knew of the message he carried in his
pocket," Brent D. Glass, director of the National Museum of American History
said in a statement.

The message, which was engrave by an Irish immigrant
and watchmaker named Jonathan Dillon, is dated April 13, 1861, and reads in
part: "Fort Sumpter was attacked by the rebels" and "thank God we have a
government."

"It's a personal side of history about an ordinary
watchman being inspired to record something for posterity." Glass said.

The museum decided to open the watch after being
contacted by the watchmaker's great-great-grandson, Doug Stiles, who had
received a letter from a relative in Ireland. It said that the family had found
a letter Dillon had written about the purported message in the watch.

Then Stiles, a 57-year-old real estate lawyer in
Waukegan, Illinois, searched on the Internet and found a New York Times article
from 1906, where Dillon told the story at the age of 84.

During the interview, Dillon said that he unscrewed
the dial of the watch and wrote on the metal as soon as he heard the news about
the first shot of the Civil War. "The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank
God we have a President who at least will try."

However, the actual message that the museum found is
different from what Dillon recalled. It reads, "Jonathan Dillon, April 13-1861,
Fort Sumpter was attacked by the rebels on the above date J Dillon, April
13-1861, Washington, thank God we have a government, Jonth Dillon."

(Agencies)