Henry Sladek.
by Terry Foenander.
It seems rather amazing, in this day and age, with all the technological facilities available at one’s fingertips, that someone could be so absolutely ignorant, and incompetent as to not use these very same facilities to locate the facts when researching a person. It is even more amazing that this very same person could fail to use even the common sense available to a child, and not realize that the pieces to a research jigsaw all point to some other conclusion. Yet time and time again, without fail, one particular person, James Mason Gray, a member of the American Civil War Round Table of Queensland, has not been able to see the very evidence available in print, on the Internet, and everywhere else, to show the facts, relating to the Civil War veterans buried in Australia and New Zealand, as well as those “assumed” to be veterans of the Civil War. Yet the author of this particular article has been able to find so many facts, prove so many points, and even locate six new veterans of the Civil War buried in Australia and New Zealand, just within the last eight to ten months, just by doing very simple and basic searches from these very sources. It would seem that Mr. Gray is either too ignorant to comprehend the vast amount of facilities available everywhere, or perhaps the very condition he likes to indicate to everyone that he has, is preventing him from ever taking advantage of these facilities.
As well as locating the newly found veterans, this author has also been able to prove the facts on quite a large number of Australian and New Zealand born personnel who served in the war, and also locate data that proves that several others, previously stated to have been born in Australia, Sydney or other places in Australia, were either from the nation of Austria, or from other towns or cities that bear similar names to that of Sydney, in New South Wales, or other places in Australia. Even a cursory check of the facts available everywhere would indicate to a child that there are places named Sidney in other countries, besides Australia, with more than a dozen shown just within the United States, as well as at least two in Canada, and at least one in Cornwall, England. Even the city of Melbourne has its namesakes in the United States, England, Canada, and even South Africa. With all this multiplicity, there was never going to be any doubt that, if a Civil War veteran was stated to have been born in Australia, Sydney or Melbourne, it would need much more research to prove that it was definitely Australia, and not Austria, or that it was the city of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia, and not, for instance, the town of Sidney in the state of Nebraska, United States of America. Yet there was no doubt at all that ignorance and total incompetence was the result of Mr. Gray’s placing a large number of queries on a number of names of persons who were indicated to have served in the Civil War, and stated to have been born in Australia, on several Civil War Message Boards, in June and July, 2008. Although Mr. Gray had, in mid 2005, stated categorically that he was doing all his “own research” and not using the work of other researchers, and that he never plagiarized the work of others, his ignorance and incompetence were eventually to prove his undoing, and his final admittance that he was indeed using the work of others, after all, even though he never acquired the permission of these other researchers, nor was ever given any permission to use this data. Yet Mr. Gray has the gall to state, in one of the Message Board postings, that he has great respect for Mr. Barry Crompton, the secretary of the American Civil War Round Table of Australia, and from whose listings Mr. Gray finally, after two or more years of constant denials, admitted to having lifted up the names and data he places online, without permission. If respect it is, it certainly is a strange form of respect. If one respects a person, one usually seeks permission to use their data, and not just lift it off a web site without permission.
Which now leads us to the Henry Sladek case, in which Mr. Gray finally admitted using the work of others, having previously indicated that he was doing all his own research work, and not using the work of other researchers.
Henry Sladek was one of the names shown on the preliminary listings created by Mr. Barry Crompton, from data provided by a researcher residing near the National Archives, in Washington, and who had been commissioned, more than a dozen years ago, to seek out the names of Australian or New Zealand born participants in the Civil War. Much of this data was provided to us by this researcher, but we later became aware that there were some inaccurate pieces of data, or other data that was not consistent with the facts. Thankfully, Mr. Crompton, although he had placed these listings on the Internet years ago, had not corrected the listings for some time, and which finally led to Mr. Gray’s admittance of the use of the work of others, even though no permission was ever given him to do so.
Mr. Gray had obviously lifted the names and data of dozens of veterans, for which he seems to have much experience in such actions (namely, using the work of others, without lifting a finger to do the legwork or pay for research, himself), from Mr. Crompton’s web sites. One of the names was, of course, that of Henry Sladek, which Mr. Gray assumed to be an Australian, and placed a message, dated Wednesday, 11 June 2008, at the “Missouri in the Civil War Message Board”, stating, categorically, “I am trying to acquire any information on Henry Sladek an Australian born Civil War veteran; relating to his life, family, descendants and especially where he is buried. All I have is that Henry Sladek was born in Australia. His residence was not listed, but he enlisted as a 1st Lieutenant; date unknown. He also saw service in: “A” Co. Missouri 3rd SM Cavalry.”When it was pointed out that Sladek was actually born in Austria and had immigrated to the U.S. in 1853, Mr. Gray finally let the cat out of the bag, in a message dated the next day, stating: “That’s an interesting thought. The information that he was born in Australia came originally from Mr. Barry Crompton of the American Civil War Round Table of Australia in New South Wales; and was passed on to me. As such, I am trying to confirm he was born in Australia, as they don’t share mush information, and find out where he is buried.” As usual, Mr. Gray makes several errors, besides his spelling error for ‘much’. The American Civil War Round Table of Australia, that Mr. Crompton is secretary of, is actually based in Melbourne, Victoria, and not in New South Wales. Furthermore, Mr. Gray fails to qualify that, in his first message on Sladek, he stated, without doubt, that Sladek was born in Australia, and not that he was trying to confirm his Australian birth. Additionally, Mr. Gray fails to state that when Mr. Crompton did pass the data on to Mr. Gray, at no time did Mr. Gray make a request for permission to use the data online, and at no time did Mr. Crompton give any such permission. As a matter of fact, in 2005, when all the original researchers of the American Civil War veterans buried in Australia and New Zealand had provided the data to Mr. Gray, we had all indicated to him not to use it in any way, without our permission. At that particular stage, Mr. Gray had stated, and which we knew to be a lie, that he was doing all his own research, and was not using any of our work, and then placed all this very same work (of ours) on the Internet. Through the years, since 2005, Mr. Gray has kept denying that he was using any of our original work, but finally had to come clean, after he was caught out, on the Henry Sladek birth statement. And yet he wonders why we do not share any data with him. From the very beginning we have noticed his propensity to twist the facts, to forget data, and he is not even aware of the very basic facts on the Civil War. We have realized that, if he is given any data, he also tends to use this without permission, and is never honest in any way.
As with Henry Sladek and Morris Wetzler, and several other names on the listings, which Mr. Gray has now confirmed that he is indeed using, from the work of others, we are now fully aware that many of them were not born in Australia, but in other nations. As well there are a number of errors which we are now fully aware of, and which errors, of course, Mr. Gray has copied and repeated, so has not been able to comprehend these errors, some of which are quite glaring. But, being as incompetent as he has been in the past, at present, and no doubt will continue to be, in the future, he will be left to repeat these errors, as we have no intention of advising him about them.
Page Created August, 2008.