MMMM # 141 -- Did a misspelling help start the Civil War?

     In the Electronic News Gathering class I teach, I tell the students that spelling is important, even in broadcast scripts that only the reporter or anchor generally see, because a) Closed Captioning duplicates the scripts (and the errors!), and b) mistakes in the spelling of names will sometimes end up being transferred to the graphics that visually identify people in clips (SOTS or Bites).

     I don't know if this is the first time this particular error has been caught in the 30 years since the historic marker was installed on Dexter Avenue in Montgomery by the Alabama Historical Association, but my sharp-eyed friend David in Florida caught it when I posted on the 150th anniversary of the start of The Civil War two weeks ago

    Note the word judgment in the last line. There's an extra "e".

     At first I wondered if perhaps the original telegram included the error, and the Association was being historically accurate, but you can read the actual wording in the Official War Records titled: The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies, on any number of web sites, including this one from Cornell University. And judgment is spelled correctly there.

    On the official website of the Alabama Historical Association, the wrong spelling is repeated.

    A quick disclaimer: I am a fairly miserable speller who constantly has to watch his own writing for errors...you can find any number of examples on the pages of this blog! But friend David sent me down the path of finding the origin of the mistake, and so it goes.

     Oh, and to make sure this horse is really DEAD DEAD DEAD, judgment is included on many lists of the most commonly misspelled words...including this posting at http://www.yourdictionary.com/

•judgment - Traditionally, the word has been spelled judgment in all forms of the English language. However, the spelling judgement (with e added) largely replaced judgment in the United Kingdom in a non-legal context. In the context of the law, however, judgment is preferred. This spelling change contrasts with other similar spelling changes made in American English, which were rejected in the UK. In the US at least, judgment is still preferred and judgement is considered incorrect by many American style guides.

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog. Suggestions for topics are always welcomed!]