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Tagging edit
I've tried to clean up the mess, and hope to have managed well enough. There's still a lot of citation tagging in there, of course. No doubt some of the source material on which the original editors heavily editorialized Gale's tenure and court-martial, but there's no reason to ditch NPOV here. Ravenswing 19:40, 11 May 2011 (UTC)
Most of the statements for which a citation was requested come from the public domain Marine Corps History Division Website: http://www.tecom.usmc.mil/HD/Whos_Who/Gale_A.htm. This citation has been added to the article as appropriate.
The court-martial charges against Gale are, of course, a matter of public record and a citation from a contemporaneous source, the Niles Weekly Register, has been provided: http://books.google.com/books?id=S_MaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA132&dq=Niles+Register+%22desha,+paymaster+of+the%22&hl=en&ei=CgzLTdmtJYOgtweD7IXpBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CEYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
The political intrigue surrounding the Gale commandancy has been well documented in a variety of copyrighted sources cited in the article. Since these sources are copyrighted, no hyperlink is available for them.
The unsubstantiated allegation that the source material has been heavily editorialized is totally false and without merit. In most cases, the statements in the article are direct quotes from the cited sources which can be easily verified by consulting the references. Mccunney (talk) 00:45, 12 May 2011 (UTC)
- Thanks for the prompt sourcing. That being said, "totally false and without merit?" Are you kidding?
"Unfortunately for Gale ..." "... where he nursed a feeling of persecution ..." "One could only rise in rank by virtue of the death of a superior officer or the removal of a higher officer by methods fair or foul, an accepted practice of the era." "... also rushed to fill the power vacuum ..." "In a feeble attempt to further discredit Gale ..." "Henderson was no novice in employing legal maneuvering against senior officers ..." "As a result of this bitter battle for the post ..." "Sadly, Anthony Gale would prove to be a tragic figure, the victim of his own weaknesses and the ambitions of stronger men." "Gale’s political enemies wasted little time in seeking to undermine his authority as Commandant ..." "... who frequently countermanded LtCol Gale's orders in a humiliating manner ..." "Gale courageously submitted a letter ..." "He paralleled this official reaction to infringements of his authority by unofficial retreats to alcohol." "The charges against Gale, dated September 11, make strange reading ..." "While Gale was hardly the most competent of Commandants and not without serious personal faults, clearly vicious headquarters politics were involved in his court-martial." "... one of the charges against Gale was that he had indelicately called Desha ..." "To his credit, Desha objected ..." "... but the court curiously overruled his objection ..." "The cards were obviously stacked against Gale, and predictably, the court found Gale guilty."
That is heavy editorializing, completely unsuitable for and unacceptable in Wikipedia, however much it might fly in a partisan essay backing Gale up, and however much the sources from which you drew themselves indulged in partisan editorializing. Wikipedia requires that the facts be presented in a neutral light, and let the reader come to such conclusions as he might. I strongly recommend reviewing WP:NPOV if there are any further questions. Ravenswing 01:17, 12 May 2011 (UTC)