A friend of mine went on the BBR Radio 4 quiz programme, "Brain fo Britain" (presented by Robert Robinson), about five or six years ago. She was asked, "The last words of which U.S. President were, 'I have a terrible headache ?'".

Quick as a flash she replied, "Kennedy". As the audience choked on guffaws, she realised her mistake and tried to put the toothpaste back in the tube by saying, "Sorry - I meant Lincoln".

Even the normally imperturbable Robinson had to rebuke the audience by saying, "It's not funny".


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Re. the death of General Sedgwick (which as JohnInKansas pointed out, I spelled incorrectly in my first post); the Confederate army did possess a small number of Whitworth sniping rifles. They had a smaller bore than the Enfield rifle which equipped the British army and many Confederate troops, and could take a more powerful charge. So, it was not impossible for a Whitworth bullet to arrive ahead of the bang, if the unfortunate General was picked off with one of these.

(Whitworth rifles were not really practical as general issue weapons. They quickly fouled and became almost impossible to load.)