Abraham Lincoln: The Enigmatic President

  The Lincoln Myth by Steve Berry When writing a historical book, sometimes you need a recess from hard history. I thought The Lincoln Myth by Steve Berry would provide an appropriate break. Instead of relaxing, I found the book annoying. The Lincoln Myth interlaces Mormon history and a trendy premise about Abraham Lincoln into a modern-day thriller. The premise probably came from The Real Lincoln by Thomas J. DiLorenzo, a popular 2009 book that argued that the South had a right to secede and that the Civil War was unnecessary. DiLorenzo went further, stating that eliminating slavery was not a goal of the conflict and was only afterwards used as a justification. I believe this premise is an oversimplification. What drew me to the book was the intertwining of Lincoln and the Constitution's history throughout the story. I wrote my own Lincoln mystery/thriller ( The Shut Mouth Society ) and a novelization of the Constitutional Convention ( Tempest at Dawn ), so I found it jarr...

    Confederates in the Attic Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War  Tony Horwitz Confederates in the Attic is a present-day (1998) memoir of a Civil War tour. The book is appropriately titled. When you rummage around an attic, you find all kinds of junk. Junk that’s past its prime, odd reminders of bygone days, nostalgic twaddle, and utter fantasies. Tony Horwitz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, finds all of these and more. Unfortunately, he spends too much time in the shadowy recesses of his metaphorical attic. The encountered characters and whimsical writing make the tour fascinating, but there’s not much substance added to the lore of this bloody conflict. That’s not a criticism because the book’s intent is to investigate lingering sentiments, not to uncover facts or artifacts. The narrative actually references a great deal of Civil War history, and I found no errors of note. (The characters in this memoir would prefer the War Between the States, or even bett...

  The Truth of the War Conspiracy of 1861 A Reassessment of Why the American Civil War Began by H W Johnstone   This booklet was published in 1921 by a Civil War veteran. The author’s intent is to advocate for The Lost Cause and expose the “truth.” I’ve read several modern-day defenses of The Lost Cause, but I wanted to get the perspective of someone closer in time to the conflict. A participant was even better, although Johnstone served for only an unexplained eight months. Unfortunately, time and participation provided few novel insights. I shouldn't have been surprised because years earlier, Jefferson Davis had articulated the dogma of The Lost Cause in his two histories of the Confederate States of America. Johnstone argues that a duplicitous President Lincoln started the war by reinforcing Forts Sumter and Pickens, the last Union military presence in the seceded states. First, the duplicitous part. In his inaugural, Lincoln said, “The power confided to me will be used to...

  Dixie Betrayed, How the South Really Lost the Civil War  by Davis J. Eicher To understand the Civil War period, it is necessary to study the war from both sides. Dixie Betrayed by Davis J. Eicher provides the view from the Confederate side. Dixie Betrayed is a different book than the title implies. The last words of Eicher’s book are “Jefferson Davis had lost his power as Confederate president — but not before the whole cause of the Confederacy was lost. Dixie was Betrayed.”  The title and these final words actually betray the worth of this book.  Nearly twenty thousand books have been written about Lincoln and almost a hundred thousand about the Civil War. Less than an estimated twenty percent of these were written from a Confederate perspective, and many of those were Lost Cause screeds. Since the Confederacy lost, official documents were often destroyed, requiring historians to rely on sources like newspapers, letters, and memoirs—and these are not nearly as w...

  Abraham Lincoln and The Second American Revolution  by James M. McPherson This book is a collection of seven essays on the Civil War. Originally, these essays were lecture notes. They are well-written and thoughtful. The common theme is that the Civil War was a second revolution because it brought revolutionary transformations to the country and was followed by a counter-revolution a couple of decades after Appomattox. Each essay covers a single premise and can be read separately. Slavery divided the nation in 1787 and severed the country in 1860. Many have said that the Civil War settled the key issue that the Constitutional Convention kicked down the road. Did the Civil War finish the Founders’ work or was it in and of itself revolutionary? Read Abraham Lincoln and The Second American Revolution and decide for yourself. Ending slavery in the United States was horrendously difficult. It took a four-year war with about 620,000 deaths. The politics were byzantine, and t...

Lincoln by David Herbert Donald Lincoln by David Herbert Donald is worthy of all the praise and awards it has received. As the cover exclaims, Lincoln was a New York Times Bestseller, the book won the Lincoln Prize, and Donald had previously won the Pulitzer Prize twice. Published in 1995, it was called the best single-volume biography of Lincoln to date and can arguably still claim that distinction. Donald’s book title indicates that he had nothing less in mind. Merely, Lincoln , with no subtitle. All of this acclaim does not mean the book is flawless. I read a trade paperback edition that was 600 pages long, with another 114 pages of back matter. I hadn’t seen paper so thin since the Bible. I constantly checked page numbers to ensure I hadn’t flipped two pages by mistake. Yes, the book is comprehensive, thorough, and encyclopedic. Yet never boring. Donald’s writing is clean and unadorned. He does not intrude on Lincoln’s story, and it is such a good story that the reader is pulled t...

  Bitterly Divided: The South's Inner Civil War by David Williams Bitterly Divided by David Williams makes sense. If the political establishment in a bunch of states decided to secede, there would obviously be inhabitants who retained a stronger loyalty to the United States of America. After all, they had been proud U.S. citizens for their entire lives. I bet you saw a but coming. The but is that although Williams presents voluminous evidence of insurgence within the CSA, it is not clear that it materially hampered the Confederacy’s war efforts until the final year or so. The catchphrase, ‘rich man’s war, poor man’s fight,’ may have been a truism, but Southern men continued to fight until victory became hopeless or they received news from home that their families were starving. Williams contends that slaveholders masterminded the war, but, for the most part, non-slaveholders fought it. Three-fourths of southern whites owned no slaves, so arithmetic alone proves Williams correct. S...

  Grant Takes Command 1863-1865 by Bruce Catton When asked what sort of man Grant was, Lincoln replied that Ulysses S. Grant was “the quietest little fellow you ever saw. The only evidence you have that he’s in any place is that he makes things git! Wherever he is, things move." Lincoln explained that every other general briefing him before a battle told him that he was short of some crucial resource to ensure victory, but, if ordered, they would proceed anyway. This essential resource was almost always cavalry, and Lincoln claimed their real purpose was to shift responsibility to him. When Grant took charge, he immediately reassigned twenty thousand horseless cavalrymen to the infantry. Since there was no way to acquire horses for every man designated as cavalry, these soldiers were held idle as a handy excuse. Recognizing the duplicity, Grant removed the excuse before his first battle. In this biography, Pulitzer Prize-winning Bruce Catton does an excellent job of describing the...

  A World on Fire, Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War by Amanda Foreman Few Civil War history books convey another country’s perspective. Amanda Foreman has done history buffs a service by offering a British perspective on our great conflict. Along with fascinating details about spy operations in Canada, Foreman supplies information on French, Irish, and German participation as diplomats, soldiers, and observers. The book may not quite depict a world on fire, but it’s eye-opening to learn how much our civil war affected other nations. A World on Fire 's greatest contribution is its insight into the issue of British and French recognition of the Confederate States of America—arguably the war's most significant political battle. Abraham Lincoln ultimately thwarted Jefferson Davis in this contest, which many considered an easy Confederate win. Had recognition been granted, the South likely would have achieved independence. A World on Fire   is a dazzling research...

Lincoln’s Sanctuary Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers’ Home   By Matthew Pinsker Lincoln’s Sanctuary offers a fresh vantage point on Lincoln. With thousands upon thousands of Lincoln books available, pulling off something new is a feat—yet Pinsker succeeds. In this work, he explores Abraham Lincoln’s time at the Soldiers’ Home, a cottage in the heights of Washington that served much as Camp David does today. From 1862 to 1864, Lincoln and his family spent summers at the cottage to escape the heat and city pressures. To paint a vivid picture of Lincoln’s personal and political life during this period, Pinsker, a historian, draws on primary sources. The book links the cottage to key wartime events—such as the Emancipation Proclamation, the firing of General McClellan, and Lincoln’s evolving public image. Lincoln buffs looking for a revealing, intimate perspective into Lincoln’s private life and decision-making moments will find this book compelling.

  The Trent Affair: The Diplomatic Incident that Nearly Brought Great Britain into the American Civil War Historians have given the Trent Affair short shrift. This book promises new revelations about the diplomatic incident, primarily through quotations from primary sources such as letters, newspaper articles, and official documents. While it is always useful to read primary source material, the sources presented do not offer a different perspective than historians have presented. Granted, historians gloss over the nuts and bolts of the Affair, but it’s because the issue was resolved before it could impact the course of the conflict. Still, understanding these details is important for context. What if the Trent Affair hadn’t been agreeably settled? If Great Britain had entered the war on the Confederacy’s side, it was likely that the South would have won. That would have made the Trent Affair a huge deal. Jefferson Davis’s top diplomatic priority was to drag a European power into c...

  Desperate Engagement How a Little-Known Civil War Battle Saved Washington D.C . Much happened between July 9 and 12, 1864. Marc Leepson focuses on this brief Civil War period in his book Desperate Engagement . In the end, the battle changes little, except perhaps delaying the end of the war. General Grant continued his stranglehold on the Confederate Army until Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Nonetheless, if the Hail Mary pass had been completed and General Jubal Early had sacked Washington, we might all be speaking with a Southern accent. According to Leepson, this outcome was almost realized. He would want us to believe it was close—heart-stoppingly close. Other historians and this reader think that once General Grant's reinforcements arrived, General Early's attack on Washington was doomed. The risky moves and countermoves, potential payoff, and unbridled heroism on both sides should have made this an exciting book. The Battle of Monocacy and the attempted siege are nicely ...

In 1864, an anonymous hardbound pamphlet was published entitled Miscegenation: The Theory of the Blending of the Races, Applied to the American White Man and Negro . The word "miscegenation" was coined by the authors who claimed it was a scientific theory describing how racial blending enhances humanity. The pamphlet encouraged the interbreeding of people from different racial or ethnic groups through marriage or sexual relations. During the Civil War period, the North was terrified that freed slaves would swarm their states. Racial bigotry was real and serious. Northerners were frightened for good reasons. For seven decades, slaveholders and their Democratic Party sympathizers had exclaimed on the floor of Congress, in newspapers, in churches, and in pubs that emancipation would cause hordes of black men to migrate north to take the White man’s job and daughters. Tribal instincts were fanned until they were burned into the subconscious of most Americans. After their defeats ...

Ted Widmer made a great choice of subject matter. Lincoln on the Verge concentrates on the thirteen days it took Lincoln to journey by train from Springfield to Washington. It’s a fascinating story that illustrates the political savvy of this supposed country bumpkin. Widmer introduces us to the president-elect as he travels across a great land he knows will soon be thrown into turmoil. What could Lincoln accomplish on this tedious trip? You’ll discover he could do quite a bit. Foremost in his mind was solidifying his support in the North for the coming maelstrom. His twisted path took him to state capitals and major cities where he could converse with political power brokers and influencers. He engineered the Presidential Special’s journey in preparation to govern the nation after inauguration. Widmer has a clear, concise writing style that keeps the narrative moving, and his matter-of-fact presentation allows the reader to mine for new insights without being led to the trough. ...

Except for the Monitor vs. Virginia ( Merrimack ), naval battles get short shrift in Civil War history. James M. McPherson  fills that gap with War on the Waters, The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865.  Land battles were certainly decisive, but the Union might have lost the war without Gideon Welles and the Navy Department. McPherson even makes a strong argument that Rear Admiral David Glasgow Farragut deserves to be ranked with generals Grant and Sherman when giving credit for the Union victory. Inventions and innovations by both the Confederate States and the United States revolutionized naval warfare. Steam power, screw propellers, ironclads, submarines, weaponry, and naval tactics all advanced significantly during those four years. By Appomattox, the United States owned the largest navy in the world, and arguably the most technologically advanced. War on the Waters does an admirable job of describing blue-water and brown-water (river) battles and explaining the signi...

   The Framers debated every detail of the Constitution extensively. Did they ultimately get the presidential term and election right? The Civil War suggests that they may have, and nothing puts more stress on the government than a civil war. Superficially, the Confederate Constitution appeared very similar to the United States Constitution. However, there were differences. The Confederate Constitution openly used the word slavery, where the Framers adopted the euphemism, “other persons.” Many of the Framers abhorred slavery and refused to see it referred to outright in the language of the Constitution. The Confederacy made more than semantic changes. In their minds, they corrected errors they felt were decided improperly seventy-three years prior. Some of these, arguably, contributed to the South's loss in the War for Southern Independence. In Philadelphia, the Framers argued numerous times over the proper length of term for the president. Some wanted a short-term optio...

  Abraham Lincoln is considered one of the most enigmatic presidents in American history. His law partner, William Herndon, described Lincoln as "the most shut-mouthed man who ever lived." Despite his constant pursuit of an audience, Lincoln rarely revealed his true thoughts. He often waffled, deflected questions, or told stories to avoid disclosing his plans. This tendency is one reason historians and critics can depict him as having seemingly contradictory opinions on various issues, conflicting motives, and a range of personal characteristics encompassing every imaginable human behavior. This blog will not attempt to resolve these contradictions. Instead, it will present them all to readers so they can draw their own conclusions. So, sit back, enjoy, and feel free to participate in the discussion. Additionally, this blog promotes Maelstrom , A Civil War Novel coming soon. American history is our story, and Maelstrom  places you right in the middle of the action.