Abraham Lincoln: The Enigmatic President

  Memoir of Ulric Dahlgren  by Admiral Dahlgren   Like A Meteor Blazing Brightly:  The Short but Controversial Life of Colonel Ulric Dahlgren  by Eric J. Wittenberg These Ulric Dahlgren biographies present the Union and Confederate views of the Dahlgren Affair.   Here is the gist of the “Affair.” In February of 1864, a Union cavalry detachment raided Richmond in the hope of releasing imprisoned soldiers captured by the Confederacy. Colonel Ulric Dahlgren led a major arm of the assault. The raid was unsuccessful, and Dahlgren was killed in an ambush. Papers were found on Dahlgren’s body that ordered the raiding party to murder Jefferson Davis and his cabinet. The Union claimed the papers were forgeries while the Confederacy insisted they were genuine. At the time, the Dahlgren Affair became a cause célèbre. The authenticity of the papers remains unresolved.   Ulric’s father, Admiral Dahlgren, called the papers forgeries and maintained that his son would...

  Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America by Garry Wills Lincoln at Copper Union: The Speech that Made Abraham Lincoln President by Harold Holzer Each of these books covers a single important speech by Abraham Lincoln. The Cooper Union Address set a course for his presidential quest, and the famous Gettysburg Address reset the course of the war. The speeches were delivered about 3.5 years apart. The Cooper Union Address was given in New York City on February 27, 1860, prior to Lincoln’s nomination as the Republican presidential candidate. The Gettysburg Address was delivered on November 19, 1863, about four months after the battle. Both books are highly readable and well-researched. Wills won the Pulitzer Prize for Lincoln at Gettysburg, and Holzer won the Lincoln Prize for his book on the Cooper Union Address. It might seem hard to write an entire book about a single speech, but Wills and Holzer had no difficulty filling the pages. More importantly, readers wil...

    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...

  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...

  Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William T Sherman   In turns fascinating and boring. General Sherman wrote a valuable memoir for historians, but too much minutia for the casual Civil War buff. Sherman includes innumerable orders and other correspondence and describes his entire command structure every time there is a significant change or battle. Although historians, especially military historians, will find this invaluable, it can often be dull reading. Sherman frequently allows these documents to tell the story without presenting a description in his narrative. This means the reader must at least review the correspondence to gain a sense of the events. Disappointedly, Sherman seldom shares his opinions or even thoughts about significant issues. It’s sort of the Jack Webb version of his life. When Sherman does express an opinion, it’s pure gold, especially the chapter when he recounts what he believes are the military lessons from the Civil War.

  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...

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.

  Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen:  A Culinary View of Lincoln’s Life and Times Rae Katherine Eighmey A historical novel must read like a story, enriched by details about how protagonists and antagonists lived. While a writer might overindulge in specifics—food, lodging, transportation, clothing—a light touch enlivens the narrative. When I wrote Tempest at Dawn , an academic focus on daily life during the Revolution provided ample research. By contrast, similar cultural and routine details are rarer for the Civil War era. While books on common soldiers abound, my focus is the war's politics, not its battles. Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen helped fill the void. I’m not a cook, so I merely scanned the fifty-five recipes, but these are surrounded by excellent descriptions of everyday life, especially food procurement, preparation, and consumption. Each chapter covers a specific historical period, and Eighmey does a good job of sleuthing out how Lincoln lived, and she presents accu...

  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 ...

  The Impending Crisis of the South, How to Meet it by Hinton Rowan Helper Four reasons made this book appealing to me. First, written in 1857 by someone who lived through the era, it offers an authentic perspective. Second, its anti-slavery stance comes from a Southerner. Third, the book sparked a movement called Helperism. Finally, Lincoln appointed Helper as consul to Argentina, suggesting he likely read the book. This is supported by a section of Lincoln's Cooper Union Address that, more eloquently, echoes Helper's commentary. When writing a historical novel, it’s crucial to get inside the heads of the people who actually experienced the period. One technique is to read contemporaneous writings, including books, periodicals, newspapers, and speeches. Helper’s thesis is that slavery harms economic growth, inventiveness, and the middle class. He uses extensive census statistics to solidly prove his case. While the sheer amount of data is convincing, it can feel dull. Fortunat...

  The Partisan Rangers of the Confederate States Army   by Adam Rankin Johnson When I am trying to get a perspective on a historical period, I like to read books written by people who lived through the period. Examples would include The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin , Roughing It by Mark Twain, The Virginian by Owen Wister,   An Editor on the Comstock Lode by Wells Drury, James Madison’s notes from the Constitutional Convention, A Short History of the Confederate States of America by Jefferson Davis, and The Impending Crisis of the South by Hinton Rowan Helper. When I began researching the partisan rangers of the Civil War, I was thrilled to find General Johnson’s memoir. However, I found the book to be dull and largely uninformative. The Partisan Rangers of the Confederate States Army is a short autobiography, with over half of the content comprising recollections from minor participants. The autobiographical section was a screed of flawless military derring-do...

Constituting America Watch a "Constitutional Chat" video about Lincoln's Cooper Union Address. I was honored to be a guest for this "chat." What was so great about his speech at the Cooper Union? It was earth-moving because it was highly unusual. It was a call for his party to stand on principle—God’s principles, the Founders’ principles, and the founding principle of the Republican Party—the abolition of slavery. Read the essay at Constituting America.

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. ...

Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were fascinating figures—precisely the kind of characters a novelist needs to carry a story. Both presidents had strong personalities, enormous drive, and inner confidence. They were also strikingly different people. Perfect for storytelling. In Maelstrom , I strived to give Lincoln and Davis equal billing. I got the idea from the 1979 novel, Kane and Abel , by Jeffrey Archer. There are always two sides to a story, and Archer did a masterful job of alternating chapters between characters to present the alternative perspectives. The idea intrigued me, and I used it in Tempest at Dawn , my dramatization of the Constitutional Convention. Although it requires extensive preplanning of chapters, it is an excellent technique for presenting opposing views. There are no more strident opposing views than in a civil war. In Maelstrom , I alternate chapters between Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, allowing the two narratives to show how each dealt with the s...

I wrote The Shut Mouth Society , so this is a description plus critiques from other reviewers. This modern-day thriller is a typical chase novel à la Robert Ludlum . The Ludlum formula for this genre involves a man and woman with an “odd meet” (rather than a “cute meet”).  The couple is accused of a crime and then chased by good guys and bad guys until they save themselves by unraveling a mystery that threatens the social order. In The Shut Mouth Society , the mystery is a secret society formed after the Civil War that threatens to take control of Mexico. A chase is launched when a small-town police Commander and a renowned professor assess the validity of a pre-presidential document in Lincoln's hand. Abe Lincoln is interwoven throughout the story as they must examine his life and motivations to solve the mystery. The Shut Mouth Society is a work of fiction, but I did extensive research on Lincoln to craft an exciting, historically accurate story. The novel was a finalist in ...

In early 1860, Abraham Lincoln was a little-known regional politician from Springfield, Illinois. The Republican Party was new and had failed running national hero John C. Frémont for president in 1856. Lincoln's chances of ascending to the presidency under the Republican banner were slight. All that changed in New York City on February 27, 1860. That afternoon, Lincoln had his photograph taken by Mathew Brady, and in the evening, he gave a historic speech at the Cooper Union. Lincoln often claimed that Brady’s photograph and his Cooper Union address propelled him to the presidency. Here is the full speech . Below is a highly abridged version of Lincoln's Cooper Union Speech.  We hear that you will not abide the election of a Republican president! In that event, you say you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, ‘Stand and deliver, or I...

   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...