It's not easy these days. We don't hear the sound of tent stakes being pounded into the earth. We don't smell the campfires. We don't hear the thrilling sound of artillery fire or the music of a regimental band. No bugles pierce the air. No laughter with friends. No passing a cup when the spectators head home. We're all missing our hobby, and we're all missing the friends who make the hobby so enjoyable.
But there are still ways that we can use these strange days to further our hobby. Some of us may be involved in sewing a new dress, or mending a long-used one. Maybe you're working on new underpinnings, or decorating a bonnet.
I'm doing some reading! There's no end of books about the Civil War, and new ones are rolling off the presses. Lately, I'm finding myself studying the early days of the Civil War era, and its closing days.
My current fascination is Abraham Lincoln's trip to Washington for his first inauguration in early 1861. Lincoln faced the longest trip to the capital of any President up to his time. He made the trip to Washington, DC knowing that Southern sympathizers had sworn to assassinate him before he could take the oath of office – perhaps even on the steps of the Capitol! This, at a time when assassination was as yet unknown in America.
Ted Widmer's Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020) is a thrilling account of Lincoln's journey. I almost felt like I was a passenger on the Presidential Special, racing across the nation. At times, the train reached a breakneck speed of 60 miles per hour (especially when Lincoln's son Robert Todd was at the controls!). Widmer introduces us to an amazing cast of characters that Lincoln met along the way and he shares with us the nail-biting-inducing details of how Allan Pinkerton and Kate Warne worked feverishly to stop the conspirators and to save the President-elect's life.
I'm currently reading The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President – and Why It Failed by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch (New York: Flatiron Books, 2020; available on Amazon at the time of the writing for $17.99). This one I cannot put down! The book takes us from Lincoln's difficult youth and troubled upbringing to the trip to Washington for the first inauguration. I'm especially fascinated by Kate Warne, who was hired by Allan Pinkerton as the nation's first female detective. Warne was able to infiltrate counterfeiting rings and Confederate conspiracies in a way that no man could have. We meet the shadowy Southern supremacist group, the Knights of the Golden Circle, and enter a grim world of men who cast ballots in the dark to select the man who will fire a shot into Lincoln's heart. The failure of their plot depended almost completely on Kate Warne and Allen Pinkerton. I recommend both of these two books highly.
I'm also spending some time on the last year of the War and the end of Lincoln's life.
Every Drop of Blood: The Momentous Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln by Edward Achorn (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2020) takes us into Lincoln's soul. After four years of horrific bloodshed, Lincoln wanted “malice toward none, charity for all.” As Gordon S. Wood comments in his review, “No one has ever placed Lincoln's Second Inaugural in such a full and rich context.”
Along the way, we meet fascinating 19th century figures like Walt Whitman, author of the then-scandalous “Leaves of Grass,” who admired Lincoln from the moment he saw the President pass by in a carriage as Whitman walked the streets of the capital. This book truly opened my eyes. It dawned on me how many influential people in the mid 19th century interacted with each other. There truly is no end to what we can learn about the social, cultural, and political forces that were at work during the 1860s.
Another good read is Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War by S.C. Gwynne (New York: Scribner, 2019). Gwynne also wrote Rebel Yell, arguably the definitive biography of “Stonewall” Jackson. Gwynne tells, in vivid, fast-moving prose, the compelling story of the last bloody year of the Civil War. He takes us to the battlefield, where Grant and Sherman relentlessly press on. He takes us to Richmond, where Jefferson Davis receives word to evacuate the city while he sits in his church pew on a Sunday morning. Along the way, we see the military strategy, the political intrigue, and the people behind the scenes. Gwynne truly shows us the human toll of the Civil War. Along the way we travel to iconic places like Andersonville, described as “hell itself.”
Last on my reading list will be Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight, Prentice Onayemi, and others (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018). This book won the Pulitzer Prize in History.
Respectfully submitted,
Guy Purdue