Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America's Most Perilous Year

Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln

and America's Most Perilous Year

By David Von Drehle

The Time: January 1, 1862 – January 1,1863, America's most perilous year.  The Place: The United States, a country torn in half by a war between its Northern and Southern sections.  Since the surrender of the United States garrison at Fort Sumter on April 14, 1861 and the defeat of the Northern Army at Bull Run on the following July 21st, the Southern forces have managed to keep their Northern counterparts at bay.  As the sunset fell on the final day of 1861, the future looked very bleak for the Union cause.

How Abraham Lincoln, President of all of the United States overcame military, political, social and economic challenges during the first full year of the war and transformed it from merely a war to restore to the Union the eleven seceded states to a revolution against slavery is the topic of David Von Drehle’s book, “Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America’s Most Perilous Year.”

Many people justly claim the twin victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg of the Federal Army on July 1-4 is the point at which the war turned in favor of the Union, but Von Drehle challenges that convention with his thesis that it was the slow and steady progress of the Federal Armies, in concert Abraham Lincoln’s issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation is the true turning point of the war.

Beginning on New Year’s Day 1862 Von Drehle’s linear narrative chronicles the military victories at Forts Henry and Donelson, and Shiloh; the lethargic advance of Major-General George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac during the Peninsular Campaign; the routing of that same army during the Seven days Battles; and the trouncing of the Union Army of Virginia at Second Bull Run and the tactical draw, but strategic Victory at Antietam, after which Lincoln issued his Preliminary Emancipation.

Lincoln’s evolving views on emancipation are thoroughly covered; from his plan for gradual and compensated emancipation; the colonization of the blacks, and finally to his singing of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.

Another thread running throughout the book is Lincoln’s often antagonistic relationship with Major-General George B. McClellan.  Lincoln’s constant pushing and prodding for McClellan to advance the Army of the Potomac and fight; Lincoln trying his own hand as commander of the military and failing drastically; the firing, rehiring, and firing again of McClellan amply demonstrate how Lincoln grew into the job of Commander-in-Chief, and the slow and steady rise in his confidence and abilities while guiding the Northern population through their social, political and economic fears of emancipation.

“Rise to Greatness” is thoroughly researched and well written in an easily read, conversational style.  It is a great joy to read and is a book for academics or Civil War novices alike; everyone can learn something from the pages between its covers.

ISBN 978-0805079708, Henry Holt and Co., © 2012, Hardcover, 480 pages, End Notes, Bibliography & Index. $30.00.  To purchase the book, click HERE.

For Cause & for Country

For Cause & for Country:

A Study of the Affair At Spring Hill & the Battle of Franklin 

by Eric A. Jacobson

The Battle of Franklin, it is said, is the forgotten battle of the American Civil War. Though long over due, the battle over recent years has been the setting for if not all at least in part of three novels by Howard Bahr (The Black Flower, The Year of Jubilo, and The Judas Field) and Robert Hicks' novel, The Widow of the South. And now it is the subject of a new, nonfiction treatment of the ferocious battle of November 30th, 1864, "For Cause & For Country: At Study of the Affair at Spring Hill and the Battle of Franklin" by Eric A. Jacobson.

Jacobson's study begins with Confederate General John B. Hood's failed attempts to keep Atlanta from falling to the Federal Army and then follows Hood north into Tennessee as he hopes to lure Sherman's troops (now on their march to the sea) back to the north. Sherman didn't take the bait, but did dispatch General John Schofield to move his troops from his base at Chattanooga and converge with General Thomas's Federal troops in Nashville. Hood's objective was to intercept and defeat Schofield before he reached Thomas. Jacobson's narrative follows the race between Hood and Schofield to Columbia, Tennessee and then to Spring Hill, where Schofield narrowly, and miraculously escaped being caught by Hood and on to Franklin where the two armies clashed, and finally to Nashville where Hood was ultimately defeated.

I found Mr. Jacobson's narrative of the race to Franklin to be a bit slow and tedious, but then again it could be just me. I have visited Carnton Plantation and the Carter House in Franklin many times and am familiar with the Battle of Franklin, but not so familiar with the engagement (or lack thereof) at Spring Hill. It was my last visit to Carnton, and a tour which was lead personally by Mr. Jacobson who is a historian there, that lead me to buy this book (he was even nice enough to inscribe it for me). His description of the Battle of Franklin was mesmerizing on the tour and is even more so in his book.

Words cannot come close to describing the desperate struggle that took place when these armies clashed on that November 30th afternoon, but Mr. Jacobson comes as close as I think any person can, with vivid word pictures of the action, the desperate, horrific struggle, the ugly and bloody carnage of the battle, and its gory aftermath. I found the description of the fighting in the back yard of the Carter family's home most moving, and could almost close my eyes, and see the men, and hear the battle. I could imagine myself being with the Carter family, huddled together in their basement, listening to the whirling vortex of hell that was swirling all around them.

Mr. Jacobson highlights his text with photographs of all the major players in this cataclysmic struggle, as well as a few period photographs of the battlefield and section of color photographs of present day sites associated with the campaign and battle. Though, it is curious that a photograph of Captain Tod Carter wasn't included. There are a handful of maps, and my one criticism of the book is that I wish that there were more maps.

If you have the chance to visit The Carter House or Carnton Plantation I highly encourage you to do so. I have never had a bad tour at either location. Maybe you'll be lucky enough to catch Mr. Jacobson's tour at Carnton. If you don't have the opportunity to visit Franklin and see it for yourself, then the next best thing to being there is Eric Jacobson's book, "For Cause & For Country: A Study of the Affair of Spring Hill and the Battle of Franklin."

The Devil in the White City

The Devil in the White City:

Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America  

By Erik Larson

Fred Ebb described the story about to unfold in the musical "Chicago" as "a story of murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery, and treachery - all the things we hold near and dear to our hearts," but he could have just as easily described Eric Larson's work of nonfiction, "The Devil in the White City."

Instead of the roaring twenties of the Kandor and Ebb musical, Larson's story is set in the Chicago of the 1890's. Rather than following the stories the jazz age murderesses, Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart, Larson follows two men, Daniel Burnham and Dr. H. H. Holmes, whose parallel lives are intersected only by the Colombian Exhibition, otherwise known as the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

The two men. The first, Daniel Burnham, a prominent Chicago architect, chosen to design and oversee the construction of the 1893 Colombian Exhibition in Chicago. And the second, Herman Mudgett, more better known by one of his many aliases, Dr. H. H. Holmes, the America's first notorious serial killer.

Larson skillfully braids the lives of Burnham and Holmes by alternating chapters, focussing on one and then the other, twisting them round each other like the strands of a rope, and by doing so constructs a strong narrative. As Burnham builds his white city upon the shore of Lake Michigan simultaneously, just blocks away, Holmes constructs his hotel of secret passages, with a sound proof gas chamber, an oversized incinerator and a dissecting table in the basement. As Burnham attracts visitors to the fair, Holmes lures his unsuspecting victims to his murderous lair.

Along the way Larson introduces us to a star-studded cast of supporting characters. Among them are Frederick Law Olmstead, "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Annie Oakley, Louis Sullivan, George W. Ferris, and many more, as well as a who's who of American architects of the nineteenth century.

That being said, however, to call this book a work of nonfiction is a bit of a stretch. Creative nonfiction is a more precise nomenclature with which to label this book. Larson relates the tales of Holmes' murders with precise details that are impossible for him, as the author, to know, and a careful reading of his notes in the back of the book reveals that he interpreted many of his murder scenes from highly speculative police reports detailing what "must have happened."

Despite his imaginative inclinations, or you could argue rather because of them, Larson has succeed in writing a highly suspenseful book which weaves two unlikely events such as the Columbian Exposition and America's first documented serial killer into a page turner that I found difficult to put down.