LINCOLN'S MEN: How President Lincoln Became Father to an Army and a Nation - Softcover

Davis, William C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0684862948 ISBN 13: 9780684862941

Publisher: Free Press, 2000

Synopsis

No American president has enjoyed as intimate a relationship with the soldiers in his army as did the man they called "Father Abraham." In Lincoln's Men, historian William C. Davis draws on thousands of unpublished letters and diaries -- the voices of the volunteers -- to tell the hidden story of how a new and untested president became "Father" throughout both the army and the North as a whole.
How did Lincoln inspire the faith and courage of so many shattered men, as they wandered the inferno of Shiloh or were entrenched in the siege of Vicksburg? Why did soldiers visiting Washington feel free to stroll into the White House as if it were their own home? In this through and authoritative work, Davis removes layers of mythmaking to recapture the real moods and feelings of an army facing one of history's bloodiest conflicts. Lincoln's Men casts a new light on our most famous president and on America's revolution -- on our country's father and its rebirth.

About this title

Review:

Prolific author William C. Davis offers a biography of the relationship between President Lincoln and his Union soldiers--a study based on letters found in more than 600 manuscript collections, some of them private. Lincoln, of course, didn't know his troops personally, but he related to them through his own brief experience in arms (the Black Hawk War) and the duty of his office. The bluecoats, by contrast, all knew about Lincoln, and as Davis shows in this engaging book, viewed him as a kind of father figure.

Davis tracks the war chronologically, highlighting events that inspired ordinary soldiers to comment upon their commander in chief, such as his spats with General McClellan, calls for more recruits, and decision to free the slaves. It's impossible to argue that the men were all of one mind; time and again, Davis reveals the diversity of their views. "Thank the Lord for this!" wrote one Ohio private after Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Another, however, was downright furious. His colorful opinion--written colloquially and without regard for modern grammar--is characteristic of the best Civil War letter writers: "[It] caused me an hour's hearty laugh, two hours tender cry, four hours big with mad, and I am swearing in all the languages known to Americans and Europeans." On the whole, however, Davis advances a convincing claim that the troops admired Lincoln for the greatness with which we honor him today. --John J. Miller

About the Author:

William C. Davis has authored more than twenty-five books on the Civil War, including Jefferson Davis, Breckinridge, "A Government of Our Own": The Making of the Confederacy, and Three Roads to the Alamo. He lives in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

About this edition

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0684862948
• ISBN 13: 9780684862941
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336