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During the Civil War many young boys enlisted. In fact, three out of every ten men on the Union side were under 21, and not until 1864 did Congress pass a law forbidding the enlistment of of anyone under 16. But Johnny Clem, who joined up at ten, had them all beaten.
– Indeed he did. In fact, at the age of 12, Johnny Clem was a hero.
A Boy in the Union Army (Coronet Magazine, 1960) Read More »
For many it will come as no surprise that the Confederate States of America entered it’s twilight with the same hubris and cupidity that gave it life. This 1912 article solved a mystery: what had become of the gold and silver from the vaults of the CSA when it finally became clear to all that the rebellion was over.
Click here to read a memoir of the Union victory parade in 1865 Washington.
The Missing Confederate Gold (Literary Digest, 1912) Read More »
Here is a reminiscence of the grand parade following the close of America’s bloody Civil War. It took two days; with the Army of the Potomac marching on the first day followed by General Sherman’s Army of the West on the next. The Grand Review was the brain-child of Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton and was attended by (so it was believed) over one hundred thousand people from the victorious Northern states.
From Amazon: Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War
The Victory Parade Down Pennsylvania Avenue (Literary Digest, 1919) Read More »
Lincoln could use humor as an explosive weapon as well as employing it as a constructive force… For Abraham Lincoln never told a story except with a purpose. He himself pointed this out often. His anecdotes were the precision tools of a highly skilled and intelligent wit… ‘I laugh because I must not cry: That’s all, that’s all.’
Click here to read another article about Lincoln’s use of humor and story-telling.
Click here to read the back-story concerning the Star-Spangled Banner…
The Jokes of Abraham Lincoln (Pageant Magazine, 1954) Read More »
Reagan was the first actor to become president, Buchanan the first tailor, Jefferson the first architect and Abraham Lincoln was the first writer to move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue:
The world has long known that Lincoln liked an occasional back-room story. Here is the only record – in his own handwriting – of that earthy side of the Great Emancipator.
Abe Lincoln: Short Story Writer… (Gentry Magazine, 1956) Read More »
The ball has opened. War is inaugurated. The batteries of Sullivan’s Island, Morris Island and other points were opened on Fort Sumpter at 4 ‘oclock this morning… The answer to General Beauregard’s demand by Major Anderson was that he would surrender when his supplies were exhausted, that is, if he was not reinforced.
Here are the dispatches from Charleston that appeared on the front page of the New York Times on April 13, 1861.
The War Begins (NY Times, 1861) Read More »
Here is the book review for The Case For Mrs. Surratt
More on the assassination can be read here
Was Mrs. Surratt Innocent? (Newsweek Magazine, 1943) Read More »
These words concerning the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln were penned a couple of years after the event took place, for an 1867 history on the American Civil War. The author referred to a popular allegation that was a common among Northerners at the time:
It was alleged, and with some reason, that the plot was known to, and approved by, the Rebel government in Richmond, and that [Jefferson] Davis and some of his cabinet, and their agents in Canada, were accomplices in the crime. Whether this be so or not, certain it is that propositions to assassinate President Lincoln and other prominent members of the government were received and entertained by Davis and his associates, and were not rejected at once, and with the scorn which became civilized and Christian men.
– from Amazon: Day of the Assassins: A History of Political Murder
More on the assassination can be read here…
The Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy (The Southern Rebellion, 1867) Read More »
Fed-up with decades of articles and editorials declaring that he and his Confederate comrades fought tirelessly for four years in order to preserve and advance the cause of slavery, elderly Southern veteran, James Callaway, put pen to paper in order explain that this was not the case. Equipped with numerous passages from A Soldier’s Recollections and an artificial Lincoln quote, Calloway argued that it was Northern aggression that swelled the Confederate ranks.
Why The Rebels Fought (Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1918) Read More »
Following the death of his mother, Nancy Hanks, the future president was but six years old. Lincoln’s father, Thomas Lincoln, then married Sarah Bush and the family moved to Indiana. The Lincoln family was poor and suffered hardships living in the Indiana wilderness but a bond was created between stepmother Sarah and the boy Abraham that was never broken. From the age of nine and throughout the rest of his life Lincoln would call her, Mother.
These are the tender memories of his boyhood that she called to mind just five months after the assassination.
Abraham Lincoln: The Boy (National Park Service, 1956) Read More »
