Every Drop of Blood: The Momentous Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln

Achorn, Edward

ISBN 10: 0802148743 / ISBN 13: 9780802148742

Verlag: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2020

Beschreibung

By March 4, 1865, the Civil War had slaughtered more than 700,000 Americans and left intractable wounds on the nation. That day, after hours of drenching rain, tens of thousands crowded Washington's Capitol grounds to see Abraham Lincoln take the oath for a second term as president. In Every Drop of Blood, Edward Achorn captures this watershed moment in our history, painting an indelible portrait of the nation's capital in the weeks leading up to that momentous day -- with its mud, sewage, saloons, and resplendent new Capitol dome, its spies and Southern sympathizers, wounded soldiers, reporters, prostitutes, social-climbing spouses, and power-hungry politicians -- as a microcosm of all the opposing forces that had driven the country apart. Achorn weaves together stories of characters famous and unknown, all swirling in some way around the complex figure of LIncoln: such as Union colonel Selden Connor, grievously wounded in a Washington hospital; the embarrassingly drunk new vice president, Andrew Johnson; poet-journalist Walt Whitman; photographer Alexander Gardner, who took the last formal portrait of the president; soldiers' advocate Clara Barton; African American leader Frederick Douglass; Commissioner of Public Buildings Benjamin French, who coordinated the inaugural; and brooding actor John Wilkes Booth. Just as Lincoln rose to speak in the afternoon of March 4, the sun emerged. In perhaps the greatest inaugural address in American history, he stunned the nation by arguing, in a brief 701 words, that both sides had been wrong, and that the war's unimaginable horrors -- every drop of blood spilled -- might well have been God's just verdict on the national sin of slavery. None of those present that day could know the tragedy that would soon unfold with Lincoln's assassination six weeks later. By chronicling the human drama and frenzy in Washington at this historic crossroads in America's history, Achorn underscores the hope and despair throughout the country as a whole. His story offers new understanding of our great national crisis, and echoes down the decades to resonate in our own time.

Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 001699

Bibliografische Details

• Titel: Every Drop of Blood: The Momentous Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln
• Verlag: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Erscheinungsjahr: 2020
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN-10: 0802148743
• ISBN-13: 9780802148742
• Einband: Hardcover
• Auflage: 1st Edition
• Druck: 3rd Printing
• Zustand: New
• Zustand des Schutzumschlags: New

Über diesen Titel

Inhaltsangabe

A brilliantly conceived and vividly drawn story—Washington, D.C. on the eve of Abraham Lincoln’s historic second inaugural address as the lens through which to understand all the complexities of the Civil War

By March 4, 1865, the Civil War had slaughtered more than 700,000 Americans and left intractable wounds on the nation. After a morning of rain-drenched fury, tens of thousands crowded Washington’s Capitol grounds that day to see Abraham Lincoln take the oath for a second term. As the sun emerged, Lincoln rose to give perhaps the greatest inaugural address in American history, stunning the nation by arguing, in a brief 701 words, that both sides had been wrong, and that the war’s unimaginable horrors—every drop of blood spilled—might well have been God’s just verdict on the national sin of slavery.

Edward Achorn reveals the nation’s capital on that momentous day—with its mud, sewage, and saloons, its prostitutes, spies, reporters, social-climbing spouses and power-hungry politicians—as a microcosm of all the opposing forces that had driven the country apart. A host of characters, unknown and famous, had converged on Washington—from grievously wounded Union colonel Selden Connor in a Washington hospital and the embarrassingly drunk new vice president, Andrew Johnson, to poet-journalist Walt Whitman; from soldiers’ advocate Clara Barton and African American leader and Lincoln critic-turned-admirer Frederick Douglass (who called the speech “a sacred effort”) to conflicted actor John Wilkes Booth—all swirling around the complex figure of Lincoln.

In indelible scenes, Achorn vividly captures the frenzy in the nation’s capital at this crucial moment in America’s history and the tension-filled hope and despair afflicting the country as a whole, soon to be heightened by Lincoln's assassination. His story offers new understanding of our great national crisis and echoes down the decades to resonate in our own time.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Edward Achorn, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Commentary and winner of the Yankee Quill Award, is the author of two acclaimed books about nineteenth-century baseball and American culture, Fifty-nine in ’84 and The Summer of Beer and Whiskey. He lives in an 1840s farmhouse in Rehoboth, Massachusetts.