"The Madman and the Assassin" by Scott Martelle (2015)

Boston Corbett once shook Abe Lincoln’s hand. That happened just after Corbett arrived in Maryland as part of a NY regiment after Lincoln called for volunteers when the South seceded from the Union. That this man; who would go on to be remembered for killing John Wilkes Booth 4 years later; met the victim of the man he was destined to kill is just one of the many strange things about this man which the author has chronicled in this carefully researched and thoroughly engaging book.

Boston Corbett was born Thomas Corbett and took the name of the city in which he first accepted Jesus Christ. This decision would inform every part of his life from that moment forward. Put out of your mind everything which you have heard about this enigmatic and mysterious man and get ready for a fascinating read. There is much more to his story than just that singular moment when he shot John Wiles Booth in a tobacco barn.

Scott Martelle does a superb job of bringing to life not only Boston Corbett’s story, but also in chronicling the Second Great Awakening of Religious fervor in the United States. The First Awakening was in the years before the American Revolution, as the colonists stretched the wings of their newly found religious freedom in North America. 

The Second Great Awakening; of which Corbett became a part; occurred just as the Northern half of the country was embracing the new Industrialism and the South was clinging to its own Agricultural and slave based economy. And after the war, Corbett’s travels out West in search of a new life are particularly interesting. He took over an 80 acre homestead which had been abandoned.

Descriptions of Corbett's time in the infamous Andersonville prison camp are remarkable for their description of the conditions, as well as how this man comported himself in a hell on earth. Testimonies from others who were imprisoned there at the same time all speak fairly well of the man who was known to be a religious zealot. He spent much of his time ministering to others and sharing what little he had with those who had even less. This was a very complex individual.

The book also serves as a reminder of a time when a person could be as different as they dared to be without too much interference from either the law, or other people. As you read the book you cannot help but wonder what the fate of this man would have been were he alive today. It’s a very pertinent question, which begs whether or not we have really become more tolerant as a people, or are we now even more restricted in our thoughts than ever before.

Lincoln Assassinated

My first recollection of President Lincoln is from 1959 and the release of the new Lincoln penny. The obverse was changed from "wheat stalks" to an image of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. His picture hung in every classroom from Kindergarten through at least Junior High School, right alongside George Washington. He was considered somewhat of a saint. So naturally I was curious about this man ever since I can recall.

I have read everything about him, from Carl Sandburg's brilliant 2 volume biography to the latest books on his sexual obsessions. I have seen him played by Raymond Massey and Henry Fonda in films and several actors on stage. Love him or hate him, he was quite a man.

Tasked with keeping the Union together took a great toll upon him. You can see it in photos, especially the one here, taken just 3 days before he was shot and killed by John Wilkes Booth. Whether or not you agree with Lincoln's policies regarding slavery and States Rights, you cannot help but wonder what would have happened if the Union hadn't prevailed and the South had seceded successfully, pardon my alliteration.

It's possible that Mexico, with or without the aid of Spain, would have taken back Texas. And, what about the Spanish American War? Would it ever have happened? What would have been the fate of the Philippine Islands in World War Two? After all, Spain was neutral in that conflict and the Philippines was our pathway to Victory in the Pacific. I could go on, but I won't.

The flight and subsequent shooting of his assassin, John Wilkes Booth, is legendary, as is the trial and execution of his co-conspirators. Among them was the first of only two women ever executed by the United States Government. Her name was Mary Surratt. She essentially "ran the nest where the plot was hatched”, in the words of President Andrew Johnson.

But the most significant thing that Lincoln left us as a window into his character is the Gettysburg Address. First shunned here in the U.S. as "lackluster", it was hailed in England and is still considered by many to be amongst the greatest writings of Western Civilization. I am printing it here in the hope that all the people of our nation, currently divided as it is, will read it and fully understand its meaning. This would be the best way to honor the man who kept our Nation whole.

There are five different versions of the Gettysburg Address. This is taken from the one that is on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C. It contains the words "under God." This is the most notable difference in the five versions.

The Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. 

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom— and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

"The Day Lincoln Was Shot" by Jim Bishop (1955)

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809. My reading of this book, and the resultant review you see here, are both coincidental to the occasion. But it does lend more of a relevance to the narrative when reading it.

I chose this book from the “stacks” in the library precisely because it is an older book, and as such it was written in closer proximity to the event. The author was writing at a time when these events were less than a century past, and there were a few people still living that had been alive when it occurred. They may have just been children at the time, but they would have remembered the events and the stories told by their parents and relatives.

Over the years the stories have changed. Prior to about 1970 most accounts agreed that Booth uttered his famous “Sic Semper Tyrannus!” as he leapt to the stage from the private box where he had just shot the President and stabbed Major Rathbone. But the contemporary accounts of the time tell a different story. That is, the individual eyewitness accounts. But history on this night would be written by one man; Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War.

Booth said two things after shooting Lincoln. The first was “Sic Semper Tyrannus!”; which was the motto of the State of Virginia, and also “The South has been avenged!” It was after saying these two things that he hung from the ledge of the box and dropped to the stage, breaking his ankle when his foot caught on the bunting draping the President’s box. But, I have to admit, the leap is a great flourish and Booth would no doubt be proud of this added highlight; true or false.

In 1954 and 1955 Mr. Bishop spent 6 months retracing the steps of the assassin and his co-conspirators, traveling from Maine and Canada to Virginia, reading all the old newspaper articles he could find and visiting the locations which were involved.

One of the strangest aspects of his research was in finding that news of the Presidents assassination was on the street the day of the assassination; as far away as Maine and almost 10 hours before he was killed. Even at a time when telegraph was the quickest means of communication, this still does not explain how the reports were so accurate as to name the theater, when at the time the President was himself still unsure of his plans. Remember that Mrs. Surratt’s son John was just then shuttling papers back and forth between Canada and the Confederate government in Virginia.

But this book is not given over to conspiracy theories. Rather, it is more concerned with an hour by hour description of what each of the participants were doing from about 7 AM on Friday April 14, 1865 until the President succumbed to his wound at 22 minutes past 7 AM the following morning. It is of interest to note that had Booth not killed Lincoln on Good Friday the late President might not have gained such stature as a martyr. In a way Booth helped bestow that honor on the man he claimed to loathe.

Each chapter of the book explores not only the events of that hour, but also the prior history of how the events led there. This is as an exciting account of the night Lincoln was shot as you will find. Robert Redford’s film; “The Conspirators”; was a fine film, but it relied on the “smooth” version of events. There is something lacking in the film which Mr. Bishop has captured so well within these pages; the confusion of the night as Booth was getting away.

One example of the contemporary inaccuracies which found it's way into the movie is the scene in Secretary of State Seward's room. The room was in complete darkness. Due to extreme amount of noise made by Lewis Paine as he attempted to shoot, and finally stab the Secretary's son at the top of the stairs, his daughter had extinguished all the lights in the room at the time and even tried to hold the door back when Paine attempted to enter. As a matter of fact he wound up struggling in the dark with two persons, one of whom was the daughter. 

As the streets of Washington filled with throngs of people on foot; and some in carriages; Booth stuck fairly to the script he had planned to make his escape over the bridge at the Navy Yard. That bridge was closed to traffic at 9PM nightly; and so no one really thought that Booth had gone that way. After all, the sentries were there to stop anyone trying to leave or enter the city. But, with the war just about over; General Johnston’s troops had not yet surrendered; the sentries were lax and allowed two of the assassins to pass over the bridge and on toward Surrattsville and the Surratt Tavern where there were guns and binoculars awaiting them.

The book has a sense of immediacy about it which can only come from the careful pacing of the author, as he lets you in on each piece of information as it happens over the course of the night. And even though you know the story; indeed the author references the outcome in several places; the reader is still held captive to the narrative.

Jim Bishop wrote a syndicated column for about 6 years between 1957 and 1963. In 1964 he released ''A Day in the Life of President Kennedy,'' which he had just finished 10 days before the assassination in Dallas. The book had been approved by JFK without revisions. However, Jackie Kennedy asked for 60 minor changes after his death and prior to publication; all of which the author acceded to. 

Mr. Bishop later wrote “The Day Kennedy Was Shot”, which was first released in 1968. TV personality Bill O’Reilly has had a successful run of books about the Lincoln and JFK assassinations, and I’ve even read them. They add nothing to the stories and in some places are very reminiscent of the style which Jim Bishop used in writing his books on the same subjects; only several decades earlier than Mr. O’Reilly. That’s why I like to roam “the stacks” at the library. A lot of “new” things can be found there.

"The Hour of Peril" by Daniel Stashower (2013)

The plot to assassinate President-elect Lincoln has always been a source of fascination for me. When I was living in Baltimore, some 30 odd years ago studying for a Coast Guard License, I used to stand opposite the Calvert Street Station and contemplate what would have been if the plot to kill Lincoln had been successful. And, standing on the very spot in the station where Lincoln had once trod held another appeal all of its own. So, naturally, I was eager to pick this book off the shelf at the library where it was presumably waiting just for me. And, what a treat it was to read!

Author Daniel Stashower has taken the oft told story of the attempted assassination of Lincoln en route to Washington and turned it into an all-encompassing saga of such diverse topics as; Scottish immigration, the westward expansion of the United States as a nation, the Abolitionist Movement, Allan Pinkerton’s rise from humble beginnings to his world-wide fame as a premier Private Investigator, his part in the Underground Railroad, his friendship with John Brown, and of course the founding of the Secret Service.

Along the way he introduces the reader to Eugene Vidocq, the former criminal turned law enforcement agent who founded the French Surete, and pioneered the plaster casting of footprints and established one of the earliest criminal data bases of the era. He was the actual inspiration for Victor Hugo’s character Jean Valjean in “Les Miserables.” Even the Lincoln-Douglas Debates are not ignored here, nor their implications concerning the inevitable coming of a Civil War. Oh, and did I mention that this is a book about Abraham Lincoln’s First Inauguration?

In a sweeping style, and drawing upon all sources, the author has penned what could very well become the basis for a movie about Allan Pinkerton. If Steven Spielberg were to undertake this as a companion piece to his current blockbuster “Lincoln”, he could not miss. 

As a member of the Scottish Chartist group; who were early champions of the working class and later tied to Marx and Engels; Pinkerton was also a natural  champion of Abolition. His work with John Brown put him in direct violation of both state and federal laws, but still he persevered . His attitude was expressed in the oft quoted “The ends justify the means, if the ends are for the accomplishment of Justice.”

When the author does get around to the journey by rail from Illinois to Chicago, by circuitous fashion, passing through all the stops on the way to New York, and from there on to Washington, D.C.; including a very dangerous change of stations at Baltimore where the President-elects life was in imminent danger; the narrative actually gets even better, if that is imaginable. 

The smoke filled cars come to life as the train hurtles toward the destiny which will ultimately; some 4 years later; culminate in the President’s death by an assassin’s bullet. That in itself is almost ironic; that he should live through the earlier attempt upon his life, only to die in the same way after holding the country together during a vicious Civil War; seems almost as if history had done with him; and having done so, cast him aside.

This book also explores the role that the railroads were beginning to play in the way Americans lived, worked and even engaged in politics. Filled with rogues, knaves and the world's first female detective, there is something for everyone in this book. It is still early in the year; and the book is just recently out; but I would suggest that if you only read one or two books this year, skipping this one would be a real loss.

"Bloody Crimes" by James Swanson

I was in the throes of dental work when I posted this review and I failed, due to the prevailing circumstances, to address some of the book. I have added the "missing" portions here, in italics, to distinquish them from the original review.

This is a well written and fascinating account of two men at the close of the Civil War. The first man is, of course, Abraham Lincoln. The second, and equally important man is Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The book follows their lives during the last few weeks of the war, the assasssination of President Lincoln, and the flight, and eventual capture of Jefferson Davis.

But before the book delves into the tragedy of the assassination, it takes a hard look at the last 2 weeks of the war, as Lincoln toured the Confederate Capital of Richmond after it's fall, and Jefferson Davis moved his government to Danville, before beginning his journey to Mexico.

Lincoln and Davis had so much in common, yet were so different in their backgrounds. Lincoln often toured the battlefield, as he did in Richmond, and was often seen in the trenches around Washington during the war. Davis, on the other hand, was more of an aristocrat, although, of the two men, he was the one who had major military experience. Davis had fought in the War with Mexico, serving under General Taylor with great distinction. Lincoln, although he had been elected Captain of his regiment during the Black Hawk War, never saw battle until he became President.

When Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to General Grant on April 12th, the war was effectively over. There was no way for the Confederate Army to rally and reverse the tide. They were simply outgunned and out of supplies. Nevertheless, Jefferson Davis refused to believe this was the end, and so he began his flight westward, most likely seeking to reach Mexico. He would never make it, instead being captured and imprisoned for several years, during which time he was chained, shackled and nearly lost his mind. It was only the intervention of some very influential Northern politicians that eventually freed him.

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln sent shock waves throughout the nation. It was alledged that Jefferson Davis was responsible for this terrible deed. In reality, only one man from the Confederate government was directly involved. Upon hearing of Lincoln's death, Davis was heard to lament the act, realizing that the full force of retribution would now fall upon the Southern States.

The book is well organized as it jumps back and forth from the manhunt for Jefferson Davis, the assassination of President Lincoln, the pursuit of John Wilkes Booth and the preparations for the President's funeral.

At first it was planned that the slain President be interred beneath the Capitol Building in Wahington, in the crypt which was intended for George Washington. But forces in Chicago, where Lincoln had been a state legislator, and won the 1860 nomination for President at the Republican Party Convention, wanted him buried there. And still others wanted the President to be returned to Springfield, where he had established his early career in law and politics. It was there that he had made his home. Springfield, of course, emerged as the winner.

But the meat of this book is in the journey, by train, which was undertaken to honor a man who, with a singleminded purpose, held together a unique country, founded in unity, and then tested by internal conflict. The Civil War was inevitable, the seeds for it had been planted in the birth of a nation that allowed slavery. The founding fathers had every intention of re-visiting the issue of Abolition, but, in a haste to gain our freedom from Britain, neglected to resolve this one great difference that would one day, surely come back to haunt the nation.

The book also follows the life of Jefferson Davis after his imprisonment and subsequent death in 1889. He, like Lincoln, also had a funeral train, which passed through the Southern states from New Orleans to Richmond, just as Lincoln's trian had passed through the Northern States. Davis' train bore a macabre resemblance to the funeral train taken by President Lincoln in 1865.

In addition, the author calls attention to Lincoln's own views of the treatment of the Southern states after the end of the war. In the last 2 weeks of the conflict, Lincoln remarked that we should "let 'em down easy." Had he lived, Jefferson Davis would have been allowed to leave the country, or simply go home. The fact that he was imprisoned, humiliated and impoverished gave birth to the hatred of the Reconstruction Era, as well as the "Jim Crow" laws of the south, the scars of which affect us until this very day.

This is an excellent read, one which will enlighten and educate the reader, as well as entertain.