BY PAUL JOHNSON
Containing interesting insights about the American Civil War
4 stars out of 5 stars
Paul Johnson is a prolific historian whose books include political history, religious history, art history, as well as biographies. One of his massive books I know of, “Art- A New History”, consists of 774 pages and weighs 3.5 lbs. In contrast, “Socrates – A Man for Our Times”, consists of 198 pages and wights 0.3 lbs.
The one under review, “Civil War -America”, is even shorter, only 166 pages long. However, it should not be compared with the others, as it is made up of two sections excerpted from “A History of the American People and Heroes”.
The two sections are: (1) The Almost Chosen People; and (2) Two Kinds of Nobility – Lincoln and Lee. The first section is 144 pages long. So, if you are looking for an end-of-chapter break, you are out of luck.
The book begins with the political climate in the run-up to the outbreak of the Civil War. It proceeds with analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of the North and the South, the principal characters, including Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Ulysses Grant, Robert E. Lee, as well as major events such as the Lincoln-Douglas debate. Curiously, the book does not tell the reader that the phrase “The Almost Chosen People” was coined by Lincoln to describe the American people when he addressed the New Jersey State Senate in Trenton on February 21, 1861.
For a casual student of the Civil War like this reader, the book reveals plenty of facts and insights which were previously unknown to him. Some examples:
● Although Lincoln was regarded as a kind of moral genius and Davis a mere mortal, Davis was nevertheless a just man. Had he and Lincoln joined in moral discussion, with the topic of slavery alone banned, they would have found much common ground. As for slavery, Davis held the belief that it was good for the blacks. It was hard for him to manage the War when serving as President of the Confederacy since the South had far less soldiers than the North. It also had hardly any industry to speak of. Furthermore, the seceded States retained considerable autonomy. One consequence was that soldiers from one State resented obeying orders by a superior officer who was from another State.
● It is surprising to learn that Lincoln did not regard blacks as equals, saying that they might be morally equal but in other respects they were fundamentally different, and unacceptable as fellow citizens without qualification.
● We now regard Lincoln’s Gettysburg address and his second inaugural speech as his best speeches. However, there was one that was so good and so mesmerizing that many reporters forgot to take notes. They gave up after fifteen minutes and “threw pen and paper away and lived only in the inspirations of the hour.” The speech was given at Bloomington on May 29, 1856, when the new Illinois Republican Party was inaugurated. Lincoln was called to make the adjournment speech and he responded with what all agreed was the best speech of his life. Unfortunately, there was no written record. It has become a lost treasure for later generations. What a pity!
● There were literally millions of divided families during the War. Some notable examples: Lincoln’s wife Mary had three brothers in the Confederate Army, all were killed. Every male relative of Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis, was in the Union Army. General Robert E. Lee’s nephew, Samuel P. Lee, commanded the Union naval forces on the James River. It was estimated that the number of extremists on both sides probably did not amount to a hundred thousand all told.
● Lincoln first asked Robert E Lee to be the commander-in-chief of all Union forces before Virgina seceded from the Union. Lee declined the appointment. When Virginia opted to secede, Lee reluctantly went to war on her behalf, saying that “I prize the Union very highly and know of no personal sacrifice I would not make to preserve it, save that of honor.” Implicit in this statement was that he had set himself up to redeem the family honor by leading an exemplary life of public service, as his family did not have a good reputation. His father, nicknamed “Light Horse Harry”, was a big spender and a crook. He went bankrupt, fled from his creditors to the Caribbean and never returned. The family’s reputation was furthered ruined by a stepson known as “Black Horse Harry”, who specialized in adultery.
The book does not have detailed descriptions of famous battles of the War, except a brief mention of Gettysburg. The South could have won the battle of Gettysburg if Pickett’s famous charge was reinforced by Lieutenant General Longstreet’s forces. Lee was reported to say that he never understood why the reinforcement did not happen and said in a loud voice “Too bad! Too bad! OH, TOO BAD!”.
The section “The Almost Chosen People” concluded with the observation that “the central event of American history, the great Civil War, having removed the evil of slavery, gave birth to a new South in which whites were first-class citizens and blacks citizens in name only. And a great silence descended for many decades. America as a whole did not care.”
A perceptive observation indeed!
The author also provides the readers with the following amusing statistics, At the end of the twentieth century, Lincoln appeared in 137 entries in movies, which was the fifth numerous among all figures, real or imaginary. The four ahead of him were Sherlock Holmes (211), Napoleon (194), Dracula (161) and Frankenstein (159). Thus, according to this measure, Lincoln did better than any other real figure except Napoleon.
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