Book Review: The Slaves War by Andrew Ward

The Slaves' War: The Civil War in the Words of Former Slaves
Author: Andrew Ward
copyright 2008
Houghton Mifflin Company

This is a tough book for me to attempt to review. I enjoyed it, but had a lot of mixed feelings and confusion after reading it. That is not due to a poor job by the author; rather that is a compliment to him and the way he portrayed the war years and their effects on slaves and former slaves, and, perhaps is a sign of poor previous comprehension of this era on my part.

This book clearly shows the mixed feelings that existed among the enslaved people throughout the South during the war. Instead of all slaves having automatic happy feelings that a war was taking place, possibly to free them, or being always glad to hear of the approach of Yankees, the book shows that slaves did not know what to expect from the way, or from the invading Northerners. Would this war free them, or just make their masters more strict? Were the Yankees really monsters like some masters said, with horns and tails, and would these creatures take the slaves North and torture them? What was freedom? What did it mean?

Mr. Ward uses quotes from former slaves gathered from many post-war interviews, with hundreds of different people quoted throughout the book. This generally makes it a bit difficult to feel like you can get to know any one of the speakers personally, like a reader may do in many books, but that is offset by the display of so many different perspectives and points of views. Certainly, many slaves were glad to see the Yankees come, hoped for liberation and looked forward to the days of freedom, but many also had contrary feelings, uncertain of what the future held, how the Yankees would treat them or what freedom meant.

For a slave on a plantation to see Northern "liberators" come by and take his masters food, money and possible cause other damage to the land or buildings, it was not easy to accept those men as liberators or heros. Many did not understand such violence, and even opposed such acts.

That is the main point I got by reading the book - the war years (including the time immediately before and after the actual war) were a period of chaos, confusion and uncertainty for the slaves and their opinions, fears, observations, comments, and perspectives show that the coming of the downfall of slavery was not totally a time of joy and high expectations. This book provides an excellent view of what the feelings among the slaves were AT THAT TIME, and shows that what we in the current era may think we know about life as a slave may not be accurate. It is easy today to assume that slaves must have been happy or at least have looked forward to the ending of the peculiar institution, but Mr. Ward's work shows how inaccurate that view, biased with the knowledge that the war ended slavery, really is. People living through the war, without knowledge of the future, were not always as sanguine about that future as we may now assume. Some were hopeful, but many had questions and fears about what was happening.

A lot of it comes down to the fact that, for many slaves, the devil they knew (slavery, their masters, their plantation) was not as scary as the devil they did not yet know (Yankees, the concept of freedom, different responsibilities.) Even today, change can be a scary concept for many people, so to think back about the changes the slaves were seeing makes it more understandable why many were a bit apprehensive about the war and its effects. Few poople today will undergo the radical type of change the slaves had to deal with in that era.

This book is a very unique look at the war years - I do not recall any other using these sources to show this type of perspective, from the people whose lives were so much affected by the events of the early 1860s.

It's not always an easy read and sometimes a bit unsettling (I often found myself wondering why a slave would say something so positive about his/her own master or so negative about the Yankees, due to my previous expectations about what they should think of slavery and freedom - I mean, how could someone be even a bit happy about being owned like an animal - though after finishing the book and thinking it over, I started to understand that better) but it is certainly worth reading and thinking about as it does provide a lot of thought-provoking material and perspectives.

Another anniversary yesterday - US Constitution

Another anniversary happened yesterday as I was blogging on Abraham Lincoln in Cincinnati and others on the battle along Antietam Creek in Maryland - the Constitution of the United States of America was signed on September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia.

Granted, it did not become official law for several months, when 9 of the states had ratified it, but the anniversary of its signing is certainly a day worth remembering and pondering.

Can you imagine a group of politicians with all their egos, ambitions and other motives gathering together to hammer out such an agreement to form a new nation? What an incredible feat that was.

The Constitution as is may not be perfect, may have its flaws, may not have settled all questions of government or all issues that came about, but it's still the best form of goverment known to man from what I have seen. No work of man will be without errors, and I'm sure every person who reads this wishes some clause or article or amendment could be changed, added, deleted or re-written, but for this agreement to hold up so well for over two centuries is a remarkable feat, showing just how remarkable that generation of men who put it together were.

Tom Brokaw may have called his own generation "The Greatest Generation" but the Founding Fathers of this nation, flawed as they were, deserve that label as much as anyone else, given their success in the Revolution and the formation of such a long-lasting governmental blueprint.

Abraham Lincoln in Cincinnati, 150 years ago today

As many interested in the Civil War spend today acknowledging the anniversary of the battle of Antietam (appropriately so, given its all-around import), I shall focus on another event that also occurred on this day, though 3 years before that battle in rural Maryland.

Again, my entry will be of an event that took place locally, and, again, involves that tall native of the Bluegrass State, Abraham Lincoln.

In 1858, Lincoln was still known mostly through Illinois as a local lawyer and politician. His famous debates with the "Little Giant" Stephan A. Douglas earned him some more widespread recognition, but he still had not attained any level of national renown.

As Mr. Douglas continued his Senatorial career in 1859, he published an article defending his views on his beloved popular sovereignty concepts. Ohio Republicans then requested their friend from neighboring Illinois to reply to Douglas' claims and Mr. Lincoln gladly did so.

After stopping at Columbus on the 16^th, he made his way through Dayton, Hamilton and, finally, Cincinnati, on the 17^th of September, exactly 150 years ago today.

Here he made a long speech, expanding on views he had expressed in the previous speeches, continuing to respond to Douglas' arguments and appealing to the Kentuckians who lived just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, perhaps a state within sight of where Lincoln stood, depending on the heights of local buildings.

He delivered a speech that is not famous as his Gettysburg Address, not called his "greatest speech" as Ronald White Jr. claimed Lincoln's Second Inaugural to be and not one known to have "made Lincoln President" as Harold Holzer's book argues, but this speech continued Lincoln's arguments against popular sovereignty, for the rights of government to control slavery in the territories. He mentioned how the Northwest Ordinance had created fee states, despite Douglas' counterclaims, and yet displayed his own version of moderation, requesting people not to overturn the Constitution, but to uphold it, including the fugitive slave law and to try to defeat the people, such as Douglas, who were abusing and misreading the country's founding document.

A wonderful description of this speech, certainly written better than I can do, is found at this link to an article that appeared in the winter 2008 Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association. Author Gary Ecelbarger offers a fascinating insight into not only the speech, but also to how widely it was spread throughout the country, making Lincoln's name more familiar to perhaps thousands of people who had not heard of him previously, with unintended help form Douglas.

Ecelbarger provides strong evidence, including analysis of the voting at the 1860 Republican nomination, showing strong support from Ohio for Lincoln (much stronger than the support he received from New York, the site of the Cooper Union speech) to support his conclusion that "Cincinnati address was not only Abraham Lincoln's most underrated speech, it ranks as one of the most important addresses of his pre-presidential career."

It is an outstanding article and I certainly recommend people read it to get a view of this speech and the argument of how important it truly was to Lincoln's future.

The site of this speech was somewhere near modern day Fountain Square and Government Square in downtown Cincinnati, just across the river from where I live and immediately across the street from the building where I work. I took a stroll over there at lunch today and thought it's the typical urban concrete jungle of high-rise buildings, concrete roads, concrete sidewalks, surrounded by cars, buses, bus stops and ordinary city items, I did get a bit of a special feeling about being on the same ground or at least the same area as Mr. Lincoln was on this exact date. It's certainly not true "hallowed ground" like the land along Antietam Creek, nor it is part of a legendary battlefield or cemetery like where he uttered his few words at Gettysburg, but it did feel special to me to be there, on this day, knowing that probably none of the thousands of people around me knew what I knew. (Or maybe it's sad that such an event is little known – nevertheless, I enjoyed walking around the area, thinking about what had taken place there so long ago.

 

 

How I enlisted; how sadly veteran

Here is a good story from page 364 of The Civil War in Song and Story. 1860-1865 by Frank Moore, published in 1865. It illustrates how the war and experience changed things in the minds and perspectives of soldiers, or at least in one soldier, though it seems probable many underwent similar conversions of mindset over the course of time.

A soldier of the Second regiment of Ohio cavalry writes: "On New Year's day, 1864, as our regiment was lying in line of battle beyond Mossy Creek in East Tennessee, the proposition to reenlist as veteran volunteers was submitted to that grim organization. Peter Longstreet's ragged but plucky skirmish line was a stone's throw in front, with a forward tendency; snow was on the hills; the Second Ohio cavaliers had drawn no rations from Uncle Sam in fifteen days, and not an average of one eighth ration during the proceeding four months; their diaphragms were devoid of burden; they had not 'lived in tents' for an eight month; the supply of pone and cerulean hog was failing in that land, and zero was biting at the noses of the cavaliers. Amid all these favorable surroundings the cavaliers said, 'Go to, let us have more of this good thing; give unto us yet thirty and six moons of this goodly service.' Thus the thing was done. Under such circumstances our veteran volunteers enlisted.

"While the cavaliers were signing their names to the enlistment roll, at the rate of a hundred per hour, a ludicrous memory of a former enlistment came to us. Two days after Sumter fell, on a bright April morning, big church full of indignant sovereigns and enthusiastic women; organ thundered, band crashed out 'Hail Columbia'; impromptu banners wagged briskly, and the air was redolent of patriotism. Music ceased. Speeches followed. Roll was opened, and volunteers called for. Five hundred pairs of starry eyes waited to illume the path of the first volunteer. Five hundred pairs of little white hands were nervous to begin clapping at the advent of the first masculine sacrifice. He came, and Emperors have had poorer receptions. He was apotheosized. More followed. The pressure increased. I cowered in my pew, imagining that every woman of sense, and every girl of beauty was saying to herself, 'Why don't he go?' I reasoned with myself, but the clapping and waving of white kerchiefs made me dizzy. With a mighty effort, I made a resolution. I mentally bade adieu to all terrestrial matters. I buried from view all relatives nearer than second cousins, drew the veil of forgetfulness over the dear form of Julia, and most of my outstanding debts, made up my mind to be shot for my country, and began to stride up the aisle. What a path to a graveyard! The male audience yelled - the female audience waved kerchiefs with unexampled energy, and they were perfumed with divine odors. i saw nothing but a dancing sea of snow-white foam, interspersed with smiling stars. I heard nothing but an undefined roar - to me an echo from eternity, to which I regarded myself as rapidly going. I scrawled my name on the elongated foolscap, and thus added my two hundred pounds to the growing hecatomb. I was a volunteer! That night I dreamed of battles. Next day, twenty-seven Testaments, thirteen 'housewifes,' eleven pin-cushions, and thirty-eight rolls of bandages, were left at my boarding-house, each with a touching note from the fair donors. Such was three months' soldiering 'in the brave days of old.' Then we were green - how sadly veteran we are now!"

Abraham Lincoln and My Old Kentucky Home

Wow, it has been a while since I wrote anything, but here we go again.

Yes, it's another Abraham Lincoln topic, but it's another one that came to mind and I wanted to put it in writing. It's not serious scholarly history or anything of the sort, but something I find interesting and had not seen mentioned or described before. This is the kind of new perspective or thoughts that I hope the blogging world can create for me or help me find.

I'm a Kentucky native and have lived here my whole life. I also attended the University of Kentucky. "My Old Kentucky Home" is the state song and is especially symbolic at UK - or at least that is where I learned its words and to love the song as the band played it for every basketball and football game.

It really is not a happy, joyous song as you would expect a state song to be, but is rather sentimental and somewhat sad, describing the feelings of one who has parted from the beloved Commonwealth. I have not experienced those feelings, but the thought recently came to my that perhaps the words would have had a special meaning to President Lincoln, at least the first two stanzas that are the most played lines today (like our national anthem, this song has many verses, yet most are long forgotten.)

I especially think the second stanza is an especially powerful and emotional description and wonder what the President thought about these lines, if, in fact, he ever heard or read them. Combined with the famous meledy (the part where everybody at the Kentucky Derby seems to start singing each year), it strikes me as an apt description of what the native Kentuckian, turned Hoosier, turned Illinosian, turned President may have felt about at least some aspects of his boyhood days.

(I admit that in the second line, I did remove the word that originally was part of the song (darkies) and replaced it with a more modern word. Perhaps this is a sign of political correctness, but I do feel it is appropriate to make this change. Also, when I sing it, I use "my" Old Kentucky Home instead of "the" but I'll leave that be as originally written in the lines below)

The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home,
'Tis summer, the people are gay;
The corn-top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom,
While the birds make music all the day.

The young folks roll on the little cabin floor,
All merry, all happy and bright;
By 'n' by Hard Times comes a-knocking at the door,
Then my old Kentucky home, goodnight.

Chorus
Weep no more my lady
Oh! weep no more today!
We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home,
For the Old Kentucky Home far away.

Book Review: Mr. Licoln's T-Mails

Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails: How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War
Author: Tom Wheeler, copyright 2006, First Collins Paperback Edition, published 2008

Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails is an informative look at how President Abraham Lincoln took office less than two decades after the onset of this new communications technology and how Lincoln "applied the telegraph's technology to create advantages for the Northern war effort entirely on his own" since no previous American leader had established any precedent on how to use such a tool, especially in wartime (page xix).

Wheeler describes Lincoln's evolution in learning how to use this tool. In the first year of the Civil War, Lincoln used it very infrequently, but in the spring of 1862 experienced an epiphany that Wheeler calls his “electronic breakout." During this period, Lincoln communicated with generals in the Shenandoah Valley, offering them advice and orders on what to do to attempt to trap Stonewall Jackson, and also communicated with the main Union General in the east, George B. McClellan. Wheeler explores the frustrations Lincoln experienced in this period, trying to gain cooperation from these generals, but getting only refusal to follow orders, complaints, and, eventually, total failure to accomplish any of the Unions goals.


The third, and final phase of Lincoln’s growth in using the telegraph occurred in the final 13 months of his life, with what Wheeler referred to as the model for electronic management" (page 179). This was when Lincoln worked with Ulysses S. Grant, but instead of getting as involved at the strategic and tactical level as he had in 1862, he enforced the Union’s leadership structure and encouraged Grant to take care of issues that needed resolution. Lincoln asked that they be done, but did not give the same specific instructions as he had while trying to trap Jackson.


The book gives many examples of Lincoln using the telegraphs as his voice, eyes and ears, allowing him to express his views and concerns to his generals and others, as well as to hear hews reports of conditions in the field and communications from his generals, which often were nothing but complaints and excuses. Wheeler shows how Lincoln’s communications with Herman Haupt during 2nd Bull Run were very professional and helpful, while correspondence with George McClellan was not. To no one's surprise, the contrast between Lincoln's telegraphic communications with McClellan and Ulysses S. Grant is quite sharp.

"Electronic leadership" is another phrase Wheeler uses to describe Lincoln's employement of the telegraph, such as his attempts to create an entrapment for Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley; as the title of chapter 8 proclaims, however "Even with Technology, It's all about People" as even the most advanced tools could not turn poorly performing officers into modern Napoleons.

Wheeler’s work also provides a nice description of how the speed of telegraphic messages could be harmful if the sender did not control his emotions, giving an example of a telegraph Lincoln had prepared for Ambrose Burnide in 1863, but that he later marked "not sent" on the back, very similar to his famous letter to George Meade after the battle of Gettysburg. (See pages 136-8 for details on this situation and pages 183-4 for Wheeler's description of the self-control required when using such a device. He praises Lincoln's recognition "that just because a capability exists, it is not always necessary or wise to exercise it.") For anyone in a modern office, that warning is virtually the same one given to those who use the current version of electronic communication.


Chapter 6 discusses “New Electronic Challenges” including the media’s access to the telegraph wires, which allowed them to get getting stories in print more quickly, sometimes providing a challenge to the government in terms of what information the public learned and when they learned it. Lincoln and the government were able to turn this to their advantage; one way was by allowing quick access to the reporters of the newly formed Associated Press with an understanding of the type of information they would report. The government also sent out information similar to the press releases organizations use today.


Other challenges included the ability of people to tap into the wires and the need to send important messages in code.


The final chapter of the book demonstrates how Lincoln’s use of the telegraph fit in with his other available styles of communications. His preferred method was face-to-face meetings, and if that was not possible, he usually turned to letter writing. The telegraph often was his third choice of communicating, especially for complex discussions or issues, yet he adapted to it and used it frequently when he needed to do so.


One recurrent theme in the book was how this communication melded with Lincoln’s management style, which Wheeler referred to as "management-by-walking-around." Communications by telegraph often resembled both sides of face-to-face conversations, so this new technology fit in well with Lincoln’s leadership.


Wheeler did mention Lincoln’s superiority in using the telegraph as compared to his Confederate counterpart Jefferson C. Davis at a couple points in the book, but did not provide detailed analysis of that claim. A comparison of how the two leaders used this technology could make for an interesting topic, but was not really within the scope of this work, so while I would like to see a bit more about it in this work, it is only a minor gripe.


Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails is a book that anyone interested in the Civil War or Lincoln (or even in communications technology or related subjects) should read. The small paperback edition I read has only 186 pages (perhaps a book with more standard-sized pages would have fewer) and is an easy, enjoyable, informative and quick read. Lincoln’s writing has been a popular subject for books in recent years, but this one found a new way to approach that topic and shows Lincoln's ability to adapt and learn while on the job. Instead of using his telegrams only as sources of information, Wheeler explores how the actual use of this new tool was a grand step forward for mankind and particularly for American political leadership, thanks to the skills and willingness to learn of Abraham Lincoln.

More Lincoln Internal Improvements

I have just started reading Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War by Tom Wheeler and one of its contentions is that Lincoln came into the office shortly after the development of this modern technology and used his skills and instincts as an "early adopter"¹ to implement this new tool in his struggle to lead the Union to victory. Wheeler writes that Lincoln's "use of the telegraph is a journey of discovery. During his first year in office the president infrequently availed himself of the electronic messenger. As times grew darker, however, Lincoln turned to the telegraph to project his leadership"² and this line of thought struck me as being a prime example of what I had previously posted about regarding how Lincoln's life was more one long journey of "internal improvements" rather than just what he believed in politically and economically.

The first few chapters, all I have read so far, continue to make this point – that the telegraph's potential had not been recognized for government or military use and that Lincoln was the one discovering how useful it could be if used properly. Wheeler asserts "Here is the amazing fact: Abraham Lincoln applied the telegraph's technology to create advantages for the Northern war effort entirely on his own. Because no national leader had ever had this technology, there was no guidance the president could rely upon in the experiences of historical figures." ³

By May and June of 1862, this effort had paid off with what Wheeler calls Lincoln's "electronic breakout" in his communications with generals in the Shenandoah Valley chasing Stonewall Jackson as well as George McClellan down on Virginia's Peninsula, approaching Richmond. Whether it was arguing with McClellan over the number of troops, Confederate and Union, in the area, or trying to impose a military strategy and sense of urgency on Generals Nathaniel Banks, James Shields and James C. Fremont in the valley, Lincoln had adapted to this new technology instead of waiting around for news of the battle like American leaders had done in past wars and he himself had done during the battle of First Bull Run. "what is more important is that Lincoln acted:"that he turned to the new telecommunications technology to help him take command."⁴

I have found this to be a fascinating read so far given the perspective it provides on just how new the technology was, both to the government and to Lincoln, who had seen telegraph machinery for the first time only 3 years earlier. Despite this newness, however, as Wheeler points out, he found a way to use this to send and receive vital communications much faster than any American leader ever had before, and it only took him about a year in office to start taking full advantage of it. (Actually, he possibly could have taken better advantage by having the equipment installed in the White House instead of in the War Department building, but maybe getting away from the Executive Mansion for a few hours served him some good.)

Perhaps this instance of "internal improvement" is not much more different than how many people would adapt to such new technology (though Wheeler points out that Jefferson Davis used his telegraph more for purely strategic ideas and not as much for understanding his generals. "Lincoln grew into his relationship with his generals and the telegraph played a major part in that growth. Davis, characterized by the editor of one newspaper as treating 'all men as if they were idiotic insects,' used the telegraph to tell his commanders how smart he was."⁵ but it still shows that Lincoln was ready, willing and able to learn something new that would improve himself and his ability to do his job. Some of this learning of the telegraph may have been different than mere "internal improvements" but the confidence Lincoln developed from being able to send orders or request or receive information so quickly certainly added to his ability to act as commander-in-chief, a role no president before him had ever fulfilled so completely.

¹ Page 6

² Pages xviii – xix

³ Page xix

⁴ Page 67

⁵ Page 43

Lincoln and internal improvements, continued

I realize I failed to mention a couple other examples of how the concept of "internal improvements" applied to Abraham Lincoln and his life, and suppose this is a topic so large or potentially large that I probably should do thorough research on it instead of writing about it from the top of my head, but, as Lincoln may said himself "that cat's out of the bag."

The first, and probably best, example of Abraham Lincoln seeking his own "internal improvements" was his self-education, borrowing books from neighbors, reading whenever he could find time, repeating talks he heard adults give until he could comprehend them well enough to interpret them for others his age and, as he reached adulthood, his studies of the law and of the books of Euclid, the mathematician and logician whose books are among the most influential ever written. For Lincoln to learn Euclid on his own required an incredible amount of work, effort and thought, and may be the ultimate example of how "internal improvements" were the basis of Lincoln's overall mindset and not just in economic or political theories.

The other example that came to mind is from Lincoln's Presidency. As the Civil War started, Lincoln was Commander-in-Chief, but had virtually no military training, other than a brief spell in the Black Hawk War in the early 1830s. His formal military education was even more lacking than his formal schooling was during his childhood, but, again, Lincoln attacked this problem and resolved it himself through the study of military manuals and other books concerning tactics and militaristic matters.

Here I will quote Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief by James M. McPherson, copyright 2008, Penguin Press. In the introduction to his book, McPherson discusses Lincoln's quest to master military matters and quotes Lincoln's secretary John Hay.
"He gave himself, night and day, to the study of the military situation...He read a large number of strategical works. He pored over the reports from the various departments and districts of the field of war. He held long conferences with eminent generals and admirals, and astonished them by the extent of his special knowledge and the keen intelligence of his questions."

Clearly, Abraham Lincoln displayed the ability and instinct to improve himself through education, most of which was done on his own time and with his own effort. Nothing can be more demonstrative of "internal improvements" than this constant self-education - whether in reading, understanding language, grasping the study of the law or Euclid, or gaining insight into military tactics and theories, but his growth and development in other aspects of his life such as religious/moral beliefs and his thoughts about race relations and the place of African-Americans in American society also display a definitive growth that can be categorized as "internal improvements."