Book Review: 366 Days In Abraham Lincoln's Presidency

366 Days In Lincoln's Presidency
Stephen A. Wynalda
Skyhorse Publishing, 2010
590 pp

Abraham Lincoln is without a doubt one of the most popular subjects for books on American history, so finding a new approach to the topic of Lincoln would seem to be nearly impossible. Not so, for 366 Days In Lincoln's Presidency takes an approach that is really is novel. As such, it gives the reader a unique look into Lincoln's life and personality.

Stephen Wynalda has selected 366 days (1864 was a leap year) arranged chronologically from November 1860, when Lincoln won the presidential election, to his assassination in April 1865. For each of these days he writes a mini-chapter summarizing what Lincoln did on that day. Wynalda is especially focused upon Lincoln's thought processes and how he made decisions - the subtitle of the book is The Private, Political and Military Decisions of America's Greatest President.

In addition, there are several sidebars interspersed throughout, which give a more in-depth look at issues such as Lincoln's medical history, family issues, and other biographical information about him and members of his family (Mary Todd Lincoln was fond of going to New York for shopping sprees, for example - and tackled the problem of refurbishing the rather dowdy White House with gusto).

This book is written for a general audience, not Lincoln scholars. I found the size of the work a bit overwhelming - though impressive, and researched thoroughly. As such, I enjoyed reading in it as one would in an encyclopedia (which I've always quite enjoyed doing, so this is a plus as far as I'm concerned). My particular interest is in quirky social/personal history, so the days that especially caught my interest were not the ones involving larger political machinations. For example:

-Lincoln as a keen theater-goer and his watching John Wilkes Booth act in Marble Heart in November 1863, at which performance Booth had to utter threats as part of his role, but when he did so he looked at and shook his finger at the President

-Lincoln's enjoyment of the family pets at the White House, including the goats Nanny and Nanko who recognized his voice and rushed to him when they heard it. And when his son Tad asked Lincoln to spare Jack the Turkey (also in November 1863), Lincoln did so.

-Mary Lincoln's fury, in March 1865, that Lincoln had reviewed his troops with an army officer's wife riding beside him: "Do you mean to say she saw the President alone? Do you know that I never allow the president to see any woman alone?" Things got worse as the trip progressed and Lincoln was shouted at well into the night. (The glimpses I got of Mary Lincoln - and of the Todd family -  made me interested in reading her biography, by the way.)

Wynalda makes some fascinating connections between people and events as well. In April 1861, Lincoln offered Robert E. Lee the command of the federal army, and it was only with great anguish that Lee declined, preferring in the end to serve his home state of Virginia, which had seceding the very day before Lincoln offered him the commission on April 18th. This is well known as a pivotal moment in the struggle between North and South.

But did you know that, soon afterwards, Lee met Benjamin Helm of Kentucky, who was also in great distress. Helm was Lincoln's brother-in-law and good friend. He had also been offered a commission in the federal army, and like Lee was native to a Confederate state. Helm decided, in the end, to join the South - but it cost him great personal pain to have to decide between his home and his good friend. It is this sort of little-known intertwining of the personal and political - the well-known and more obscure historical detail - that Wynalda illuminates so nicely in this book.

The year for each mini-chapter is not made clear, and having this at the top of each page would make it far easier to keep track of events, especially if one is using the book as a reference. And although I liked the sidebars, a brief summary of Lincoln's life in one place would have been welcome - not only since the audience is a general one, but even people with a background in American history (that would include me!) might welcome a concise one or two-page timeline of Lincoln's life.

In conclusion, I would think that anyone interested in American history would enjoy this book and find it a useful and unique reference.

NOTE: This book was sent to me for free by Skyhorse Publishing, but the opinions in the review are entirely my own.

An Aerial Honeymoon

The Williamsburg Bridge, also called the New East River Bridge in the early 1900s, was not officially opened until 1903.  But in 1901 there were "complications of a peculiar character" involving an illicit honeymoon trip to the top of the bridge's Brooklyn tower. Furthermore, the groom happened to have two wives. One was eager to clamber up the bridge tower. The other was equally eager to have the groom thrown in jail.

William Carroll, a 21 year old Canadian, was a section foreman for the New Jersey Steel and Iron Company, and worked on the Manhattan Bridge. He was legally married to a 23 year old woman named Alice. And he had a common law wife, too - Alice's sister Agnes. Alice and Agnes were also Canadian - from Montreal; the Eagle noted that Agnes spoke with an English accent.

Agnes told the magistrate in court that she'd met Carroll in Montreal and went off to live with him "as his wife" in St. Anne, near Montreal, and in Buffalo, Yonkers, Boston and finally Brooklyn. Meanwhile, William had been writing to Agnes' sister Alice, who was still in Montreal, working in "an eating saloon." Alice wanted to come down to New York and become an actress,and she joined William and Agnes in the fall of 1900. William transferred his affections to Alice and began to abuse Agnes, who (having quite rightly had enough of all this) packed up and moved out in December 1900.

William told Alice that he was not legally married to Agnes so they could marry, which they did in January 1901. And Alice wanted to celebrate her marriage in an exciting way. She decided that climbing the bridge tower "would be a decidedly novel way to celebrate their marriage and at the same time to give her the opportunity to say she was the first woman to make the ascent of 335 feet." They went up with a woman friend and a gentleman with the wonderful name of Shamrock Rearwick.

The whole matter came to the attention of the courts when a friend asked Agnes if she had been the bride who had just climbed the New East River Bridge tower. She knew exactly who had done it, and this enraged her. She went to court and got a warrant for William's arrest. And the poor police officers who went to arrest him had to climb all the way up the tower, too - a dangerous business involving climbing up several 20 foot ladders and "steep and rough wooden stairs."

Poster image from Library of Congress; 1901 image of the New East River Bridge from NYPL Digital Gallery. Carroll story from "Aerial Honeymoon Leads to an Arrest," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 14, 1901, p. 20.

Emerald Meteors Over Brooklyn

Here are some people admiring the view of Manhattan, still a small city, though growing fast, from a rural-looking Brooklyn Heights in 1849 - a little more than 160 years ago, and another altogether different world from the New York of today.

And here are a few vignettes from the Brooklyn Heights of 1849, which the people in the picture would be walking back towards after they had gazed at Manhattan long enough (all culled from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle):

- M. and Mme. Berteau were running a Boarding and Day School for young ladies at 23 Pierrepont Street, with lessons given in both French and English (Sept. 28, 1847, p. 2).

- W.B. Van Voast, proprietor of the Gothic Saloons in Brooklyn Heights, announced in 1846 that he had ``taken the large, airy building on Columbia Street, near Pierrepont, and fitted it up in the most modern style, for BILLIARD AND BOWLING SALOONS.`` There was also be a Refreshment Saloon in which he served - so he said - the choicest refreshments of the season - whatever they were. (July 14, 1846, p. 3).

- In September 1843, in the Heights - near where the people in the above picture were standing - the Colonnade Garden and Saloon held a Grand Day and Evening Gala for the benefit of Messrs. Barnett and Codet - not related to my great great grandmother Barnett though, for she was still living in the East End of London and would not arrive in Brooklyn until 1848. There would be a Grand Concert featuring a Chinese Pas de Quatres, songs and piano music, and a Hornpipe in Fetters (!) performed by Master B. Yates. It would last all day and end with splendid fireworks in the evening, featuring Affghanistan Lights, Rockets of Carmine, Emerald Meteors, the Pride of Aurora and Rockets with Saucissons (which must have been quite something).

The writer of the advertisement also promised (and I am not sure what to make of this) the ``Ascension of MY GRANDMOTHER in her Montgoffier Balloon, 35` high and 70`across. `` (September 9, 1843, p. 3).

I think I`ve said in earlier posts that I`d like to have access to a Time Machine and go back to see this or that in old New York. I would like to add the Gala on the Heights in September 1843 to my imaginary itinerary. I want to see some Emerald Meteors -  and see for myself whether someone`s grandmother really did go up in a balloon over Brooklyn.

Image from NYPL Digital Gallery.

*****
 Many thanks to my friend Melissa Bellanta of The Vapour Trail, for including my last post (about the Brooklyn Jail Gazette) in the latest History Carnival - do go check it out, there are all sorts of fascinating articles linked over there.