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Audio Book Mourning Lincoln with Free PDF EDITION Download Now!
A historian examines how everyday people reacted to the president’s assassination in this “highly original, lucidly written book” (James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom). The news of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination on April 15, 1865, just days after Confederate surrender, astounded a war-weary nation. Massive crowds turned out for services and ceremonies. Countless expressions of grief and dismay were printed in newspapers and preached in sermons. Public responses to the assassination have been well chronicled, but this book is the first to delve into the personal and intimate responses of everyday people—northerners and southerners, soldiers and civilians, black people and white, men and women, rich and poor. Exploring diaries, letters, and other personal writings penned during the spring and summer of 1865, historian Martha Hodes captures the full range of reactions to the president’s death—far more diverse than public expressions would suggest. She tells a story of shock, glee, sorrow, anger, blame, and fear. “’Tis the saddest day in our history,” wrote a mournful man. It was “an electric shock to my soul,” wrote a woman who had escaped from slavery. “Glorious News!” a Lincoln enemy exulted, while for the black soldiers of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts, it was all “too overwhelming, too lamentable, too distressing” to absorb. Longlisted for the National Book Award, Mourning Lincoln brings to life a key moment of national uncertainty and confusion, when competing visions of America’s future proved irreconcilable and hopes for racial justice in the aftermath of the Civil War slipped from the nation’s grasp. Hodes masterfully explores the tragedy of Lincoln’s assassination in human terms—terms that continue to stagger and rivet us today.
At this time of writing, The Mobi Mourning Lincoln has garnered 10 customer reviews with rating of 5 out of 5 stars. Not a bad score at all as if you round it off, it’s actually a perfect TEN already. From the looks of that rating, we can say the Mobi is Good TO READ!
Audio Book Mourning Lincoln with Free PDF EDITION!
Martha Hodes explains that President Abraham Lincoln’s sudden death by assassination changed many Americans’ sentiments about the American Civil War. For Unionists, Lincoln’s death changed a feeling of celebratory victory into sadness, rage, and mourning (57-58). For Confederates, Lincoln’s death brought feelings of short-lived glee amid Confederate defeat and the loss of slavery (72-75). For former slaves and free blacks, Lincoln’s death brought sorrow and apprehension about future prospects for freedom and civil rights (65-66). As Confederates mourned over defeat, Unionists mourned over the sudden loss of their president. Hodes’s thesis is that although many mourning Americans documented in letters and diaries that “all labor ceased” in the aftermath of Lincoln’s assassination, nearly all Americans continued their daily life and work, “for cataclysmic events never come to pass apart from daily life, but only in the midst of it” (171). Hodes used persistence and patience in order to research thousands of Americans and foreigners’ letters, diaries, photographs, and illustrations in reaction to Lincoln’s death. Many Americans expressed in writing that Lincoln’s death caused them to stop everything and that it consumed their entire minds and lives. However, most Americans continued to labor as they mourned. In fact, Lincoln’s death increased some Americans’ workloads as they undertook the additional tasks of decorating their homes and shops with black mourning drapery (147-148). Even Copperheads in the North concealed their approval of Lincoln’s death by displaying mourning drapery (79-82). In areas under Union occupation, even southerners had to publically display mourning drapery in order to avoid arrest. For example, one Confederate civilian under Union occupation in April 1865 publically displayed mourning drapery for the five hours that the Union army required before he promptly removed it (148). For Americans who concealed their glee over Lincoln’s death, this additional labor was a nuisance and was against their true sentiments. Storekeepers and clerks who sold mourning attire, drapery, and décor also experienced a surge in labor amid national mourning. For example, “A.T. Stewart’s department store in New York had sold a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of black goods” the day after Lincoln died (64). Those who purchased the mourning decorations then had to labor to display them. This was no more apparent than in Washington, D.C., “which to privileged observers seemed to have been accomplished by magic” but in fact had fallen “to workingmen, just as the draping of private homes fell to wives and servants” (64). Union soldiers and officers had to take on the additional tasks of draping their barracks and military posts while also keeping up with their camp duties (65). John Wilkes Booth had shot Lincoln on Good Friday 1865 and died on Saturday morning. Thus, many clergymen’s workloads increased two-fold as they had to scrap their prepared sermons for Easter Sunday and labored to produce new ones that explained Lincoln’s death as a divine purpose (106). Furthermore, clergymen prepared these sermons for the spiked attendance that annually occurred on Easter Sunday. But on April 16, 1865, Americans attended Easter Sunday service in record numbers in order to confirm the news of the slain president and to mourn together over the loss (98). Thus, as Americans mourned, they continued with their lives and, in many cases, Lincoln’s death caused more work. To many Americans, the Union had already won the Civil War after Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865. However, the Civil War continued. Thus, both Union and Confederate soldiers continued to prepare meals, to clean their camps and equipment, and to move in order to capture or retreat from the enemy (31-37). Hodes explains that “the world did not stop when Lincoln was assassinated, and neither did the war’s death toll,” as soldiers continued to kill the enemy as they mourned (192). She notes that “happy or sad, the future still mattered” to Americans and soldiers “because the world had not stood still” and the Union and Confederate armies continued waging war against one another amid national mourning over the assassination of President Lincoln (180). But most Americans mourned more heavily for personal loss of a loved one rather than the loss of a political leader. Moreover, nearly all Americans experienced personal loss, as approximately 750,000 soldiers died as a result of the Civil War (193-194). For Union civilians who could not mourn for their lost loved ones due to distance or the lack of identification or a proper burial, they mourned Lincoln’s death as a monolithic or surrogate loss (197-203). The exception to this was the slain president’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. She mourned not only over the personal loss her youngest son in 1862, but she witnessed the assassination of her husband. Thus, the First Lady’s losses were primarily personal but also political (206-209). Nonetheless, Unionists mourned over the loss of their assassinated president. Despite the evidence that many Americans provided in their diaries and letters that described Lincoln’s death as the most traumatic loss of their life, most Americans “readily contradicted themselves” in these claims (178). Just as soldiers continued with their duties, farmers continued harvesting crops, pickpockets continued to pickpocket unsuspecting people, children continued to play, engaged couples continued with their weddings, and many other Americans continued with their everyday lives as they mourned the loss of Lincoln (168-188). As Americans mourned for Lincoln, they also wanted to participate in a significant historical event. For example, millions of Americans mourned Lincoln’s death by following his funeral train or attending one of his public calling hours en route to Springfield, Illinois (149-158). Hodes’s work sheds light on the universal mourning that Americans performed in honor of Lincoln as well as personal mourning for lost loved ones both during and because of the American Civil War. She includes both Union and Confederate civilians’ and soldiers’ letters of correspondence and diaries, clergymen’s sermons, and Newspaper articles about Lincoln’s death and Americans’ diverse reactions to it. She also includes photographs, paintings, lithographs, illustrations, and notes that reinforce her analysis. She relies upon two civilians’ diaries and letters throughout the book, one a Unionist and the other a Confederate. Hodes has written an engaging account that reveals common Americans’ sentiments not only towards Lincoln’s death but also about personal losses. Her work stands out due to her ability to include Americans’ private letters and opinions, which she translates that into a readable narrative.
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