Book Description:
Each November, hundreds of Lincoln and Civil War enthusiasts mark the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address by gathering together in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for the annual Lincoln forum an acclaimed scholarly symposium featuring presentations by the nations leading historians. The scholars and attendees alike make the pilgrimage for one reason: to re interpret, re examine, and re discover an intriguing figure of the American past, Abraham Lincoln. This volume presents a selection of the Lincoln Forum lectures which offer re examinations of Lincoln as military leader, communicator, family man and icon. James M. McPherson contributes an essay on Lincoln's record as commander in chief. Craig L. Symonds, the naval historian, analyzes Lincoln and the technological revolution that transformed his Civil War navy. John F. Marsalek examines Lincoln's relationship with the contraversial but productive military hero William T. Sherman. And Jean H. Baker offers an assessment of the frequently mis portrayed Lincoln marriage, and a new analysis of the much maligned First Lady. In another chapter, historian Hans L. Trefousse finds new evidence of Lincoln's surprising popularity while he lived; military expert J. Tracy Power looks at the Confederacy's Army of Northern Virginia in the wake of the watershed presidential election of 1864, which returned Lincoln to power; John C. Waugh pens an appreciation of Lincoln's talents as writer and communicator; Gerald Prokopowicz, historian of the Lincoln Museum, takes a new look at Lincoln's high expectations for the Army of the Potomac after Gettysburg; and Frank J. Williams, chairman of the Lincoln Forum, explores the influence of the women in Lincoln's life.
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