Hamilton-Wenham Public Library

Stanton, Lincoln's war secretary, Walter Stahr

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

individual biography

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Stanton

bibliography

987437170

Walter Stahr

Lincoln's war secretary

"Walter Stahr, author of the ... bestseller Seward, now tells the amazing story of Lincoln's secretary of war, Edwin Stanton, the most powerful and controversial of the men close to the president. Stanton raised an army of a million men and directed it from his Washington telegraph office, with Lincoln often at his side. He arrested and imprisoned thousands for "war crimes," some serious and some merely political. He was essential to the nation's survival, and Lincoln never wavered in his support for Stanton. As Lincoln lay dying, Stanton took over the government, informing the nation of the attacks on Lincoln and others, starting the investigation of the assassination, Under Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson, Stanton insisted that the army had to remain in the South, to protect blacks and Unionists, while the president wanted to withdraw the troops. It was Johnson's ill-advised attempt to remove Stanton that led to the first impeachment of a president, an impeachment Johnson survived by a single vote. The New York diarist George Templeton Strong described Stanton after his death as 'honest, patriotic, able, indefatigable, warm-hearted, unselfish, incorruptible, arbitrary, capricious, tyrannical, vindictive, hateful, and cruel." But Stanton was also Lincoln's "right-hand man," responsible with Lincoln and Grant for saving the Union. In this, the first full biography of Stanton in fifty years, Stahr restores this complicated American hero to his proper place in our national story."--Jacket

"Dreams of future greatness" : 1814-1836 -- "Obstinate Democrat" : 1837-1847 -- "The blackest place" : 1847-1856 -- "Untiring industry" : 1857-1860 -- "Surrounded by secessionists" : 1860-1861 -- "Disgrace & disaster" : 1861-1862 -- "Put forth every energy" : January-March 1862 -- "The vilest man I ever knew" : April-June 1862 -- "Hours are precious" : July-December 1862 -- "Indomitable energy" : January-June 1863 -- "Too serious for jokes" : July-December 1863 -- "You cannot die better" : January-June 1864 -- "Tower of strength" : July-November 1864 -- "Gratitude to Almighty God" : November 1864-April 1865 -- "The stain of innocent blood" : April-July 1865 -- "A born tyrant" : 1865-1866 -- "Wily old minister" : 1866-1867 -- "Stand firm!" : 1867-1868 -- "Final charge" : 1868-1869 -- "Strangely blended"

Lincoln's war secretary