Reveille in Washington, 1860-1865
by Margaret Leech
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Description
1860- The American capital is sprawling, fractured, squalid, colored by patriotism and treason, and deeply divided along the political lines that will soon embroil the nation in bloody conflict. Chaotic and corrupt, the young city is populated by bellicose congressmen, Confederate conspirators, and enterprising prostitutes. Soldiers of a volunteer army swing from the dome of the Capitol, assassins stalk the avenues, and Abraham Lincoln struggles to justify his presidency as the Union heads show more to war. Reveille in Washingtonfocuses on the everyday politics and preoccupations of Washington during the Civil War. From the stench of corpse-littered streets to the plunging lace on Mary Lincoln's evening gowns, Margaret Leech illuminates the city and its familiar figures-among them Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, William Seward, and Mary Surratt-in intimate and fascinating detail. Leech's book remains widely recognized as both an impressive feat of scholarship and an uncommonly engrossing work of history. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I picked up this book in a used bookstore, with no previous knowledge of it. What a serendipitous choice!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book as a portrait of Washington in the 1860s. The author's choice of words is a bit out of kilter with the words we would use today (her terms of reference to African Americans would not be today's choice) but her description of the electrifying impact of the Emancipation Proclamation could have been written yesterday.
Hats off to Margaret Leech for a well-written and engaging book.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book as a portrait of Washington in the 1860s. The author's choice of words is a bit out of kilter with the words we would use today (her terms of reference to African Americans would not be today's choice) but her description of the electrifying impact of the Emancipation Proclamation could have been written yesterday.
Hats off to Margaret Leech for a well-written and engaging book.
Writing 76 years later, Margaret Leech, a Pulitzer-Prize winning historian (she married Pulitzer) describes Washington, D.C. during the American Civil War, 1860-1865. We listen to her voice as many years again after the 1941 publication.
Provides a lot of material on Abraham Lincoln and his wife, along with Rose Greenhow, the Confederate spy whose work was helpful to the Southern forces winning the Battle of Bull Run, the War's first significant engagement. But the city of Washington, its conditions and people, are the star of her detailed descriptions drawn from contemporary accounts, news articles, and scholarly studies. The Bibliography is impressive, as well as the Index and Bibliographical section.
This is not dull "history". It is show more as suspenseful, ironic, and colorful as any biography of a city I have read. show less
Provides a lot of material on Abraham Lincoln and his wife, along with Rose Greenhow, the Confederate spy whose work was helpful to the Southern forces winning the Battle of Bull Run, the War's first significant engagement. But the city of Washington, its conditions and people, are the star of her detailed descriptions drawn from contemporary accounts, news articles, and scholarly studies. The Bibliography is impressive, as well as the Index and Bibliographical section.
This is not dull "history". It is show more as suspenseful, ironic, and colorful as any biography of a city I have read. show less
This is a thorough history of the District of Columbia during the Civil War years. Although it generally kept my interest, I read it over a period of time while reading other books. It was difficult to read straight through perhaps since it was a vast survey of persons and material.
If you love US History, a definite read. Won the Pulitzer in 1941. Learned a lot. Unique perspective.
217. Reveille in Washington 1860-1865, by Margaret Leech (read 25 Nov 1945) (Pulitzer History prize in 1942) When I finished this book I said: Liked it a lot and it awakened the history-liking in me.
a detailed and excellent history of the capital during the war
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Publisher's Weekly NON-Fiction list - 1912 - 1975
486 works; 4 members
Club Read's Recommended Nonfiction Written by Women
618 works; 30 members
Author Information
8+ Works 1,166 Members
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Awards
Distinctions
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1941
- People/Characters
- Abraham Lincoln; P. G. T. Beauregard; John Wilkes Booth; John Cabell Breckinridge (as John C. Breckinridge); Ambrose E. Burnside; James Buchanan (show all 20); Benjamin F. Butler; Salmon P. Chase; Ulysses S. Grant; Henry W. Halleck; John Hay; Andrew Johnson; Robert E. Lee; George B. McClellan; Winfield Scott; William Henry Seward; William Tecumseh Sherman; Edwin M. Stanton; Charles Sumner; Jefferson Davis
- Important places
- Washington, D.C., USA; Alexandria, Virginia, USA; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Bull Run River, Virginia, USA; Capitol Building, Washington, D.C., USA; Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, USA (show all 9); Manassas, Virginia, USA; Richmond, Virginia, USA; Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, USA
- Important events
- American Civil War (1861 | 1865); Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (1865-04); United States presidential election (1860); United States presidential election (1864); Reconstruction Era of the United States; Emancipation Proclamation (show all 7); Secession Crisis
- Dedication
- For Susan pulitzer
- First words
- That winter, the old General moved from the rooms he had rented from the free mulatto, Wormley, in I Street to Cruchet's at Sixth and D Streets.
Classifications
- Genres
- History, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 975.3 — History & geography History of North America Southeastern United States (South Atlantic states) District Of Columbia
- LCC
- E501 .L4 — History of the United States United States Civil War period, 1861-1865 The Civil War, 1861-1865 Armies. Troops
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 791
- Popularity
- 35,157
- Reviews
- 6
- Rating
- (4.03)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 16
- ASINs
- 34
