Edited by Harold Holzer and Sara Vaughn Gabbard
On January 1, 1863 after spending a few hours welcoming
visitors and shaking hundreds of hands, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation
Proclamation which declared all enslaved people in areas where an active
rebellion against to Government of the United States was in progress would be
thence forward and forever free. It was
a momentous beginning for 1863, the second full year of the war, and what would
prove to be a pivotal year for Abraham Lincoln and the divided nation.
Lincoln scholars Harold Holzer and Sara Vaughn Gabbard have
edited a volume of essays by notable historians and scholars which examine the
events during the twelve months between January 1st and December 31st, 1863 and
titled it “1863: Lincoln’s Pivotal Year.”
“The Remembrance of a
Dream” written by the book’s co-editor, Harold Holzer, introduces the
volume is and is followed by ten essays which cover the events, developments
and personalities that dominated the headlines in 1863:
In “The Day of
Jubilee” Edna Green Medford covers the reactions of Northerners and Southerners,
both black and white, to the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Frank J. Williams tackles Lincoln’s use of his
Constitutional war powers to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and his trying
of insurrectionists by a military tribunal in “Under Cover of Liberty.”
As the author of “Lincoln
and his Admirals” Craig L. Symonds justifiably handles the joint operations
of the Army and Navy during the Vicksburg Campaign, as well as Admiral Samuel
F. Du Pont’s failed attempted to shell and capture Charleston, South Carolina
in “Lincoln at Sea.”
“Military Drafts,
Civilian Riots” is Barnet Schecter’s essay on the first military draft
issued by the United States Government and its resulting reaction of the New
York City Draft Riots.
The Lincoln family during 1863 is the focus of Catherine
Clinton’s essay, “The Fiery Furnace of
Affliction.”
In “And the War Goes
On” John F. Marzalek and Michael B. Ballard discuss how the twin victories
of the Union Forces at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, dealt the hand of ultimate
defeat to the Confederates, and yet the war continued on for another two years.
Bob Zeller discusses Civil War photography in his essay, “Picturing the War.”
“The General Tide”
by William C. Davis paints the big picture of the war in 1863.
“The Gettysburg
Address Revisited” by Orville Vernon Burton, need I say more.
Harold Holzer’s essay “Seldom
Twice Alike: The Changing Faces of History” closes out the volume with a
discussion about the use of Abraham Lincoln’s image and its effect on his
supporters and those who opposed him.
The essays work as stand-alone pieces allowing the reader to
easily read an essay in a sitting, and collectively as a whole while relating
the events of 1863. Each essay is well
written and easily read with end notes after each chapter. I’m confident the average Civil War student with
a bit more knowledge of the war than the average casual reader would have no
problem reading this book.
ISBN 978-0809332465, Southern Illinois University Press, ©
2013, Hardcover, 216 pages, Photograph & Illustrations, End Notes at the
end of each essay, Appendices & Index. $32.95. To purchase a
copy of this book click HERE.
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