The Two American Presidents: A Dual Biography of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis (review)

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS63 checkmate the CSS Virginia. The United States Military Academy at West Point continued to function as an officer school. Leading newspaper persons Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune and James Gordon Bennett of the New York Harold created and led public opinion. Generals Philip Henry Sheridan, Daniel Edgar Sides, Fitz-John Porter, Emory Upton, Joseph Jackson Barlett, and Daniel Butterfield were some of the more noted New Yorkers military leaders. The Union Preserved provides information about the battlefronts and home front including New York City and Troy draft riots of July 1863 and New York genealogical resources. NewYork was the last state to organize an archive ( 1978). One of the most interesting accounts in the guide is the initial success of Chief of the Bureau of Military Statistics, Lockwood Lyon Doty, who gather a large amount of war documents. Researchers today wish that the Doty collection of lost and scattered Civil War-related resources still exist. However, it is an accomplishment that an identifying guide to the remaining Civil War items and collections are now available. The collected effort of the New York State Archives, New York State Library, New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs, and the New York State Museum is a commendable achievement. Eleven appendices ranging from "Conducting Genealogical and Local History research in Civil WarRecords" to "Where the Men Came From," will be popular reference sections. Not dted in this guide is Frederick Porter Todd's American Military Equipage, 1851-1872, Vol. 2: State Forces (1983). Chapter 45 covers New York Civil War arms, equipment and clothing by military organizations are from National Archives and New York State Archives documents. However, most researchers will be eager to consult the guide for years to come. Harold Hölzer, Abraham Lincoln and Civil War-illustration expert, and Daniel Lorello, Associate Archivist at the New York State Archives, are good choices. They teamed up to edit and compile a well organized, well written and beautifully illustrated reference book. The Union Preserved will be a desirable source for exploring the eastern theater of the war and the Union army. Alan Aimone U.S. Military Academy Library The Two American Presidents: A Dual Biography ofAbraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. By Bruce Chadwick. (Secaucus, N.J.: Birch Lane Press/Carol Publishing Group, 1999. Pp. vii, 490. $29.95.) Bruce Chadwick draws upon memoirs, campaign speeches, letters, and congressional reports to sketch how the personalities of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis reflected American society and shaped the outcome of the Civil War. Union armies ultimately won, according to Chadwick, because Lincoln's personal skills made him a superior political and military leader. While armies fought on battlefields, an equally importantcontest to sustain civilian morale raged in legislative chambers and newspapers. Warm and charismatic, 64CIVIL WAR HISTORY Lincoln unified the shaky Republican Party, won over a fractious Northern electorate , and earned the respect and often the political support ofhis most vitriolic opponents. Amiable Abraham Lincoln weathered withering military losses and searing political dissent without castigating his critics publicly. Thus Lincoln sustained the Northern war effort through dark days and revolutionized national public policy by charming Republicans, ignoring personal criticism, and earning the deferential respect of his generals. Because of Lincoln's political skills, support for the war among Northerners remained solid, even when Union armies stalled within the South. Davis, by contrast, floundered politically. The absence of a party system exposed Davis to intense criticism, especially when Confederate armies lost. Personal attacks placed considerable pressure on Davis to float above politics, but his personality doomed him to failure. Neurotic and paranoid, Davis confused dissent with treason. Unable and unwilling to share power, Davis alienated government administrators, cabinet members, state legislatures and governors, military leaders (save Robert E. Lee), and states-rights ideologues. Instead of unifying the rebellion, Davis became a hated figure who embodied all that had gone awry. The Confederacy unraveled internally due to the leadership of the caustic and belligerent Davis, and military defeat swiftly followed. Union victory was never assured, Chadwick concludes. The outcome hinged on presidential leadership, and the charming Lincoln politically overpowered the dour Davis. The use of biography to explain the Union victory...