The Assassination

Abraham Lincoln mourning ribbon from the collection of the Civil War Museum of Philadelphia

It is virtually impossible to have any conversation about Abraham Lincoln without talking about the epic events surrounding his death. Countless books, exhibits, movies, and television documentaries have all failed to quench our thirst to know more about the murder of the 16th President. This endless fascination could itself be the subject of much research and debate. Why does it captivate us?

I think at least part of the answer is that it is America’s first great murder mystery. We want to know how it could have happened, who could do such a thing, and why. It is a case we feel compelled to try to solve. This is very understandable. Between the conspiracy theorists and the academic historians, there is plenty of material for everyone.

Putting aside the details for a moment, I think that one of the very interesting aspects of the assassination is the impact that it had on the country and its people. We live in an era of shocking news. Our generations have lived through Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy Assassination, and 9/11. In our digital, Internet world, news can reach us anywhere and at any time. Even in World War II, the reach of radio brought news right into the homes of most people. What is surprising to me about the assassination is that it reached people with almost the same immediacy as the news of Pearl Harbor or the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The telegraph had radically altered the way news was transmitted. It spread the word of the Lincoln assassination rapidly, and I believe contributed to the shock that the nation (but obviously mostly the North) experienced.

There is no doubt that the news of Lincoln’s murder was doubly shocking because it came so shortly after so much euphoric good news. The surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865, was the beginning of the end of the war. Northerners celebrated the news with fireworks, parades, bands and speeches. After four dark years of war, it was like the sun had come out for the first time. The citizens of Philadelphia would have learned of Lincoln’s death on the morning of April 15, 1865. It was not much time for the city to enjoy the first fruits of victory before being plunged into mourning.

That the assassination of Abraham Lincoln still holds such fascination to us today is no great surprise. That there are still countless conspiracy theories and secret plots involving the Confederate government does surprise me somewhat, although it should not. Lincoln stands among the pantheon of American historical figures. It has always been difficult for Americans to accept that someone such as John Wilkes Booth could bring to an end someone like Lincoln. Booth was a man with delusions of grandeur, who had enough charisma to attract a group of ne'er-do-well followers. But he was bold enough in that era of low security to kill the President of the United States. That is as sinister as the plot gets. And in the end, that is all the rhyme and reason there was to Lincoln’s death.

So while today Lincoln’s assassination is largely a curiosity, at the time it was a national wound. It was a scar that took a long time to heal. Historians can debate the degree to which history was changed by Lincoln’s death, but there can be little argument that it made the painful work of Reconstruction all the more difficult. While it is appreciated as a tragedy, I do not think it is often enough understood for the watershed event it was. The assassination ended one era in American history, and began another. We still live today in the era it began.

Lincoln 200

Today is the first day of spring. After a long, cold, and windy winter here in Philadelphia, I feel really justified in repeating that… today is the first day of spring!

While the prospect of spring is very exciting to those of us here at the Civil War Museum, our thoughts have actually been turned to summer for some time. This summer a new and very unique event will take place on Independence Mall over the July 4th weekend. It is called Lincoln 200, and it is Philadelphia’s official celebration of the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.

The celebration will take the form of a festival, and there will be exhibits in tents, performing arts, living history presentations, music, video screenings, and food among many other things. The theme of the celebration is “Lincoln Then and Now,” and it will provide visitors with a fun, educational, and entertaining look at the 16th President, his importance in history, and his legacy today. It will also examine the world Lincoln lived in and how it relates to us today.

About a month ago, I was named Curator for the exhibit portion of the celebration, and have been scouring the city’s incredible abundance of museums, historical societies, and other collecting institutions looking for materials. The sites I have visited and the fantastic collections I have seen are one of the great treats of doing this job, and I wish everyone could get the behind the scenes experience that I have.

I would love to give everyone a preview of what Lincoln 200 will be offering, but I don’t want to give anything away just yet. We are still in the process of finalizing much of what is going into the exhibits, and there is still a great deal of work to be done. Here in the next few weeks, I hope to be able to provide more details on what we hope will be an exciting and unique event.

But I would like to say that the work that I have so far done for the Lincoln 200 event has only served to remind me once again of all the things that make the city of Philadelphia such a wonderful place. There are so many amazing things to see and discover. Showcasing the rich heritage of this city is something that Lincoln 200 is designed to do. In addition, it has always been a personal goal of mine to do whatever I could to return Philadelphia to its rightful place as the nation’s cultural and philosophical center. I hope that the Lincoln 200 festival will be the first step in accomplishing this goal.

Stay tuned!

Getting to Know Lincoln. Again.

Two faces of Lincoln.

Two images from the collection of the Civil War Museum of Philadelphia showing Lincoln as he appeared during the election of 1860 and within days of his death. It is a face we know well.

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2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, and we are seeing the beginning of a year of celebration and commemoration. Americans often use the anniversary of someone’s birth or death to reflect on their lives and the impact they still have on us today. But with the gear up to celebrate the birth of Lincoln, it somehow seems different. I think it is because Lincoln is always with us in some capacity. We never truly stop thinking about him. The stream of books, articles, essays, and documentaries on Lincoln that come out every year is truly staggering.

So, what is it about Lincoln that captivates us? Why do we use his image, quote his words, and venerate his monuments so often and for so long? He holds a place unequaled by any other figure in American history. He is part of our subconscious. We are thinking about Lincoln even when we are not thinking about Lincoln.

But do we really know Lincoln? Or, conversely, do we know everything there is to know about Lincoln? Is he a mystery, or a dry well? He is in many ways both. As perhaps the most analyzed figure in our history, I doubt there are any more great revelations about Lincoln. We know all the "who, what, where and when" of his life. But the "why" is still subject to great conjecture and debate. The "why" is all that remains. The problem with "why," however, is that it is beyond our power to ever know for sure. Was Lincoln suffering from depression? Was he gay? Did he have cancer? These things are all speculative history now.

As we move through the year, there should be much interesting discussion on both the known and the speculative Lincoln. But what I think will be most interesting is how Lincoln will once again seem so extremely relevant to us today. Lincoln’s conduct of a war, his navigation of the nation’s most difficult social issue, and his interpretations of the Constitution and the power of the Presidency all seem very fresh today. Lincoln is perhaps second only to Franklin Roosevelt in shaping the government under which we currently live. Our feelings about Lincoln, good or bad, are often framed by our own political philosophies today. It seems to me that an individual who still defines the issues after two hundred years is someone with tremendous historical reach.

Lincoln’s reach far exceeded what he himself could have ever imagined.

Look for more on Lincoln here in the coming weeks.

Cold.

At left is a standard enlisted man's winter overcoat for the Museum's collection. It was all most Union soldiers had to protect them from the cold.

When I got in my car today to drive to the train station, the ever so informative dashboard indicator told me it was 12 degrees outside. Not that I needed that to know that it was cold, but somehow knowing the exact temperature outside made it seem all the colder. We have reached the heart of winter here in Philadelphia, and with it come some of these kinds of days. The temperature drops, the wind picks up, and a mind numbing cold sets in. It’s the kind of cold that penetrates no matter how much you bundle up, and after a few minutes out in it, you can’t think of anything else but how cold you are. Even the bright rays of the sun seem to offer no relief.

I was thinking, obviously, about cold as I went from my heated apartment to a heated train station, got on a heated train, and eventually made my way to a heated office to work. It made me think, as I sometimes do, how little we really live in the elements anymore, and how much our ancestors of the Civil War generation did. In the Civil War era, life and work went on, no matter how cold or inclement it got.

No matter whether you lived in a city, town, or on a farm, if you lived in that era, you would wake up on a morning like this to a freezing cold house. Even little chores would seem to us today to be extremely uncomfortable. Just going to the bathroom involved a trip outside to the frigid outhouse or undressing to use the chamber pot. If you had any intention to bathe, which you probably would not, even with water heated over the stove, it would be a very cold experience.

Life and work went on as usual in spite of the cold. If you were on a farm, the chores needed to be done and the animals needed tending. While there were no crops to bring in during the winter, the animals needed to be fed and watered, and stables needed to be cleaned out. Watering the animals were particularly important, as the water would freeze, subjecting them to dehydration and hypothermia. If you live and work in the towns or cities, going to work means, for the average person, going on foot. Work in mills and factories, never easy or comfortable work, was made excruciating in the bitter cold. The truth was that in the Civil War era, there was really little escape from brutal cold such as this. Coal and wood burning stoves and fireplaces were only so effective in the drafty homes and workplaces that people of the period inhabited.

It is very hard for us today to image how people of that era lived in the elements. For soldiers serving during the war, this was acutely the case. Winter for many soldiers was a period of inactivity. The cold, wet weather made winter campaigning in the Eastern Theater rare. Winter rains and sudden thaws meant mud up to the knees and swift immobilization of an army. So for men in the armies of the East winter meant long periods of boredom in log huts with canvass roofs. Hardly immune to the cold wind, these huts were all the shelter that was available.

In the Western theater, and operations in the Deep South, the war continued throughout the winter. The warmer climates there tended to divide the seasons into dry (summer) and wet (everything else). However, even the men of these armies experienced the cold unpleasantness of winter. But because they where frequently on the move, these soldiers more often experienced winter in the field. Soldiers often woke up wet, or covered in snow, or frozen to the ground, with only a blanket to protect them.

It is very hard to imagine being so exposed to the harsh elements. The Civil War generation must have been accustomed to being cold all the time. Such exposure helps explain, to a degree, their susceptibility to disease. That they were tough is no question; tougher by far than me. I’ll be thinking about that as I scurry back to my heated home to relax on my warm couch for the weekend.

Until next time, stay warm.