In light of Memoral Day weekend, I thought this would be timely to post this review for this Friday Night’s Non-Fiction Review.
James L. Swanson. Bloody Crimes. New York, NY: William Morrow and Company, September 28th 2010. 464 pp.
4 out of 5
Purchase: Amazon
This book is a study of the President of the Union and the President of the Confederacy during the last days before Lincoln was killed and the days afterwards. The side by side account of both these Presidents was a fascinating angle of the book and one which I appreciated. There were many moments that I thought the juxtaposition was quite fascinating.
I didn’t know much about Jefferson Davis before this book so I suppose this work gives me a little window into the man and his motivation. I thought the author did a good job of showing Jefferson as a human being rather than totally demonizes him which in today’s society can be easily done (and has done). No one is a two dimensional caricature. I was surprised reading this book how determined Jefferson Davis was up to the last days of the Confederacy to see that the Confederate Cause triumphant. At the same time I must also say he was somewhat delusional. The author narrates in such a way that he makes history become alive and there were moments I had to stop and thought to myself “wow, this really happened.”
The moving portion of the book for me are the details of the trip of Lincoln’s body traveling across the country to his final resting place. It was the biggest national tragedy at that time in the nation’s history and one in which the nations shared together. I was very moved. In a time when so many soldiers died in the front without having their bodies brought back home or the whereabouts are unknown with soldiers officially “missing,” the mourning of Lincoln really was a national collective mourning of the Civil War. This is probably the reason why so many American towns and cities wanted Lincoln’s body to make a train stop in their area, which the book describes in details the incredible detour that Lincoln’s body and his accompanying political and military escorts took. All told Lincoln’s funeral trip went through four hundred plus communities over seven states. The details told by the author makes you feel like you were a witness to history. Most readers will probably find the reading emotional too and while the events in the book took place over a hundred fifty years ago the mourning of a nation over the death of fathers, sons and brothers killed in combat is surprisingly a suffering that American families are still familiar today which sadly too many can relate to with the story of the coming home of Lincoln’s remains to his final resting place.
The Domain for Truth 
Thanks for the review, Jim. Definitely a book that I would enjoy. Many Protestants were convinced for decades afterwards that Lincoln’s assassination was coordinated by the Jesuits. Co-conspirators Mary Surrat and her son, John, Dr. Samuel Mudd, David E. Herold, Michael O’Laughlin, and George Atzerodt were all Catholics. Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, had been raised in an Episcopalian family but attended a Catholic school and secretly converted to Catholicism later in life, according to Asia Booth Clarke’s memoir of her brother. After Booth was killed by a Union soldier, he was found to be wearing a Catholic medal on his person. It was extremely unusual that so many of the conspirators were Roman Catholic. I’m not a conspiracy chaser but even this short article from a priest takes note of the very strange Catholic component of Lincoln’s assassination.
https://www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/ByIssue/Article/TabId/735/ArtMID/13636/ArticleID/6676/Catholic-conspiracy-to-kill-Lincoln.aspx
Crazy! Got to look at the link! I think I first caught wind that some think there’s a Catholic Conspiracy was from Chick tracts newsletter…of course that made me cautious given the source, you know?
Yes, I’m familiar with Chick’s take on the Lincoln assassination. Much of it is based on ex-priest Charles Chiniquy’s testimony. Lincoln did act as Chiniquy’s lawyer in a legal contest brought by the Catholic church and Chiniquy claimed the Jesuits targeted him afterwards. As to the lengthy quotes Chiniquy ascribes to Lincoln regarding the Jesuits and “popery,” who can be sure of the veracity? But the heavy Catholic representation among the assassination conspirators leads one to wonder.