Readers of LincolnStudies.com are familiar with Lewis Gannett.  Back in April 2008, he contributed an insightful article on the “Tripp Thesis” that inspired spirited discussion here.  Since then, Gannett has been busy!  His extended article on Ann Rutledge will be published by the JALA this summer.  It is familiar ground for Gannett.  Back in 2005, his article “Overwhelming Evidence of Lincoln-Ann Rutledge Romance? Rexamining Rutledge Family Reminiscences” appeared in the JALA.  His new piece promises to delve deeper into both the primary evidence and secondary literature. 

Another LincolnStudies.com reader and commenter is in the news.  The Carmi Times is reporting that Rob Wick’s article on the War Department’s rewards for the caputre of assassin John Wilkes Booth will be published by the JALA next summer.   The article appears to be an outgrowth of Wick’s  interest in Everton J. Conger, the man who led the manhunt for Lincoln’s assassin. 

Congratulations to both Lewis and Rob!

The marketing campaign behind the book has been particularly intriguing.  Several readers have forwarded me this advertisment/trailer for the book.  If you haven’t seen it yet, click on the link below.  Be warned though, the clip is a bit graphic.   

www.youtube.com/watch?v=X58RPS665V0

The book has generally received good reviews.  Both Time Magazine and Enertainment Weekly recommended the book. 

But how have Lincoln scholars reacted?  This article, which followed Graham-Smith on a recent book signing tour in Springfield, weighs in on the issue.  It looks like Doris Kearns Goodwin and Harold Holzer praised the imaginative author, while Richard Norton Smith, the former director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, condemned the concept as a “bastardization of the Lincoln story.”  

I haven’t read the book yet, so I can’t weigh in on the book’s literary merits.  However, I don’t necessarily object to Lincoln’s appearance in works of fiction.  In this case, I assume the majority of people who will read this book will do so because they like the vampire genre.  In the process of rooting for Lincoln as he kills vampires, they might actually be drawn to the historical Lincoln.  Maybe this book will encourage some readers to pick up a non-fiction book on the sixteenth president or the Civil War Era.    

What do you think about the book?  Has anyone read it?     

By the way, there are rumblings that famed director Tim Burton is interested in bringing the book to the big screen.  Do you think Johnny Depp could portray a vampire killing Abraham Lincoln?   

Click Here to read an excerpt of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, courtesy of NPR. 

It was the best-selling novel of the 19th Century.  Published in 1852, more than 300,000 copies of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin were sold in the United States.  As the decade progressed and tension over slavery intensified, sales of the book continued to climb.  By 1862, more than two million copies were in circulation.  The novel also sold well overseas.  During the first year of publication, more than 200,000 copies were sold in England.  The book was also translated into at least twenty different languages.

According to a story in this morning’s Decatur Tribune, several rare copies of  Uncle Tom’s Cabin–including first edition copies printed in foreign languages–will be among the new items on display at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield.

The temporary exhibit will be located just outside the theatre where the “Ghosts of the Library” presentation takes place. 

In addition to the copies of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a number of other items will be be featured in the temporary exhibit:

• Copy of Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of War showing a photograph of the McLean House at Appomattox
• Cartes-de-viste images of two escaped slaves: Wilson Chinn and “Gordon”
• 1704 map of the “newly discovered” North American continent
• 1818 map of Illinois, printed just before statehood
• 1854 map of Illinois
• 1768 broadside printed in Switzerland that shows bison roaming free in the “Illinois Country”

For more information on the temporary exhibit or the museum, visit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum’s website.

I’m am so happy to pass along this announcement to you! 

John Y. Simon Day and Ulysses S. Grant Lecture

Saturday, October 10, 2009, 10 am

at the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site in St. Louis, MO

Featured speakers include:

Dr. John F. Marszalek, the editor and executive director of the Ulysses S. Grant Association, and Mississippi State University Giles Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History.  He will speak on “Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman, A Decisive Friendship.” 

Frank J. Williams, retired Chief Justice of the State of Rhode Island and Presidnet of the Board for the Ulysses S. Grant Association.  He will speak about Dr. John Y. Simon’s legacy, both in Grant scholarship and documentary editing. 

Dr. Simon was the editor of the Ulysses S. Grant Papers and Executive Director of the Ulysses S. Grant Association from 1962 until his death in 2008.  He edited and published 28 annotated volumes of Grant’s letters and papers.  He also edited Julia Dent Grant’s memoirs and was the author of over 100 articles.  His scholarship on Grant was indispensible to Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site.  This event will honor Dr. Simon and his life’s work. 

For more information, check the USG National Historic Site and the promotional flier. 

For reservations, contact:

Pam Sanfilippo

Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site Historian

(314) 842-3298 extension 224

Pam_Sanfilippo@nps.gov

KASKASKIA ISLAND, IL – For the 40th time Americans will ring in the Fourth of July this year, with a programmed celebration to mark another type of ringing in a 306-year-old Illinois community west of the Mississippi River.

The 40th annual Independence Day Celebration is planned for 12:30 p.m. Saturday, July 4, 2009, at the Kaskaskia Bell State Historic Site on Kaskaskia Island.  On that date in 1778 after George Rogers Clark and his troops occupied Kaskaskia without firing a shot during the Revolutionary War, the bell was rung for freedom.  King Louis XV of France gave the bell to the church of Kaskaskia in 1741.  The bell has become known as the Liberty Bell of the West; it is eleven years older than the Eastern Bell.
 
Dr. Samuel P. Wheeler, a Southern Illinois University at Carbondale Professor of Illinois History, will give the principal address, ‘“A Glorious Theme’:  Abraham Lincoln and the Fourth of July”  Don Welge, President of Gilster Mary-Lee Corp. of Chester, Illinois, will give opening remarks as master of ceremonies at the hour-long patriotic ceremony, which is free and open to the public.   Randolph County Circuit Clerk Barb Brown will make special introductions.  Reverend Dave Corrigan, S. J. will give the Invocation and Benediction. Other remarks will be made by Military Veteran Danny James; Emily Lyons, Registrar, Liberty Bell of the West Chapter, NSDAR and Curator, Randolph County Archives & Museum representing Kaskaskia Island residents; Kenneth Ragland, Commander of the Chester V.F.W. Post 3553; Roland Wagner, Commander of the Chester American Legion Post 487; Mayor Joe Eggemeyer of Chester; Mayor Deborah Gahan of Perryville, Missouri; and Linda McDonald of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.   

The Chester Municipal Band directed by Steve Colonel will perform patriotic music, Deb Hoelscher will sing patriotic selections  Taps will play in memory of our Patriots.  Since the Liberty Bell of the West cannot be rung, the 1874 church bells next door will be rung by Joan Lightfoot Riegel, and her four children, Paul, Larry, Connie, and Edith, to signify that freedom is still alive for the American people.    

Area Boy and Girl Scouts, as well as French Marines from nearby Fort de Chartres State Historic Site commanded by Bill McKnight, will also participate in the ceremony. Visitors, please bring lawn chairs, although some chairs will be provided under tents.

The Chester V.F.W. and American Legion Posts, the City of Chester, the Kaskaskia Church Foundation, and the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency are sponsoring the Independence Day Celebration.

The historic Immaculate Conception Church located near the Kaskaskia Bell will be open during the event.  Refreshments including a plate lunch will be available before and after the program.  A 3:30 p.m. mass will be celebrated in the church.

Kaskaskia Bell State Historic Site, administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, is located on a 14,000-acre island a half mile above the Chester, Illinois, Bridge.  It was once physically connected to the State of Illinois, but a devastating flood in 1881 covered the village that was Illinois’ first state capital and caused the Mississippi River to change course, thereby separating the island from the rest of the state.  2009 marks 200 years since Kaskaskia became the capital of the Illinois Territory, with Governor Ninian Edwards presiding.

A small brick building on Kaskaskia Island today houses the 650-pound bell that was cast in France as a gift to the French who first settled Illinois.  Exactly two years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, the “Liberty Bell of the West” rang out to celebrate the capture of Kaskaskia, the westernmost military action of the Revolutionary War, by Lieutenant Colonel George Rogers Clark.  Twenty-five years later in 1803 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (brother of George Rogers Clark) visited here and added men and supplies for their Expedition of Discovery.

To reach the Kaskaskia Bell, take the river bridge from Chester, Illinois, across the Mississippi River.  Take Missouri Highway 51 west to Highway H, then north (right) to St. Mary, Missouri, and turn east onto the new bridge at the Kaskaskia Bell marker and follow the signs. 

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Legal History of the Civil War Era

~From the Mexican War to Jim Crow~

A Series of Books Published by Southern Illinois University Press

Edited by Christian G. Samito

Abraham Lincoln identified a “new birth of freedom” during the Civil War era, when the government and people of the United States undertook the most comprehensive reconsideration of legal and political issues since the constitutional convention in 1787.  Americans confronted the countours of governmental power and considered the boundaries of civil liberties during wartime.  Legislation fueled national development, nationalized the monetary and banking system, and promoted both the coercive power of government, through taxation and conscription, and its role in taking care of citizens, though the provision of pensions for Civil War veterans.  Wartime experiences, and the triumph of unionism on the battlefield, allowed for the creation of a stronger nation-state.  Millions of Africans Americans marched out of bondage into inclusion in a newly defined national citizenship, called for an enduring freedom, and began to enjoy civil and political rights for the time.  At the same time, a racist counter-revolution in the South sought to tamp out this new enjoyment of citizenship rights by African Americans, as well as to intimidate white Republican governments. 

This exciting new series from Southern Illinois University Press is the first to focus on the rich legal history of the period from the Mexican War to Plessy v. Ferguson and Jim Crow. The series will explore legal history from different angles, ranging from presidential leadership to legislative mandates, and from judicial interpretation to the impact society had on legal development, and how law, society, and politics mixed during this period to shape American legal development. Broad topics to be covered include, but are not limited to:

• Slavery
• Abolitionism
• The Republican Party
• Civil Liberties During Wartime
• War Powers
• Economic Development and Modernization
• The Expansion of the Federal Government
• Confederate Legal History
• The Redefinition of American Citizenship
• Changes in Legal Thought and Education
• Suffrage Movements
• Race Relations
• Native Americans
• African Americans and the Union Military
• Rights Developments During Reconstruction
• The Rise of Jim Crow

Books in the series will be written with a high scholarly caliber and will also be accessible to an interested non-academic audience.  In addition to making significant contributions to historiography, these volumes will be important and relevant, often covering topics bearing on issues that continue to be debated today. The primary audience for this series consists of professional historians, political scientists, law professors, and practicing attorneys, as well as students in undergraduate, graduate, and law school classes. The wider audience fascinated by the Civil War era and its legacy—and increasingly interested in the history of American legal development—will find these books particularly appealing as well. Although the majority of the books will be overviews and monographs, themed essay compilations and selected edited collections of papers from important legal thinkers will be welcome in the series. Ideally, books in the series will be up to 95,000 words in length and may include as many as twenty graphic images.

About the Series Editor:

Christian Samito obtained his law degree from Harvard Law School and his Ph.D. in American history from Boston College. Samito is currently teaching a seminar on the legal history of the Civil War and Reconstruction at Boston University School of Law and a course on the Civil War and Reconstruction at Boston College through its history department. Samito’s book Changes in Law and Society During the Civil War and Reconstruction: A Legal History Documentary Reader is forthcoming from Southern Illinois University Press in July 2009, and another book, Becoming American Under Fire: Irish Americans, African Americans, and the Politics of Citizenship during the Civil War Era, is forthcoming from Cornell University Press in November 2009. Samito edited two collections of Civil War letters, published by Fordham University Press in 1998 and 2004. He also practices law in Boston and can be reached at CGS1865@aol.com.

Tomorrow evening, March 21, 2009, I will be the keynote speaker at the Jackson County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner.  The event will be held at the Giant City Lodge, in Giant City Park, Makanda, Illinois.  Doors open at 5:30, followed by dinner at 6:30.  Tickets are $30 per person.  My comments will focus on “The Lincoln Legacy.” 

On Saturday, March 28, 2009, I will be at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois, attending the 29th Annual Illinois History Symposium.  This year’s theme is “Abraham Lincoln in Ante-Bellum Illinois, 1830-1861.”  I am scheduled to present a paper, “Every Spot a Grave: The Poetry of Abraham Lincoln,” in Crispin Hall, Room 202, beginning at 10:00 am.  My session lasts until 11:45.

 

I received a number of emails from readers over the weekend regarding the History Channel’s recent special, “Stealing Lincoln’s Body.”  Indeed, there was a plot to steal Lincoln’s body in 1876.  Though I was able to forget about those incompetent body snatchers, another aspect from the film still lingers in my mind.   

What did you think about the graphics? 

A company called Studio Macbeth brought Lincoln back to life in this program.  I received an email from these folks several months ago.  They told me about their work and let me view a few pictures.  At the time, I was impressed, but their work on this documentary absolutely blew me away.   

They have since begun a blog, which you can view here. 

I dug up a brief youtube clip (at the top of this post), in which these folks walk viewers through their creative process.  Give it a look and tell me if it isn’t remarkable to see “Lincoln” walking down the street. 

Though I look forward to someday seeing Steven Spielberg’s take on Lincoln, I suspect a feature-length film using Studio Macbeth’s technology would be incredibly intriguing.    

In the meantime, I see the History Channel has already made plans to release “Stealing Lincoln’s Body” on DVD.