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janeeyre_914716 's review for:
Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever
by Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard
As I'm sitting here wondering what to write, I decided to listen to the John Williams LINCOLN motion picture soundtrack whis is only fitting at the moment for this amazing President the U.S. had ever seen and lost so early. Bill O'Reilly paints a picture as a former history teacher he says of this assassination he thought he had already known about. That is until he and his co-writer Martin Dugard had started doing this project. O'Reilly also mentioned he wrote it as if it was a thriller but it is in fact non fiction. This book was phenomenally well researched, I learned more in here than I ever had, I've come to an even MORE appreciation for not just my country I live in but for Abraham Lincoln as well.
One trait I saw and admired in Lincoln was his mercy towards the South and the Confederate soldiers after the war and his wishes for them....
"He {Lincoln} is so eager to see America healed that he has instructed Grand to offer Lee the most lenient surrender terms possible. There will be no punishment of Confederate soldiers. No confiscation of their horses or personal effects. Just the promise of a hasty return to their families, farms, and stores, where they can once again work in peace."
And despite his wishes, even though Grant did just that when Lee surrendered, of course MANY didn't like Lincoln's leniency. I mean, can you blame them? But at the same time, it showed the kind of integrity and kind of person Lincoln really was. No, he didn't condone or excuse what had happened, and yet he still showed love and mercy towards the enemy but weren't really the enemy. He saw a country divided and brother fighting brother and so he offered this solution to show that he had no ill will towards his fellow beings. And to me, that took great courage unlike any other to do what he did even though he knew it wouldn't be very popular with many people.
One side story I have to bring up. So considering someone survived this in the year 1865 with no kind of medical equipment and technology we have today is phenomenal! A bit grossed out on top of that but at the same time just crazy and jaw dropping and at the same time: Mind blowing.
"Washburn {Union colonel} is still sitting tall in the saddle--but not for long. As he turns his head, he is shot through the mouth at point blank range. The bullet lodges in his lungs. His jaw hangs slack as blood pours from the hole in his face, down onto his sweaty, dusty blue uniform. The force of the gunshot does not kill Washburn, nor even render him unconscious. It is, however, strong enough to knock him out of the saddle for the first time all day. As the colonel falls, a Confederate flails at his toppling body with a thirty-four-inch saber, burying the blade deep in Washburn's skull. Incredibly, one day later, as a burial detail cleans the battlefield, Washburn will be found alive."
One other thing I did find interesting of many other things is a battle that basically it seemed ended the Civil War and led to Lee's surrender and that was The Battle of Sayler's Creek. *Note: when I googled this it came up as Sailor's Creek, so if you want to read more or look into this not well known battle that became one of the bloodiest, look up that second spelling*
"Union soldiers sprint up the hill, overrunning the Confederate positions. Out of ammunition, and heavily outnumbered, the Army of the Northern Virginia still refuses to surrender. The fighting becomes hand to hand. Soldiers claw at each other, swingin fists, kicking. 'The battle degenerated into a butchery and confused melee of personal conflicts. I sw numbers of men kill each other with bayonets and the butts of muskets, and even bite each others' throats and ears and notes, rolling on the ground like wild beasts,' one Confederate officer will write. 'I had cautioned my men against wearing Yankee overcoats, especially in battle, but had not been able to enforce the order perfectly--and almost at my side I saw a young fellow of one of my companies jam the muzzle of his musket against the back of the head of his most intimate friend, clad in a Yankee overcoat, and blow his brains out.' Although the battle is little remembered in history, witnesses will swear they have never seen more suffering, or a fight as desperate, as during the final moments of Sayler's Creek."
One last thing I want to bring up now going back to Lincoln. Two quotes from him first off....
"If I am killed I can die but once, but to live in constant dread is to die over and over again."
Then another quote about death to famous writer Harriet Beecher Stowe he said to her once.....
"Whichever way the war ends, I have the impression that I shall not last long after it is over."
And then we have this detailed vivid dream he had seen one night.....
"“It seems strange how much there is in the Bible about dreams. There are, I think, some sixteen chapters in the Old Testament and four or five in the New in which dreams are mentioned…If we believe the Bible, we must accept the fact that in the old days, God and his angels came to men in their sleep and made themselves known in dreams….I had a dream the other night, which has haunted me since. Ten days ago I went to bed late. I had been waiting for important dispatches from the front. I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber, for I was weary. I soon began to dream.
There seemed to be a deathlike stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room. No living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along. It was light in all the rooms. Every object was familiar to me. But where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this?
Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and shocking, I kept on until I arrived in the East Room, which I entered. There I was met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards. And there were a throng of people, some gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. ‘Who is dead in the White House?’ I demanded of one of the soldiers. ‘The President,’ was the answer. ‘He was killed by an assassin.’ Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd.”
And so his dream came true. This man who was once our beloved sixteenth President had sacrificed so much for this country. Had shown kindness, compassion, mercy, and love to many. He was a devoted husband and father. He was a fighter. He was loyal. He was many things wonderful. So in closing this tribute of a book to this great man, I share the partial short paragraph of the Epilogue Bill O'Reilly wrote and I echo his words of this man and my country. I am truly and even more grateful and proud to be an American.
"The last days of Abraham Lincoln's life included perhaps the most dramatic events in the nation's history. It is eerie that Abraham Lincoln found much solace in the play Julius Caesar , by William Shakespeare, given that the two great men met their ends in the same way. Caesar was betrayed by his countrymen, as was Lincoln. Both men died within months of their fifty-sixth birthday, before they could complete their life's work. Just as the story of Julius Caesar, has been told and retold for centuries, the tragedy that befell Lincoln should be known by every American. His life and death continue to shape us as a people, even today. America is a great country, but like every other nation on earth it is influenced by evil. John Wilkes Booth epitomizes the evil that can harm us, even as President Lincoln represents the good that can make us stronger."
One trait I saw and admired in Lincoln was his mercy towards the South and the Confederate soldiers after the war and his wishes for them....
"He {Lincoln} is so eager to see America healed that he has instructed Grand to offer Lee the most lenient surrender terms possible. There will be no punishment of Confederate soldiers. No confiscation of their horses or personal effects. Just the promise of a hasty return to their families, farms, and stores, where they can once again work in peace."
And despite his wishes, even though Grant did just that when Lee surrendered, of course MANY didn't like Lincoln's leniency. I mean, can you blame them? But at the same time, it showed the kind of integrity and kind of person Lincoln really was. No, he didn't condone or excuse what had happened, and yet he still showed love and mercy towards the enemy but weren't really the enemy. He saw a country divided and brother fighting brother and so he offered this solution to show that he had no ill will towards his fellow beings. And to me, that took great courage unlike any other to do what he did even though he knew it wouldn't be very popular with many people.
One side story I have to bring up. So considering someone survived this in the year 1865 with no kind of medical equipment and technology we have today is phenomenal! A bit grossed out on top of that but at the same time just crazy and jaw dropping and at the same time: Mind blowing.
"Washburn {Union colonel} is still sitting tall in the saddle--but not for long. As he turns his head, he is shot through the mouth at point blank range. The bullet lodges in his lungs. His jaw hangs slack as blood pours from the hole in his face, down onto his sweaty, dusty blue uniform. The force of the gunshot does not kill Washburn, nor even render him unconscious. It is, however, strong enough to knock him out of the saddle for the first time all day. As the colonel falls, a Confederate flails at his toppling body with a thirty-four-inch saber, burying the blade deep in Washburn's skull. Incredibly, one day later, as a burial detail cleans the battlefield, Washburn will be found alive."
One other thing I did find interesting of many other things is a battle that basically it seemed ended the Civil War and led to Lee's surrender and that was The Battle of Sayler's Creek. *Note: when I googled this it came up as Sailor's Creek, so if you want to read more or look into this not well known battle that became one of the bloodiest, look up that second spelling*
"Union soldiers sprint up the hill, overrunning the Confederate positions. Out of ammunition, and heavily outnumbered, the Army of the Northern Virginia still refuses to surrender. The fighting becomes hand to hand. Soldiers claw at each other, swingin fists, kicking. 'The battle degenerated into a butchery and confused melee of personal conflicts. I sw numbers of men kill each other with bayonets and the butts of muskets, and even bite each others' throats and ears and notes, rolling on the ground like wild beasts,' one Confederate officer will write. 'I had cautioned my men against wearing Yankee overcoats, especially in battle, but had not been able to enforce the order perfectly--and almost at my side I saw a young fellow of one of my companies jam the muzzle of his musket against the back of the head of his most intimate friend, clad in a Yankee overcoat, and blow his brains out.' Although the battle is little remembered in history, witnesses will swear they have never seen more suffering, or a fight as desperate, as during the final moments of Sayler's Creek."
One last thing I want to bring up now going back to Lincoln. Two quotes from him first off....
"If I am killed I can die but once, but to live in constant dread is to die over and over again."
Then another quote about death to famous writer Harriet Beecher Stowe he said to her once.....
"Whichever way the war ends, I have the impression that I shall not last long after it is over."
And then we have this detailed vivid dream he had seen one night.....
"“It seems strange how much there is in the Bible about dreams. There are, I think, some sixteen chapters in the Old Testament and four or five in the New in which dreams are mentioned…If we believe the Bible, we must accept the fact that in the old days, God and his angels came to men in their sleep and made themselves known in dreams….I had a dream the other night, which has haunted me since. Ten days ago I went to bed late. I had been waiting for important dispatches from the front. I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber, for I was weary. I soon began to dream.
There seemed to be a deathlike stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room. No living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along. It was light in all the rooms. Every object was familiar to me. But where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this?
Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and shocking, I kept on until I arrived in the East Room, which I entered. There I was met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards. And there were a throng of people, some gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. ‘Who is dead in the White House?’ I demanded of one of the soldiers. ‘The President,’ was the answer. ‘He was killed by an assassin.’ Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd.”
And so his dream came true. This man who was once our beloved sixteenth President had sacrificed so much for this country. Had shown kindness, compassion, mercy, and love to many. He was a devoted husband and father. He was a fighter. He was loyal. He was many things wonderful. So in closing this tribute of a book to this great man, I share the partial short paragraph of the Epilogue Bill O'Reilly wrote and I echo his words of this man and my country. I am truly and even more grateful and proud to be an American.
"The last days of Abraham Lincoln's life included perhaps the most dramatic events in the nation's history. It is eerie that Abraham Lincoln found much solace in the play Julius Caesar , by William Shakespeare, given that the two great men met their ends in the same way. Caesar was betrayed by his countrymen, as was Lincoln. Both men died within months of their fifty-sixth birthday, before they could complete their life's work. Just as the story of Julius Caesar, has been told and retold for centuries, the tragedy that befell Lincoln should be known by every American. His life and death continue to shape us as a people, even today. America is a great country, but like every other nation on earth it is influenced by evil. John Wilkes Booth epitomizes the evil that can harm us, even as President Lincoln represents the good that can make us stronger."