Editor's note: The Lincoln
Forum (www.lincolnforum.org)
is an organization dedicated to enhancing "the
understanding and preserving the memory of Abraham Lincoln and
the Civil War." Founded in 1995, the organization
meets each year in Gettysburg, PA, on the anniversary of
Lincoln's address at the dedication of the Gettysburg National
Cemetery. Several members of the Cleveland Civil War
Roundtable are also members of the Lincoln Forum and attend its
meeting each year. CCWRT and 8-year Lincoln Forum member
Mel Maurer agreed to our request to provide a recap of this
year's event.
 The Cleveland Civil War
Roundtable was well represented at this year's 12th Annual Lincoln
Forum, held every November 16-18th in Gettysburg at the
Battlefield Holiday Inn with about 300 people attending. Dick
Crews, Kirk Hinman, Gordie Noble, Lou Braman, her friend Anne
Davis and Dave Edmonds were there along with me. (Unfortunately
Maynard and Betty Bauer had to cancel their attendance at the last
minute due to a death in the family.)
The Forum's symposium's theme
this year was "Lincoln, Law, and Justice." It was
capably introduced in our chairman Frank Williams' talk,
"Judging Lincoln as Judge", after dinner on Friday
evening. Mr. Williams, Chief Justice of the Rhode Island
Supreme Court and a noted Lincoln scholar, defined Lincoln as
judge using the times he sat as a replacement judge in Illinois
and as a one-man appeal board during the war for his references.
It was no surprise to learn that Mr. Williams found Lincoln to be
a fair and wise judge although Dick and I thought he may have
painted Lincoln a little too saintly as a lawyer.
The opening talk Saturday morning
was by Tom Wheeler who wrote "Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War." I was not
impressed with Mr. Wheeler when I saw him on C-SPAN several
years ago, but he
was excellent here, conveying considerable knowledge of the era,
telegraphy and Lincoln. Dick thought it was the best talk of the
Forum.
Mr. Wheeler was followed by a
young author, Jason Emerson, who discussed his new book: "The Madness of Mary Lincoln." While his subject was
interesting - he feels that Mary was actually insane - the story
he told of finding the "lost or destroyed" letters that
Mary wrote while confined in the asylum was really special.
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| Dick
Crews makes a point with presenter Tom Wheeler |
Lincoln author, William C. Harris
("Lincoln's Last Months") spoke on "Lincoln's Role
in the Presidential Campaign of 1860" to end the first
morning. Mr. Harris's research shows Lincoln's involvement - using
his great political intuition and skill - in certain strategic
areas of the country that helped to retain or acquire the support
he needed to win the presidency.
The Forum is always especially
interesting when it overlaps "Remembrance Weekend" in
Gettysburg as it did this year. This is always celebrated the
Saturday before November 19th, attracting hundreds (if not
thousands) of re-enactors to town - most of whom then appear in an
hour-long parade through town (right past our hotel) and onto the
battlefield . We usually watch the parade during an extended lunch
hour (this year from our room while also watching Ohio State beat
that team from up north.)
The Saturday afternoon Forum
sessions were led off by a distinguished and wonderful elderly
lady, Eleanor Stoddard, who modestly told us of her grandfather,
William O. Stoddard, who was a secretary to Lincoln in the White
House (although officially a member of the Interior
Department.)
 |
Mel
Maurer, keeper of the hand that shook the hand, that shook
the hand that shook the hand of Lincoln.
(See below
for limited-time offer.) |
There is a new book out on his
life -"Lincoln's White House Secretary: The Adventurous Life of William O.Stoddard." Miss Stoddard was four-years old
when her grandfather died and she admits to only a few brief
memories of him. The poor lady's hand was practically worn out by
those wanting to shake the hand that touched the hand that shook
the hand of Lincoln - yes, I shook it too. (She thought I looked
like her uncle, one of William's son's, but no one wanted to shake
my hand.) This dear lady, also just beat me to the last copy
of the new book on Mary's insanity in the Forum Book Store. (The Forum "Book Store"
with a number of vendors always has the latest and greatest books,
pictures, and sculpture on all things Lincoln.)
The next presentation, by Bob
Zeller, was unusual and newsworthy as well as really neat -
"Lincoln in 3D: The Stereo Photographic Legacy of His
Presidency." Mr. Zeller, for the speaking, and John Richter
for the technical, showed us, wearing 3D glasses, a 3D slide show
made from pictures taken to be viewed in the 1800s version of
"View Masters" - the two picture one viewer
format.
The show was amazing giving us
views and depths that added new proximity to each scene. It was
while they were doing this work that they discovered what may be
new pictures of Lincoln at Gettysburg in a crowd scene (as
announced in USA Today on November 16th). Mr. Zeller and
Mr. Richter are
leaving it to others to decide whether it is actually Lincoln. One
picture shows a man with a beard in a
stove pipe hat on a horse with his head above the crowd while
another shows the man to be wearing white gloves - as Lincoln did
that day. I asked if their material would someday be available on
DVD and was told that it was a possibility. (See photos at CivilWarPhotography.com.)
 |
| This
is an extreme enlargement as published in USA Today of
one of two recently discovered photos believed to be
showing Lincoln at Gettysburg. Both photos depict
large crowd scenes requiring enlargement to make-out the
individual who may be Lincoln. To see these photos,
both in their original expanded format and enlarged to
focus-in on Lincoln, go to CivilWarPhotography.com
and USA
Today. |
Lincoln historians and writers,
Douglas L. Wilson (author, "Honor's Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln") and Rodney
O. Davis (Prof. of History Emeritus at Knox College) shared the
podium next with a talk entitled, "Reconsidering
Herndon." They make the case that the biography of Lincoln by
his long-time law partner, William Herndon, deserves more
historical respect than it has received over the years. (There is
a new annotated version of Herndon's biography out, "Herndon's Lincoln (Knox College Lincoln Studies Center)" and a
companion work, "Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about Abraham Lincoln." Herndon did history a
great service with his work.)
C-SPAN was there to record the
talks by authors so most of the second day's talks will eventually
be broadcast as part of the "Book TV" series - probably
in December. I'll send out an e-mail on this if and when I learn a
date. You may even see some familiar faces asking questions.
Our speaker after dinner Saturday
evening was a crusty old professor, Jean Edward Smith, author of a
number of books, including a book on U. S. Grant. His most recent
book is "FDR." His talk compared Lincoln and FDR:
"Presidential Leadership in Wartime: Lincoln and FDR." I
was able to ask him which of these two faced the greatest
challenge, he said that was an "iffy question" and I
said - also crusty - "that's why I asked it." After some
words of qualification, he said that Lincoln faced the bigger
challenge. (Dick and I got more out of him on several of his
subjects in the bar later that night.)
The second morning's session got
us back to the Forum's theme with a panel discussion - always a
Forum favorite - featuring five distinguished panelists moderated
by our vice chairman, Harold Holzer (author and editor of about 30
books on Lincoln and vice chair of the Forum.) The panelists, all
of them authors, were:
- Frank Williams, Chief Justice
of the Rhode Island Supreme Court
- Burrus M. Carnahan, former U.S,
Air Force Judge Advocate
- James F. Simon, Prof. of law
and Dean Emeritus at the New York Law School
- Mark Steiner, Assoc. Prof. of
Law - University of Houston
- Daniel W. Stowell, longtime
editor of the Lincoln Legal Papers
The panelists
discussed a number of facets of Lincoln's legal life - over 5200
cases handled by Lincoln including some murder cases. (Although,
as one noted, he was no Perry Mason.) The audience joined in with
a number of questions - mine, on when did Lincoln decide he was
going to be a lawyer, got only a fuzzy answer. (Sorry - had I
known that Paul Burkholder was going to ask for this recap, I would have
taken some notes on the discussion.)
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The
rear of the "Lincoln Cottage" at the Soldiers'
Home |
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The
study in the Lincoln Cottage |
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The afternoon of the second day
is always "Tour Day" and this year we had a very special
tour as we were bussed into Washington to visit the "Lincoln
Cottage" at the Soldiers' Home - the summer residence of the
Lincoln family (three miles from the White House). The "cottage" is really
a large informal house.
Dick recalled visiting the
cottage while on then CCWRT president William Vodrey's field trip
to Washington, DC in Fall, 2000, saying we were ahead of the
times. While it was then just a somewhat cluttered office, today
it has
been almost completely renovated and restored to the time of
Lincoln. The work is nearly finished and the home
will open officially in February. Dick and I managed to get on the
bus led by Matt Pinsker who wrote the definitive book on the home:
"Lincoln's Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers' Home." Old friend, George Buss was Matt's assistant on the
bus - we sat behind them and picked both clean of their
considerable knowledge - as we did with James McPherson when he
led our group on a tour of Antietam several years ago.
We also stopped at the partial
recreation of Ft. Stevens - which is close to the Soldiers' Home.
Ft. Stevens is where Lincoln became the only sitting President to
come under hostile fire (from Jubal Early's attacking forces.)
It's also where myth has it that young Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
said to the endangered President - "Get down you damn
fool!" Our guide at the site, Craig Symonds, like most
historians, says it never happened.
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| The
plaque marking the spot where Lincoln came under fire from
Jubal Early's forces at Fort Stevens |
We were back in Gettysburg in
time to get ready for the concluding dinner that night. As is our
tradition, our friend Jim Getty spoke first - this year doing a
reading entitled "Mr. Lincoln Speaks" on Lincoln on
lawyers.
Our final speaker was Jeff Shaara who followed his
father Michael ("The Killer Angels") into novelized
history with "Gods and Generals," "The Last Full
Measure" and others. Jeff received this year's Richard
Currant Award. He then talked on novelized history, quietly
defending the genre. I was able to ask him in the Q&A about
the rumored movie to be made of "Last Full Measure." He
said Ted Turner is no longer involved in these movies at all and
that right now, there is nothing happening on what would be the
final movie in the trilogy. Mr. Shaara has completed his first book on
what will be a trilogy on WWI.
While the Forum officially ends the evening of the 18th, many
participants also attend the ceremony at the National Cemetery the
morning of the 19th. Jim Getty as Lincoln does the Gettysburg
Address (always special), and this year Jeff Shaara was the
featured speaker.
Dick and I always do at least a
driving tour of the battlefield each year to see the progress
being made in restoring it to it's 1863 topography - and we're
always impressed with the progress being made. (Cold wet weather
kept us in the car this year.)
While this year's Forum lacked the
"big name" speakers of some past Forums (Doris Kearns Goodwin
last year, for example), it did have a variety of good
talks by some very good scholars along with a great tour. (Dick
did not find the program as good as I did but he was still glad he
came.) The Forum celebrates Lincoln's 200th birthday next year and
promises to be a very special event. We know at this point that
the tour will include the new Gettysburg Visitors Center and the
dedication of the restored Wills House - where Lincoln spent his
night in Gettysburg. The speaker program is still being determined
but it promises to be a good one and I bet the attendees will
include many scholars too.
We'll know the complete program
some time in March. The Forum usually sells out so if you are interested
be sure to register early - and get a room at the Holiday Inn
early too - like the Forum it also sells out every year. I'm sure
all of us attending this year would be pleased to answer any
questions you may have. (And I'm only charging a dollar to shake
my hand - the hand that shook the hand, that shook the hand, that shook the hand of Lincoln.)
Books discussed in this article:
Roll-over a book title to bring up more information on that
book; click the book title to purchase from Amazon.com. Part of the proceeds from any book purchased from Amazon
through the CCWRT website are returned to the CCWRT to support its
education and preservation programs.
Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War
by Tom Wheeler
The Madness of Mary Lincoln
by Jason Emerson and James Brust
Lincoln's Last Months
by William C. Harris
Lincoln's White House Secretary: The Adventurous Life of William O.Stoddard
by Eleanor Stoddard and Harold Holzer
Honor's Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln
by Douglas L. Wilson
Herndon's Lincoln (Knox College Lincoln Studies Center)
by William H. Herndon
Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about Abraham Lincoln
by Douglas L Wilson and Rodney O. Davis
Lincoln's Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers' Home
by Matt Pinsker
Gods and Generals
by Jeff Shaara More
Civil War titles at the Roundtable Bookstore |
