Product Description

After the heartbreaking death of his son Willie, Abraham Lincoln and his family fled the gloom that hung over the White House, moving into a small cottage in Washington, D.C., on the grounds of the Soldiers' Home, a residence for disabled military veterans. In Lincoln's Sanctuary, historian Matthew Pinsker offers a fascinating portrait of Lincoln's stay in this place and tells the story of the president's remarkable growth as a national leader and a private man. Lincoln lived at the Soldiers' Home for a quarter of his presidency, and for nearly half of the critical year of 1862, but most Americans (including many scholars) have not heard of the place. Indeed, this is the first volume to specifically connect this early "summer White House" to key wartime developments, including the Emancipation Proclamation, the firing of McClellan, the evolution of Lincoln's "Father Abraham" image, the election of 1864, and the assassination conspiracy. Through a series of striking vignettes, the reader discovers a more accessible Lincoln, demonstrating what one visitor to the Soldiers' Home described as his remarkable "elasticity of spirits." At his secluded retreat, the president complained to his closest aides, recited poetry to his friends, reconnected with his wife and family, conducted secret meetings with his political enemies, and narrowly avoided assassination attempts. Perhaps most important, he forged key friendships that helped renew his flagging spirits. The cottage became a refuge from the pressures of the White House, a place of tranquility where Lincoln could refresh his mind. Based on research in rarely tapped sources, especially the letters and memoirs of people who lived or worked at the Soldiers' Home, Lincoln's Sanctuary offers the unexpected--a completely fresh view of Abraham Lincoln--through the window of a place that helped shape his presidency.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #244458 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780195179859
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Lincoln spent more than one quarter of his presidency (all the fair weather months of 1862, '63 and '64) living not at the White House, but in a modest cottage on the grounds of the Soldiers' Home, a residence for disabled veterans just outside the capital in Maryland. Drawing on previously obscure manuscript resources-including the letters of soldiers assigned to guard Lincoln at his retreat-Dickinson College historian Pinsker does a first-rate job of illuminating this previously little-known slice of Lincoln's life. Here we have Lincoln with his guard down and his coat tossed over the back of a couch. He and his son Tad (Willie was dead by this time, and older son Robert visited only rarely) shared meals and stories with the soldiers bivouacked about the grounds. Company K Sgt. Charles Derickson recalled that Lincoln used to enjoy coming over to the soldiers' camp for a cup of "army coffee" and a "plate of beans." At one point, when the troops received defective socks, their complaints got the president's attention; a corrupt federal contractor wound up in prison. In addition to providing up-close-and-personal views of the soldiers' "friendly father Abraham," Pinsker also gives vivid accounts of the various moments in Lincoln's public life that occurred at or involved the Soldiers' Home, such as the writing of the Emancipation Proclamation and the firing of McClellan. All told, this account comprises that most rare of things: a book that actually adds to the Lincoln literature, telling us stories we haven't heard before.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
A three-mile horse ride from the White House, the Soldiers' Home (an asylum for disabled veterans) was the Lincoln family's summer retreat. Historian Pinsker here builds a chronicle of the happenings at the Soldiers' Home from the testimony of about 75 people who memorialized their interactions with Lincoln there, including, Pinsker says, a guard whose letters have not been used by previous Lincoln scholars. Although his presentation is indeed on the scholarly side, it does afford an intimate portrait of Lincoln, down to his fondness for padding around in slippers. Writing soberly, Pinsker allows such details to speak for themselves, and most interesting for general readers, they reveal Lincoln's lackadaisical attitude toward his security arrangements. Parallel to quotidian affairs at the Soldiers' Home, Pinsker delves into greater matters that unfolded there, such as Lincoln's receipt of military news or his evolution toward emancipation. Ostensibly for an academic audience, Pinsker's study nevertheless exhibits hooks for the enduring popular interest in every aspect of Lincoln's life. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Thanks to this wholly original work, we may never be able to look at the Lincoln presidency in quite the same way."--Civil War Times Illustrated
"Pinsker...uses rarely researched sources to portray a more accessible Lincoln in a place that helped shape him and his presidency."--Blue & Gray Magazine
"That most rare of things: a book that actually adds to the Lincoln literature, telling us stories we haven't heard before."--Publishers Weekly
"Pinsker's important and fascinating book tells for the first time the story of Lincoln's summer White House, where so many of the major decisions of the Civil War were made. His research has been indefatigable, and Pinsker's findings will be new even to Lincoln specialists."--David Herbert Donald, Harvard University, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lincoln
"Matthew Pinsker's Lincoln's Sanctuary is an outstandin contribution to our understanding of the sixteenth president. Not only does it deepen our knowledge of Lincoln and of the Soldiers' Home, the retreat where he tried to relax; this readable volume offers new insights into wartim Washington and the fighting of the Civil War."--Jean H. Baker, Goucher College, author of Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography
"This is an impressive work by Pinsker. It is remarkably well-researched, and he writes with clarity and grace. Pinsker shows us that the Soldiers' Home was a 'personal center' for Lincoln, and that the place had a special 'spirit' in his story as President. That 'spirit' is, of course, a family story, and Pinsker tells it well."--David W. Blight, Yale University, author of Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory
"A marvelous book, brimming with new information about the public and private lives of the Civil War president."--The Washington Post Book World

Customer Reviews

Lincoln's Sanctuary in the Midst of the Storm of War
In each of the years he served as President of the United
States (minus the 11 southern states which seceded launching the Civil War!) President Abraham Lincoln, his wife Mary and family would journey to the Soldiers Retirement Home about 4 miles from the White House. Son Robert would visit on his trips home from Harvard. Youngest Lincoln son Tad enjoyed the Soldiers' Home where he had a menagerie of pets; got to know the guard troops from Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio stationed there. Wife Mary was often vacationing in New England or shopping in New York.
In this atmosphere Lincoln enjoyed the camaraderie of soldiers; received visitors and enjoyed the company of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton living in a nearby cottage.
It was in this location that the President agonized over his decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation; decided to fire
George B. McClellan and help plan the 1864 presidential campaign.
Every day Lincoln would ride a horse to the White House surrounded by mounted cavalryman. His wife Mary fell from her carriage in July, 1863 while traveling to the home. She was seriously injured .
Pinsker tells us of plots against Lincoln's life. He may have even been fired upon by an unknown assassin according to a soldier who reported this incident in his postwar memoirs.
Matthew Pinsker has written an outstanding book adding to our knowledge of the heretofore little known Lincoln residence at the Soldiers Home. The Home is now a National Landmark and is being renovated and opened for the public. One can imagine how awed poet Walt Whitman was as he saw Lincoln on his daily ride from the White House to the Soldiers Home.
Pinsker draws on a vast array of first person accounts, letters,memoirs and can be complimented on adding to our knowledge of the Lincoln presidency.
The book is well illustated with maps and is an outstanding addition to anyone interested in the Civil War and the Lincoln presidency. Well recommended!

excellent and timely
This is a well written book and very timely as action is being taken to renovate the Lincoln Cottage. I reside on the grounds of the Soldiers' Home where the cottage is located and know the value of the cottage in our history. The facility is now known as the Armed Forces Retirement Home-Washington. The cottage has always been known as the Anderson Cottage.

A fun read with useful nuggets for Lincoln scholars
I purchased this book because Amazon offered it at a minor discount - and I'm glad they did! It reads quickly and well, yet also provides decent insight into the Lincoln presidency and the role played by the Soldiers' Home, the presidential retreat. The book operates on many levels at once. It provides insight into the history of the Soldiers' Home, perspectives from the soldiers who guarded the Lincoln family there, and astute analysis of the president's day-to-day life during long summers at the Soldiers Home. The author does an excellent job of weighing and balancing historical information, artfully blending into the text his own assessment of different accounts' accuracy.

The most memorable part of this book is the incident of Fort Stevens, where Lincoln could not resist the temptation to view skirmishing between Union forces and Jubal Early's rebel raiders in July of 1864. The author separates legend from reality in this fascinating account of the only time a sitting American president has witnessed combat. The president's personal security was an ongoing theme vitally linked with his daily journeys between the Soldiers' Home and the White House. Pinsker describes numerous hair-raising incidents that suggested danger long before the fateful evening in Ford's Theater. Not a comprehensive biography of Lincoln, this title uses its limited theme to full advantage: by focusing on a narrow spectrum of the Lincoln story, he is able to bring the reader closer to the real man, his family, and his times than many other full-length biographies have ever done.