The stirring history of a president and a capital city on the front lines of war and freedom.
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Winkle (history, University of Nebraska) spotlights how ordinary people experienced the war in Washington, which, itself, becomes a main character, sitting trapped between Confederate Virginia and secessionist Maryland. DC more than tripled during the Civil War, while the number of hospitals increased from one to more than 100. When attacked in July of 1864, the Union Army's 37-mile ring of forts and 93 artillery positions held the city secure. By the end of the war Washington had transformed from slavery to freedom. Winkle invites the reader to peer through Lincoln's window on the war. He presents the "interior history" of the Civil War in Washington that Walt Whitman, as an inhabitant for the duration, saw and experienced for himself. There are 20 chapters and epilogue divided into three parts: abolition house; cleaning the devil out of Washington; and an an unknown something called freedom. The audience for Lincoln's Citadel is certainly Lincoln and Civil War scholars and students, but this eminently readable and fascinating book is also for the intelligent general reader. There are maps, notes, and 16 pages of photographs. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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