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1861: The Civil War Awakening

4.08 of 5 stars 4.08 · rating details · 1,716 ratings · 259 reviews

As the United States marks the 150th anniversary of our defining national drama, 1861 presents a gripping and original account of how the Civil War began.

1861 is an epic of courage and heroism beyond the battlefields. Early in that fateful year, a second American revolution unfolded, inspiring a new generation to reject their parents’ faith in compromise and appeasement, t...more

Hardcover, 481 pages

Published April 5th 2011 by Knopf (first published 2011)

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Mar 31, 2012 Bridget rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

1861 is a book about the Civil War, but it's unusual in that it is written through the lens of 1861 itself. It uses contemporary sources to paint a detailed and nuanced snapshot of the United States in the few months before and after the start of the war. There are no sweeping historical judgments here, or consultations of modern scholarship that color most depictions of the Civil War as we view it now, 150 years on. It puts you right in the year 1861 and helps you see how the war unfolded in th...more

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May 12, 2013 Leon rated it 4 of 5 stars

As the United States marks the 150th anniversary of our defining national drama, 1861 presents a gripping and original account of how the Civil War began.

1861 is an epic of courage and heroism beyond the battlefields. Early in that fateful year, a second American revolution unfolded, inspiring a new generation to reject their parents’ faith in compromise and appeasement, to do the unthinkable in the name of an ideal. It set Abraham Lincoln on the path to greatness and millions of slaves on the

...more

As the United States marks the 150th anniversary of our defining national drama, 1861 presents a gripping and original account of how the Civil War began.

The book introduces us to a heretofore little-known cast of Civil War heroes—among them an acrobatic militia colonel, an explorer’s wife, an idealistic band of German immigrants, a regiment of New York City firemen, a community of Virginia slaves, and a young college professor who would one day become president. Adam Goodheart takes us from the corridors of the White House to the slums of Manhattan, from the mouth of the Chesapeake to the deserts of Nevada, from Boston Common to Alcatraz Island, vividly evoking the Union at this moment of ultimate crisis and decision.

From the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Goodheart, a historian and journalist who will be writing a column on the Civil War for the New York Times online, makes sophisticated use of a broad spectrum of sources for an evocative reinterpretation of the Civil War's beginnings. Wanting to retrieve the war from recent critics who dismiss the importance of slavery in the Union's aims, he reframes the war as "not just a Southern rebellion but a nationwide revolution" to free the country of slavery and end paralyzing attempts to compromise over it. The revolution began long before the war's first shots were fired. But it worked on the minds and hearts of average whites and blacks, slaves and free men. By 1861 it had attained an irresistible momentum. Goodheart shifts focus away from the power centers of Washington and Charleston to look at the actions and reactions of citizens from Boston to New York City, from Hampton Roads, Va., to St. Louis, Mo., and San Francisco, emphasizing the cultural, rather than military, clash between those wanting the country to move forward and those clinging to the old ways. War would be waged for four bitter years, with enduring seriousness, intensity, and great heroism, Goodheart emphasizes. 15 illus. (Apr.)
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Review

Praise for Adam Goodheart’s
1861

“Exhilarating.... At once more panoramic and more intimate than most standard accounts, and more inspiring.... Goodheart turns the lens away from the usual stars of the story [and] explores the more obscure corners of antebellum America, introducing fascinating figures who loomed large at the time but have now been mostly forgotten.... [With] a journalist’s eye for telling detail with the rigorous research of a good historian...Goodheart gives his far-flung journey narrative tension and suspense.... 1861 creates the uncanny illusion that the reader has stepped into a time machine.... Irresistible.”
—Debby Applegate, New York Times Book Review (cover)

“It’s as if Picasso and Braque put together an account of the War Between the States. Goodheart is, for want of a better term, a cubist; he takes what is known, breaks it down to its elemental parts and rearranges it, giving us a different view entirely of something we thought we understood entirely.... Hardly a page of this book lacks an insight of importance or a fact that beguiles the reader.... Goodheart shows us that even at 150 years’ distance there are new voices, and new stories, to be heard about the Civil War, and that together they can have real meaning.... Goodheart’s new history makes a huge contribution to changing how that past looked and, by doing so, explaining it.”
—David M. Shribman, Boston Globe (cover of the book review)

“1861 is the best book I have ever read on the start of the Civil War. Sumter, secession, and Lincoln appear in a wonderfully fresh and illuminating light, supported by a cast of extraordinary players that few Americans know about. Penetrating, eloquent, and ...

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Apr 07, 2013 Bill Rogers rated it 4 of 5 stars

About 2,750,000 soldiers fought in the United States Civil War, and I would guess there were about 2,750,000 different reasons why they went. We, today's readers, can't handle that, so we narrow it down to one or two.

Shelby Foote tells the story of a southern infantryman who, asked why he fought, said "Because you're all down here." He fought to defend his home from destroying armies. Many, I'm sure, ran off to war because all the cool kids were doing it. Many were drafted and felt they had no c...more About 2,750,000 soldiers fought in the United States Civil War, and I would guess there were about 2,750,000 different reasons why they went. We, today's readers, can't handle that, so we narrow it down to one or two.

Shelby Foote tells the story of a southern infantryman who, asked why he fought, said "Because you're all down here." He fought to defend his home from destroying armies. Many, I'm sure, ran off to war because all the cool kids were doing it. Many were drafted and felt they had no choice. But the three big issues I've heard again and again were slavery, saving the Union, and States' Rights.

When I was a child the explanation I got in my first history lessons was simple. Perhaps because I was raised in the North, the story was that the Civil War was a war against slavery, in favor of human dignity and civil rights. The Southerners may have been gallant but they were fighting for an evil cause, which many of them knew was evil. The North was completely in the right. All the good was on one side and all the evil on the other. Elementary School history lessons tend to be like that.

With more study I began to think the way many historians and students of the Civil War do; that it was not really all about slavery. That the Civil War _became_ about slavery after it was fought, seeking a meaning for it all after it was all over. And it is true that there were many things involved other than slavery. To a large extent northerners and southerners just didn't like each other. Their cultures were different. Lincoln himself said that he would preserve the Union, and to do so he would be willing to free all the slaves, free none of the slaves, or free some and not free others; whatever worked, he would do.

Perhaps in all of this there is sympathy for the Rebels, their military brilliance, their gallantry, their impossible courage. I don't want soldiers who were so admirable to have thrown it all away on an abominable cause.

Goodheart makes the case that the simple, Elementary School explanation may have been more correct than not all along. He points out that many North and South saw it as a war to end slavery from the very beginning. In fact, he makes a convincing argument that the Civil War was not actually a war of the South seceding from the Union as much as a Second Revolutionary War with the North rising up to overthrow a Constitution and a government that enshrined slavery and Southern dominance. The South thought the North wanted to overthrow its culture and way of life. The South was right.

Thing is, the South was riding the tiger of slavery, and like anyone riding a tiger, the hardest part is how to get off without being killed. Many in the South hated and feared slavery. But when most of your economy is tied up in some industry, be it slaves, tobacco, automobiles, or coal mining, you can't give it up without destroying your society. And slavery was the biggest thing in the US economy back then, with assets worth more than banks, more than railroads, more than land. Furthermore, the Southerners were convinced that unless the slaves were kept down they would rise up and massacre their masters, as had supposedly happened in Haiti decades earlier. That slaves for the most part wanted freedom and a life of their own, and not revenge, was a revelation to everyone except the slaves.

Goodheart makes a case for all of this. He tells how the Civil War began, and how the coffin nails were driven for the former, slave-holding United States that was. He writes well. His stories are fascinating.

When I got to the end, though, I didn't feel like I had much more of a complete knowledge of the fateful year of 1861 than I had at the beginning. Goodheart is a historical columnist, and _1861_ reads like a collection of extra long, extra detailed, "Best Of" columns. He covers some fascinating and little known characters and incidents in detail, but doesn't link them into a cohesive whole. For that reason I gave the book four stars instead of five.

Perhaps I am too hard on Adam Goodheart, though. In this book he has written nine stories. To truly tell how the United States fell apart and went to war with itself, he would need to write hundreds. Or perhaps 2,750,000.(less)

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Mar 06, 2013 Alan rated it 5 of 5 stars

1861 is the best book I have read in many months and definitely among the very best books about the Civil War. At first it was slow-going, probably because I was expecting the narrative to focus on war preparation instead of the cultural movements of the time. The first chapter told the story of the election of 1860 in which northern abolitionists who favored Lincoln formed Wide Awake societies and marched through the streets silently wearing capes. In Texas people persecuted and lynched both wh...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Jeff Royce rated it 4 of 5 stars

Let me start by saying that I am not a "Civil War Buff", but do find the period of history very interesting. This book is not about the civil war, but about the times and events that lead up to the civil war. It is about the mindset of a nation that was ready to go to war with itself. The author clearly thinks that the North was good and the South was evil in this war, that the north was righting a wrong. Obviously many will disagree with the perspective. But I will say that he argued it well.

I...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Doug Mcnair rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-history, american-civil-war

This is a wonderful book that paints a vivid picture of America during the Secession Crisis and the early days of the Civil War. But beyond mere narrative, "1861"'s main focus is its chronicling of the psychological shift among Northerners that made the Civil War possible. Until the mid-1800s, the North had seen compromise on the issue of slavery as the greatest virtue, with the goal of keeping the South in the Union trumping all other concerns. Even though most northerners reviled slavery and s...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Tim Dean rated it 3 of 5 stars

Good discussion of the critical events of the year 1861. I enjoyed the book but because it is a bit disjointed on the subjects, I rated it 3 stars. I did enjoy the author's discussion as to reasons for the north actually caring enough about the south's secession to agree to fight a war. This is attributed to several factors but primarily because 1861 related back to 1776. The declaration created a country from a colony - a fight by a people not represented in government and who had no representa...more

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Jul 12, 2011 Molly rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a beautiful, thoughtful, surprising portrait of the figures, grand and small, who helped shaped that fateful year before the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter. I have wanted to read about the Civil War for some time, but couldn't bring myself to commit a tome of battles, generals, etc. This book was perfect - a humanizing portrait of the events in the year up to the beginning of the war.

The divisions over slavery were especially revealing, in that the opinions didn't divide cleanly...more

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May 06, 2012 Alicia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: highly-recommended

Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it".

Perhaps this quote was the reason, a very long time ago, that I started to read history. Perhaps if I could understand what caused the various wars, I could spot the elements in current days that are the 'never fail' signposts, the sure warnings to change things now, or condemn ourselves to the misery and, invariably, the unintended consequences of upheaval and violence. That naive view has faded away. There will be war...more Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it".

Perhaps this quote was the reason, a very long time ago, that I started to read history. Perhaps if I could understand what caused the various wars, I could spot the elements in current days that are the 'never fail' signposts, the sure warnings to change things now, or condemn ourselves to the misery and, invariably, the unintended consequences of upheaval and violence. That naive view has faded away. There will be war as long as there are tyrants, unbearable differences in living conditions, bias and bigotry, famine, outsized egos with power...as long as human nature does not change and as long as the young (who are always the soldiers) do not have a memory of the consequences of battle's non-virtual blood.

But I am still fascinated by history, and the reasons any particular war moved from a complaint into armament. It is one thing for the politicians and military to get all bellicose -- but why would a young man, in 1861, be ready to fight?

Publicity for this book says it covers the first year of the Civil War. Actually, it ends at the 4th of July, and I for one, vote for a sequel to get us through December 1861. Goodheart assumes the reader is generally familiar with the war but readers could start their education with this book and get justly served. He dismisses "states rights" as the cause of the war (a phrase I always thought was a rhetorical device, not a philosophic position) and points entirely to slavery. To the south, slavery was the basis for much of their economy. To make it illegal would be to change society in broad and devistating ways (and so it proved). But why should the North, where slavery was less common and its people less involved in the trade, choose to fight? Goodheart surveys the ground, looking at what people were thinking. He starts with the Banner--the fairly sudden identification with the flag, and especially Sumpter's flag, as a symbol of the Union, and a spark to patriotism. He discusses the Wide Awakes, a political quasi military 'club' who marched for Republicans, and especially for Lincoln. He touches on how Lincoln could be whatever was projected onto him, as his face was new and his character unknown. He uses James Garfield (a man under appreciated in history) as a vehicle for the educated classes take on slavery and maintenance of the Union. The intellectual's investments into the issues began slowly at first, then with increasing commitment, encouraged by Emerson and a 'muscular Christianity'. He fills in details I never knew before. I'd read about the 'colorful Zouaves' but never knew who they were--I have a better idea now. Their young idealist leader, Ellsworth becomes a friend of Lincoln as well as the first martyr for the North. And there is more.

One of the book blurbs says The Awakening is as though the reader were walking around in 1861. Goodheart's research is thorough and impressive (I read his Notes with interest. Unlike some historians, he does not use them as the second book, expanding widely on a particular topic, but he does occasionally add interesting side notes.) The writing itself is comfortable, at times amused and amusing, clear and very well told. He knits together threads that don't at first appear to be related, and makes them coherant. If you are new to the Civil War, this is not a bad place to start. If you are already familiar with time, as I am, it adds depth and focus to an already fascinating period.

As I say, I have been an armchair historian for a long time. There is only one unalloyed hero to me. It is the man who, under the greatest possible pressure, not only bore up, but applied a ranging and superb intellect to stay true to the only issue of the war--the affirmative position on the question 'whether any nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,' can survive. Goodheart has a brief but extremely well done discussion of Lincoln's battle with himself on casting the conflict into the intellectual framework that would support every decision he made for the remainder of the war. The author is not the first to notice Lincoln's need to build a framework of intellectual understanding to buttress the immense pain of being a war leader. But Goodheart's description is so well done that, although he certainly did not intend it, I was nearly moved to tears by Lincoln's process to a clear, and thereafter unwavering, setting of the only standard that really mattered. It was Lincoln's first message to congress in 1861 and his message at Gettysburg in 1864. It is the message that still worries us today.

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Jul 13, 2012 Pointsandwheels rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: histories, nonfiction

This was a fantastic and surprisingly easy read. The author has worked on the Disunion blog for the New York Times, and I think that explains a lot of the reading ease. I was very surprised to get to the end; I figured I had a lot more book left!

This focuses primarily on the Union point of view; I'm not certain if that's because Goodheart doesn't find as much variation of reasoning in the Confederacy, or because he feels that the motivations of the Confederacy have been explored in other books a...more

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May 08, 2012 Schawn schoepke rated it 3 of 5 stars

I must say I like these different perspectives and looks into the people and events of this turbulent time period. I feel like I am searching for something. But the main thing I continually get especially from this book was that we unfortunately have changed little. What we really lack is the presence of a great leader like Lincoln. Politically we certainly are not any more amicable and certainly no better at coming to any kind of compromise. Though what does lack is a true commitment. The south...more

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Jun 25, 2011 Cornmaven rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult, non-fiction

I learned a lot of new stuff about the foundation for the Civil War from this book, which basically takes part of 1860 and part of 1861 and digs into events and people that are not normally front and center in this history, along with the usual stuff. Great insights into the country's feelings about slavery at the time, both in the North and the South. And if anyone continues to insist this war was NOT about slavery, hopefully reading this book will finally disabuse them of that belief, given th...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Brian rated it 2 of 5 stars

have you ever read an outdated edition of "us weekly"? that is kind of what this book was like. i listened to it at work over a couple of days and at least three times wanted to just shut it off. but listening to books is so passive i let it ride.

the fault is all mine on this one. i figured that i would be reading a history if the civil war from the awakening...not just about events in 1861, and before but also 1989, the 1930's and 1963. i should have been more diligent.

it felt like, a number of...more

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Apr 16, 2011 A.J. Howard rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished-in-2011, history

150 years ago this month, Secessionist forces opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. After 34 hours hours of bombardment, Major Robert Anderson agreed to surrender the fort. The day's fighting resulted in no casualties on either side, except a donkey caught in the cross fire. Within a few years, maybe months, of the firing on Fort Sumter, the proceeding conflict has taken on an air of inevitability. "A house divided can not stand," as Lincoln said; the fundamental issue at stake would...more

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Jan 04, 2013 Davedc rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was fantastic. The book took a very different, and welcome approach to the first days of secession and Civil War. I have read a lot about the Civil War in my life, and especially the last few years – including reading McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom" (spectacular), Eric Foner, etc. and listening to David Blight's course 20+ hour lecture course on Civil War and Reconstruction (you can download for free from Open Yale, and it is incredible). Still, "1861" provided fantastic details an...more

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Jul 28, 2012 Marc Weidenbaum added it

The battle for the union may have been paid for with blood, but it is generally written in perfume. I found it difficult to locate a book about the Civil War that doesn't drown in its own magnolia-scented prose. I started reading a half dozen different books about the Civil War before selecting and managing to get all the way through Adam Goodheart's 1861: The Civil War Awakening. It's a solid overview of the way North and South perceived and dealt with the crisis that had lingered since the uni...more

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May 30, 2012 Joseph Ribera rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the best books I have ever read about the causes and events leading to the bloodiest conflict on U.S. soil. I have long been interested in the Civil War, strange because my ancestors did not come to this country until 25 to 30 years after the war had ended.

This book addresses the first year, 1861, and the characters and events leading to the shelling of Fort Sumter and the first combat of the war between the states.

What is very clear is that this was both a war to end the peculiar institu...more

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Apr 20, 2012 Tyauvinon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

Fantastic. One of the best Civil War books I have read (well listened too). The range of characters was impressive, and it was not the big names we normally associate with the war. I felt I was hearing the stories directly from the participants.
Although I know quite a lot about the war I learned so much from this book. It had me following up about people and facts, to learn more or just view pictures to enable me to visualize the participants.
The most striking impression for me was the corrosive...more

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May 31, 2011 Terry Curtis rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is an extraordinary piece of work -- extremely well-written history that subtlety makes three major arguments without ever being heavy-handed. The first is to demonstrate how the Civil War was entirely about slavery ***even when individuals were acting out of other motives.*** In other words, while many people took sides and acted out of a conscious desire to preserve the union, they would never have had to take sides or actions if it were not for slavery. And Goodheart demonstrates that be...more

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Nov 01, 2012 David Mcnash rated it 5 of 5 stars

1861 is a great book to see what the country was like just as the Civil War was beginning. How the states reacted and particularly how central figures from the North and South saw what was happening and how they viewed the country, slaves, and each other. Very good timeline about how many, particularly in the North moved from keeping the Union together early on through appeasement and then with the events of Ft. Sumter and the killing or Ellsworth how the north became obsessed with keeping the U...more

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Jun 23, 2011 Shellys♥ Journal rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: year-2011, civil-war, history, non-fiction, library

This was a very interesting book. Writing about a topic like the Civil War can be so cumbersome as there is so much information, so many angles and stories. I loved that Goodheart has taken a slice of the conflict and broken down, setting it all into context for the reader. 1861 details some of the people and events in the nation's spotlight as the war was beginning. Some names are familiar, others more obscure. Much of Lincoln is spread throughout the pages - the reservations some had of the ra...more

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Jan 03, 2012 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, civil-war

Goodheart forcefully argues that the Civil War was "about slavery" -- and overtly revolutionary -- by looking at the decisions of a variety of heroes of the Union cause. He focuses on long forgotten pop sensations of the run-up to war, such as Colonel Ellsworth and his Zouaves, Major Anderson at Fort Sumter, and Thomas Starr King. An engaging, novelistic intro to the people and events of the period, and an excellent companion to Uncle Tom's Cabin (better than Mightier than the Sword for understa...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Mel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: us-civil-war

Having read about 40 books on the Civil War, I expected this book which covers the opening year of conflict to simply be a review of what I already knew. Goodheart pleasantly surprised me with new information and fresh appraisals of some subtle causes and large effects. An example is the story of General Benjamin Butler whose use of legalese termed black escapees from Virginia as "contraband" and not subject to being returned to their masters, a concept very advanced for the vast majority of eve...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this book. The author brings a wide variety of people across the United States to life at the beginning of the Civil War. He connects seemingly separate events together and shows how key events that happened later in the war can be traced back to events in 1861.

The book opens with Major Robert Anderson's decision to move his soldiers from the vulnerable Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Future U.S. President James Garfield, then an Ohio state...more I really liked this book. The author brings a wide variety of people across the United States to life at the beginning of the Civil War. He connects seemingly separate events together and shows how key events that happened later in the war can be traced back to events in 1861.

The book opens with Major Robert Anderson's decision to move his soldiers from the vulnerable Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Future U.S. President James Garfield, then an Ohio state legislator, meets Abraham Lincoln as he makes his way east from Illinois to Washington D.C. Pony Express riders pass crews constructing a trans-continental telegraph line that will replace them. Jessie Fremont is a key figure in keeping California in the Union. German immigrants in a Union militia help to secure St. Louis against the governor of Missouri, who favors the Confederacy.

Elmer Ellsworth starts a Zouave milita in Illinois that becomes famous touring the northern states right before the war. He becomes the Colonel of the Fire Zouaves, a regiment made up of New York City firemen. Ellsworth is one of the war's earliest casualties when he's shot hauling down a Confederate flag by the owner of a hotel in Alexandria. The flag could be seen from the White House.

Benjamin Butler, who was a terrible general, makes a valuable contribution while he's the commander at Fortress Monroe at Hampton, Virginia. He refuses to return 3 escaped slaves (who were used to construct fortifications for the Confederates and whose owner was a rebel officer)to their owner, declaring them to be contraband of war to avoid having to return them under the Fugitive Slave Act. Soon escaped slaves flocked to Union forces throughout the Confederacy and "contraband" became a common term for escaped slaves.

Abraham Lincoln spends more time working on his message to a special session of Congress on July 4 than he did writing the Gettysburg Address. But many of the themes perfected in the Gettysburg Address can be traced back to this message to Congress.

This book is well worth reading whether you're a Civil War buff or not.

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Sep 23, 2012 Brad Hodges rated it 4 of 5 stars

There seem to be as many Civil War books as there are stars--Adam Goodheart, in the acknowledgements section of his book, 1861: The Civil War Awakening, points out that there are more Civil War books than there were soldiers who fought at Bull Run. I've read my fair share, so it is with great pleasure to read a book like this one, that tells me things I had no clue about.

Goodheart has not written a chronological battle history, as most war books do. He instead tries to capture the mood of the co...more There seem to be as many Civil War books as there are stars--Adam Goodheart, in the acknowledgements section of his book, 1861: The Civil War Awakening, points out that there are more Civil War books than there were soldiers who fought at Bull Run. I've read my fair share, so it is with great pleasure to read a book like this one, that tells me things I had no clue about.

Goodheart has not written a chronological battle history, as most war books do. He instead tries to capture the mood of the country as it was torn apart. The chapters of the book bounce around in time and location, from the siege at Fort Sumter to the Golden Gate in San Francisco, to the small towns of Ohio that would send so many of its sons to war. There's even a discussion of a large comet that soared through the sky at Independence Day.

The best thing about the book is that it introduces us to people who were key figures in the war, but are almost completely obscure today. Elmer Ellsworth, in 1860, formed the New York Zouaves, named and uniformed like Algerian troops. Many were New York City fireman, called "fire b'hoys." They wowed crowds and he became a household name: "Never before had any American became famous and adored not for any particular accomplishments--not for being a poet or an actor or a war hero--but simply for his charisma."

Ellsworth became a close friend of Lincoln's, and his story had a tragic second act. Leading an expedition into Alexandria, he was shot and killed trying to remove a Confederate banner from a hotel that was visible from the White House. He killed the man who shot him, and both men became heroes for their respective causes.

We also learn about Thomas Starr King, a Unitarian minister who settled in California and gave many speeches for the Union cause. Goodheart gives him a great deal of credit for keeping California a free state. And then there are politicians on both sides, like John Crittenden, pro-Union senator from Kentucky, who put forth several proposals for compromise, including an amendment to the Constitution that would keep slavery alive in perpetuity, and an amendment that would prevent that amendment from being repealed. Louis Wigfall, senator from Texas, also comes in for some scrutiny. "By the age of twenty-five, Wigfall had managed to squander his considerable inheritance, settle three affairs of honor on the dueling ground, fight in a ruthless military campaign against the Seminoles, consume a small lakeful of bourbon, win an enviable reputation in whorehouses throughout the South, and get hauled before a judge on charges of murder. Three years after that, he took the next logical step and went into Texas politics."

After secession, Wigfall turns up in the most unlikely place--Fort Sumter. Goodheart goes into great, fascinating detail on Sumter, and its commander, Robert Anderson. Most historically literate Americans know that when the South fired on Fort Sumter in April, 1861, the Civil War began, but I had nothing else to tell about it. Goodheart elucidates. For instance, Anderson's men were originally in nearby Fort Moultrie, but moved under cover of night, despite not having the okay of army brass or President Buchanan (who doesn't come off very good in this volume). Then we get a chapter on the inside of the Fort during the siege. I didn't know Abner Doubleday, the supposed inventor of baseball, was there. Their position was hopeless, since the fort was constructed to defend invaders from the ocean, not the coast of South Carolina, and they had a dwindling supply of food. The terms of the surrender were given to Anderson by, of all people, Wigfall.

There is a lot more interesting stuff. We learn about a movement called the Wide Awakes--men who marched at night, wearing dark cloaks, in support of the union. About the condition of Washington, D.C. during that year, when it was overrun by soldiers (and, consequently, prostitutes) and the ruts in the streets were so bad that you could be killed by overturning carriages. The Capitol dome was then under construction, worked on mostly by black workers; they were, of course, denied entry in the Capitol as citizens.

There's also a chapter on the "Contrabands," three slaves who escaped and turned up at Fort Monroe, in Union-held Virginia. At that time, the Union followed the Fugitive Slave Act, and routinely returned slaves back to their masters. But the commander of the fort, Benjamin Butler (who is most well known by Civil War buffs as "Butler the Beast," who ruled over New Orleans with an iron fist) decided not to give them back, calling them contraband of war. Lincoln ultimately sided with him, and fugitive slaves flocked to the fort.

In the comments section on Amazon's listing for this book, Goodheart comes in for criticism because he is unflinching in his damnation of the Confederacy, and his insistence that the war was about slavery, which some Southern apologists still refuse to accept. "Men and women at the time, on both sides of the conflict, did understand it as a war against slavery, even before it began. This is clear from what they said and wrote. An important distinction must be drawn here: a war against slavery did not necessarily mean a war for abolition, at least not in 1861, or not for everybody. It did mean, though, that many white Northerners and even some white Southerners were ready to say Enough. Enough compromise of principles; enough betrayal of people and ideals, enough cruelty; enough gradual surrender of what had been won in 1776. The war represented the overdue effort to sort out the double legacy of America's founders: the uneasy marriage of the Declaration's inspired ideals with the Constitution's ingenious expedients."

Goodheart uses heavily poems of Walt Whitman as epigraphs, and the book itself is a very literary one. At times Goodheart allows the novelist within to break out--how many history books have passages like this one: "Eastward ran the train, through thawing fields where green seedlings of winter wheat were taking early root; past the felled brown ranks of last year's corn. Farmers' wives looked up and saw it in the distance, a solitary moving speck and drifting plume." This describes the train that took Abraham Lincoln from Springfield to Washington.

I enjoyed this book a great deal, and as someone who disdains romanticizing the South and it's "peculiar institution," it was bracing to read a work of such clarity. "The Confederacy was never truly much of a cause--lost or otherwise. In fact, it might better be called an effect, a reactive stratagem tarted up with ex post facto justifications." Or, "Slaveholders and their allies burned books, banned newspapers, and terrorized ministers of the gospel. They had, in fact, made a mockery of the entire idea of American democracy, turning the phrase 'land of the free' into a sneer on European lips. And all this was over and above the crimes and outrages that Southerners perpetrated every day against four million helpless men, women, and children whom they kept in bondage, sold like cattle, and exploited for their sexual pleasure."

Even 150 years later, Goodheart can get angry. We all should.(less)

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Feb 01, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars

I could become a Civil War geek. There are so many books. It would take more time to read them than to fight the war--or perhaps to live a life. This well-written book looks at that first year. It gives the reader an idea of what people at the time might have felt--no one, it seems, expected the war to last so long and to cost so much (in terms of lives and money). The details of Ft. Sumter are fascinating. The description of the New York firefighters who formed the Zouaves is fascinating--as is...more

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Apr 25, 2013 Josh Liller rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-history, civil-war, mcls-nf-book-club

"The Civil War Awakening" is an excellent if slightly odd book. In a way, the title is a misnomer: the book only really covers the first half of 1861 and then almost totally from the Union/Northern perspective. Fort Sumter, Thomas Starr King and Jessie Benton Fremont, James Garfield, Elmer Ellsworth, Missouri German-Americans, Benjamin Butler, and Abraham Lincoln all have major roles.

Goodheart is also clearly not trying to be unbiased; he draws a fascinating parallel early in the book between th...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book, even though at times it was a bit tedious read. Goodheart gives an in-depth account of the people and events leading up to and on the brink of the Civil War--beginning with the siege and fall of Ft. Sumter. The loss of Ft. Sumter was actually a strategic move by the new president, Abraham Lincoln, calculated to force the hand of the confederates and break the stalemate over the fort.
Slavery had been an issue since the founding of the republic. Beginning with the const...more I really enjoyed this book, even though at times it was a bit tedious read. Goodheart gives an in-depth account of the people and events leading up to and on the brink of the Civil War--beginning with the siege and fall of Ft. Sumter. The loss of Ft. Sumter was actually a strategic move by the new president, Abraham Lincoln, calculated to force the hand of the confederates and break the stalemate over the fort.
Slavery had been an issue since the founding of the republic. Beginning with the constitution, a series of compromises enabled the young country to come together despite their differences over the matter. By the mid 1800s the voices opposing slavery were becoming louder; the compromises, rather than resolving things, were making them more complicated. As westward expansion continued the question of whether new territories and states would be slave or free continued to divide.
I found Lincoln's development as president as well as his thinking and strategy regarding the slavery question very interesting. He was not well known when he came to Washington and many Northerners considered him inept and ill prepared to be president. In fact, some of the speeches he made enroute to Washington were seriously lacking in coherence and content. But within a few months he seems to have made up his mind about what needed to be done and carefully calculated his moves and speeches to achieve his ends, along the way winning the support and respect of many who had opposed him. In their heart of hearts, many Southerners did not support slavery, but their economy was built on it and they were unwilling or unable to imagine an economy without this source of labor.
One of the incidents I most enjoyed learning about was the first group of three slaves who crossed the James River and sought refuge in the Union fort near Hampton, Virginia. The law required that fugitive slaves were to be returned to their masters. But the military officer in charge of the fort allowed them to stay. When their master came to retrieve them, Captain Butler denied the request, noting that Virginia had seceded so the Union was no longer bound to honor that law. This opened the way for hundreds of slaves to flee and make their way to safety at the fort. Many, in turn, fought for the Union.
Students of history will likely enjoy this book. (less)

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May 25, 2011 Chuck Kierpiec rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

Decided to read this because the New York Times has started a series commemmorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. I knew some basics about how the whole thing started, but I didn't understand all of the steps that led to the first shots being fired. The book not only gives you that story up front, but tons of other interesting info about what was going on in the months leading up to Fort Sumter in other regions of the country, and what ultimately got the war effort mobilized on the Uni...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Harold rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

From the nomination of Lincoln through the first half of 1861, several smaller events shaped the topography of the civil war. From the siege of Fort Sumter, to the holding of the armory in St. Louis, to name just two, the battles -- really skirmishes -- were fought in discrete, decentralized events, which had, or may have had, an enormous impact on the war that followed. This book focuses on a few leaves, instead of the tree, on the premise that the leaves are instructive, and perhaps even defin...more

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About Adam Goodheart

Adam Goodheart is a historian, essayist, and journalist. His articles have appeared in National Geographic, Outside, Smithsonian, The Atlantic, and The New York Times Magazine, among others, and he is a regular columnist for the Times’ acclaimed Civil War series, “Disunion.” He lives in Washington, D.C., and on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where he is director of Washington College’s C. V. Starr...more

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“By the age of twenty-five, [Louis T. Wigfall] had managed to squander his considerable inheritance, settle three affairs of honor on the dueling ground, fight in a ruthless military campaign against the Seminoles, consume a small lakeful of bourbon, win an enviable reputation in whorehouses throughout the South, and get hauled before a judge on charges of murder. Three years after that, he took the next logical step and went into Texas politics.” — 4 people liked it

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