About this episode:
Eight decades ago, popular historian Bruce Catton, and journalist/author Jim Bishop wrote works that profoundly affected my life and future profession: teaching. Catton's This Hallowed Ground and Bishop's The Day Lincoln Was Shot were both written in such dramatic prose that the events, people - indeed, the very era itself - came alive for me. Even today, both authors and their works reinforce my passionate belief that history is alive, relevant, and should be conveyed as a story. For this episode, it is with great reverence and pleasure that I take my lead from Bishop's book, which was published in 1955, sold over 3 million copies, and was translated into 16 languages. He began his research for the day Lincoln was shot in 1930. Then, after two decades had passed, in 1953, in an effort to expand his research, Bishop began reading seven million words of government documents. The result: an absolutely riveting hour-by-hour account of Abraham Lincoln's last 24 hours. In respectful tribute to the two authors that most influenced my professional coming-of-age, and stoked my drive to recount history as a story, I dedicate this effort. With Bishop's work as my central point of reference, here: hour-by-hour, from seven in the morning of April the 14th to 7:22 and 10 seconds the next morning, is the story of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
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Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode:
John Wilkes Booth
William H. Seward
George Atzerodt
David Herold
Lewis Paine/Payne
Mary Surratt
Get The Guide:
Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.
Producer: Dan Irving
073 - The Confederacy's Last First Lady: Varina Howell Davis
072 - The Dawning Of A New Age: The Fight Between The USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia
071 - Edwin McMasters Stanton: Lincoln's "Unloved" Secretary Of War
070 - Combatting The Invisible Enemy: Medicine During The Civil War
069 - Fredericksburg Revisited
068 - The Confederacy’s Last Salvo - The Career of the CSS Shenandoah
067 - Return to the ”Daughter of the Stars” - The Valley Campaign of 1864
066 - Waging War: Strategy, Tactics, Arms and Technology in the American Civil War
065 - The Soldier’s Friend: Clara Barton
064 - Taking Down The Citadel: The Siege of Vicksburg
063 - Then And Now: The Lost Cause
062 - ”...Hell Can’t Beat That Terrible Scene”: Spotsylvania Court House
061 - Duty, Honor, Countries: The West Point Class of 1846
060 - Desperate Times, Desperate Battle: The Battle Of Bentonville
059 - Connecting The Coasts: The Building Of The Transcontinental Railroad
058 - Breaking The Chains: The Passage Of The 13th Amendment
057 - Jefferson Davis: First and Final Confederate President
056 - Abraham Lincoln: Commander-In-Chief
055 - Bound To Duty: The Post-War Life Of Robert E. Lee
054 - ”The River of Death”: The Battle Of Chickamauga
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