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
15 - Shiloh
14 - "With Malice Toward None" - Lincoln's Greatest Speech
13 - Thunder On The Rivers Tennessee And Cumberland: Forts Henry And Donelson
12 - The Gibraltar Of The Confederacy - Fort Fisher
11 - Fredericksburg And The Winter Of 1862-'63
10 - Mr. Lincoln Goes To Gettysburg
9 - The Ram Of The Roanoke - The CSS Albemarle
8 - Sheer Unadulterated Violence: The Battle Of Antietam
7 - Little Mac: Letters From George B. McClellan
6 - The Plains Of Manassas
5 - "Stonewall" - Part 02
4 - ”Stonewall” - Part 01
3 - Lee And Grant - Their Finest Hour
2 - Call To Duty: The Common Soldier - 1861
1 - Flashpoint 1861 Fort Sumter
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