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Every Drop of Blood: The Momentous Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln
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62
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
84/100Critics
40/100Scholars
Author:
Edward Achorn
Publisher:
Atlantic Monthly Press
Date:
March 3, 2020
Edward Achorn reveals the nationâs capital on that momentous dayâwith its mud, sewage, and saloons, its prostitutes, spies, reporters, social-climbing spouses and power-hungry politiciansâas a microcosm of all the opposing forces that had driven the country apart.
What The Reviewers Say
Lincoln’s last days have been the subject of more extensive hagiography than for any other president, so it is tempting to dismiss Mr Achorn’s book, which focuses on the inauguration, as redundant. That would be a mistake. Its strength lies less in the events themselves than in the elaborate detail and rich historical context that he musters. Spring thunderstorms turn the parade route into a muddy quagmire that swallows shoes and ruins dresses. John Wilkes Booth relies on the father of his teenage mistress, a New England senator, for vip passes to both the inauguration and Ford’s Theatre, giving the murderer more than one chance to get to his victim.
Today, Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman and John Wilkes Booth have become more symbols than human beings. But in Every Drop of Blood, they are living people, crammed in corridors and parlors and conniving and gossiping at parties.
Achorn gives us is a lively guided tour of Washington during the 24 hours or so around Lincoln’s swearing-in.
... [a] richly detailed history.
