Lincoln Observed: Civil War Dispatches of Noah Brooks [Hardcover]

Professor Noah Brooks (Author), Professor Michael Burlingame PhD (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 28, 1998

During the Civil War, few outside Abraham Lincoln's immediate circle of family, friends, and advisors had as much access to the president as young California journalist Noah Brooks, who first met Lincoln in Illinois. As the Washington correspondent for the Sacramento Daily Union during the Civil War, Brooks met with Lincoln nearly daily between 1862 and 1865 and was privy to many of the president's decisions and thoughts. Brooks's dispatches, letters, and personal reminiscences -- collected here for the first time by noted Lincoln scholar Michael Burlingame -- offer an intimate portrait of Abraham Lincoln himself as well as an engrossing account of life and politics in wartime Washington.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Posted to Civil War-era Washington as correspondent for the Sacramento Daily Union, Noah Brooks (1830-1903) enjoyed unprecedented access to President Abraham Lincoln, whom he had known well in Illinois and with whom he shared a close friendship. Indeed, at the time of the assassination, Brooks was slated to leave journalism and become Lincoln's personal secretary. Brooks's memoir Washington in Lincoln's Time (1895) did not reprint any of the journalist's original, candid wartime observations of Lincoln as published in the Daily Union. Here, Connecticut College historian Burlingame (The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln) salvages these important dispatches for posterity, providing a riveting day-to-day insider's view of Lincoln's dealing with important personalities and issues. A keen observer and a gifted writer, Brooks offers a uniquely informed and finely crafted portrait of Lincoln in his daily interactions with generals, cabinet members, foreign diplomats, family and friends. An obvious supporter of Lincoln, Brooks portrays the president as a tough and savvy leader. Editor Burlingame supplements the dispatches with a number of Brooks's letters from the period, as well as his brief but moving essay written shortly after the assassination titled "Personal Recollections of Lincoln." Where Brooks's official memoir was somewhat stilted and lionizing, these contemporary pieces are forthright, objective and useful.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Noah Brooks was a young California journalist who arrived in Washington in 1862. He had first met Lincoln in Illinois five years earlier, and they apparently renewed their friendship during the war years. Brooks, who claimed a close, intimate relationship with Lincoln, which others have disputed, published his recollections of Lincoln in 1895. Burlingame, a Lincoln scholar, accepts Brooks' claims and has selected a series of interesting and candid vignettes that provide a revealing portrait of Lincoln and the men around him. Brooks' descriptions of Lincoln visiting military hospitals and agonizing over the defeat of Chancellorsville are particularly moving. Lincoln scholars and Civil War buffs will find little new here, but general readers with an interest in the period will find this to be a compact, readable, and highly informative work. Jay Freeman

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (May 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801858429
• ISBN-13: 978-0801858420
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,947,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nicely readable for an original source, December 12, 2009

By 

Jonathan Lupton (Little Rock , AR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lincoln Observed: Civil War Dispatches of Noah Brooks (Paperback)

Noah Brooks was a correspondent from California who spent a great deal of time at the White House. By most accounts he was unusually close to President Lincoln during the war years. Lincoln could be more candid with Brooks than with other reporters about military events, because there was a long lag time before Brooks's stories could reach his home-town paper in Sacramento.

Editor Michael Burlingame provides an introduction that gives the background you need to understand Brooks and his relationship with the Civil War White House. The editor provides a lot of footnotes that give additional background on specific comments in Brooks's dispatches. There is also an index, which can come in handy for those quick-reference needs.

The dispatches themselves are informative and entertaining. Noah Brooks had an eye for images and mannerisms, which made him a useful witness of the different personalities in Civil War Washington. He also had a reporter's ability to write clear, concise prose, which makes this account easier to follow than many documents from an era of tedious writing styles. Brooks' accounts do not cover the earliest days of the Lincoln presidency. The first dispatch is from December 1862, with the greatest amount of detail in 1864 and early 1865.

At times Brooks wanders off into arcane details about Washington society that would interest only the most esoteric historical inquiry. At other times he waxes profound about the momentous issues and personalities of a country deep in its greatest crisis. And there are plenty of useful anecdotes and details on the day-to-day life and actions of President Lincoln and his cabinet.

I only recommend this title if you have a serious interest in the Lincoln White House. Nonetheless, it is an easier read than most original sources. It probably ranks second only to John Hay's personal accounts as a detailed first-hand record of the Lincoln White House, and represents an indispensable asset for any serious Lincoln scholar.