Customer Reviews

Reveille in Washington 1860-1865

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FULL DISCLOSURE: I am a native Washingtonian and a Civil War enthusiast. (I would have said "buff," but like that sage, George Costanza, I'm not sure what a buff is.) So having said this, I love this book. Leech is a wonderful writer and this Pulitzer Prize winner is a discovered gem. (Original copyright 1941)

You're hooked from the start -

"That winter, the old General [Winfield Scott] moved from the rooms he had rented from the free mulatto, Wormley, in I Street to Cruchet's at Sixth and D Streets. His new quarters, situated on the ground floor - a spacious bed-room, with a private dining-room adjoining - were convenient for a man who walked slowly and with pain; and Cruchet, a French caterer, was one of the best cooks in Washington."

The "star" of the book is, indeed, the city of Washington, D.C. Many players walk across the D.C. stage and Leech's research paints vivid portraits not seen before about the Lincolns, Walt Whitman, Andrew Carnegie, Winfield Scott, John Wilkes Booth, and many, many others. It's a D.C. you have never really seen or heard that much about. It's a scrappy, dusty/muddy, unfinished city, begging for respect. A city that found itself a lynchpin between Union soldiers heading to battle and the many battlefields of Virginia. We see the soldiers come, go and return. Some are dead, many are wounded. But the focus is always on the District of Columbia.

Past and present D.C. residents will get a kick out of reading things like "Tennallytown" for today's Tenleytown; the importance then of today's Bladensburg; the importance then of what today are mere Metro stops - e.g., Fort Totten, the Navy Yard and Silver Spring. Even Rockville, Maryland, puts in a guest appearance.

Leech covers the key years - 1860 to 1865 - with painstaking research. Just take a glance at the Appendix. "Bills for President Lincoln's Funeral," "Other Incidental Bills" -- to include Mrs. Lincoln's funeral outfit. Look at the chronology of main events from Fort Sumter's surrender (April 13, 1861), to the Grand Review of the Union armies (May 23 & 24, 1865). You'll find biographical notes on major players from Henry Adams to John Ellis Wool. (I hadn't heard of him either until this great book.)

Leech's bibliography covers hundreds of general reference works, D.C and New York newspapers and manuscripts. It's a breathtaking list and helped assure me that I could draw a good deal of confidence in the events as reported by Ms. Leech. No wonder this book won a Pulitzer!

Listen to D.C., 1864 -

"The capital, in 1864, was too sophisticated for panic. No city ever heard the noise of cannon in its suburbs with a greater appearance of sang-froid. People were eager to learn the facts. They bought and devoured every newspaper extra."

This touching scene from 1865 -

"Gray uniforms, rather than blue, now predominated in the capital. There were increasing numbers of Confederate deserters. Twilight was settling over Richmond. Lee's losses of starving and disheartened men could be counted by brigades."

Ms. Leech would be surprised to learn that Ford's Theater did, indeed, reopen. ("Never again would the orchestra play, or the footlights flare as the curtain rose.") She also does something unique. While she sets the stage for Lincoln's assassination and death, she spends more time and detail with the attempted assassination of William Seward. It is a vivid account.

Remember, a 1941 copyright, and read this genteel description of Walt Whitman -

"Even in the heterogeneous company of the capital, Walt Whitman had no counterpart. His scarlet face, bushy beard and wide-brimmed sombrero gave him a delusively robust and rural aspect which caused one politician to tell him he looked like an old Southern planter . . . In his youth, Walt had been a dandy. His rough garments were carefully selected. He never wore a tie; but his spotless shirt, with its open collar was Byronic rather than proletarian. There was a queer daintiness about this big, bluff man . . . His flesh was soft and rosy, like a woman's."

What a brilliant description of what, in 1941, must have been handled with kid gloves.

This book delivers on all fronts. It is spellbinding history with up-close touches that dazzle you. You read of a Washington full of serenading, balls, levees, secessionists, abolitionists, Democrats, Republicans, soldiers, the great and the horrid. Those were the days. Long remember.

Margaret Leech's "Reveille in Washington" is a fact filled book that betray's her origins as a novelist.

For the Civil War afficianodo, there are many tidbits that add to one's understanding of the Civil War as viewed from Washington, D.C. These involve fascinating interactions among the players (Lincoln, members of the Senate, Stanton, Seward and Chase), and also reminders that even in the midst of war, Washington still minded the habits and customs of society in our nation's capital. Lincoln still had (as the first host) parties, endured the countless details of administration and grinding demands of petitioners, and found time for levity and respit.

Like its counterpoint "Ashes of Glory," an excellent account of wartime Richmond, Reveille in Washington will broaden the understanding of those of us who have waded through countless military oriented books of the Civil War. Ms. Leech also includes a helpful timeline and an excellent appendix on scores of the characters in her book. For those who often wonder "what happened after..." to historical personages, the appendix will satisfy by tying up a lot of loose ends. More history books should follow this habit.

My only slight criticism is Ms. Leech's overuse of adjectives. She describes every person and proper noun, sometimes to the point of distraction like a florid romance novel. This both helps and hinders the tale. While it makes the events and persons more imaginable to the mind's eye, she undoubtedly takes some literary license in describing thoughts, feelings and descriptions that can only be surmised. All in all it is not a major distraction, but does sometimes become tiresome.

That having been said, this portrait of Washington fills the gaps to a great story. Not only are the principals covered, but ordinary people, nurses, city jailers, prostitutes, hucksters and regular folk are given their due in this fascinating book that at times throbs with the pulse of a City that struggles to accomodate a war often at its borders and its need to reflect it's own normalcy and image as a first city in the midst of the great distraction outside it's gates.

An enjoyable read.

or one of those long running soap operas from the golden age of radio. Characters coming & going then reappearing later in the story. There are villians, heroes, heroines, conspiracy & even murder.
This excellent, informative work evokes two eras. First its subject matter giving us a history of Washington during the Civil War. This subject has not been covered as heavily as the various battles & endless biographies of the notable figures of that war. The book was written 76 years after the war. Here we are 62 years after that listening to Ms. Leech words, also of a different era than our own. The language in which it was written is quaint, colloquil & even offensive to some in our time. That is part of it significance as an important work. It is also an entertaining history book. Imagine that.

This was the first book I ever read on the Civil War and it turned me on to a host of other CW books. This tells the story of Washington and Lincoln during the War Years and weaves a narration of the war itself. Explains the transition of DC from a sleepy capitol to a major city. Brings to life through wonderful writing the hustle and bustle of a great city. Loved it.

This wonderful book brings to life the city of Washington during the Civil War. Mrs. Leech describes the daily life of a city swarming with soldiers, office seekers, politicians, and others with such intimacy that you feel you are there.

so my interest in the Civil War was piqued about six years ago when he started attending Gettysburg, Antietam, and Cedar Creek reenactments. It has taken me a while to start reading about the subject though. Miss Leech's book is a great place to start! It reveals the political climate of the city (Washington, DC) in a very balanced approach. I loved every page. I would like to read it again sometime for sure. In addition to an index the back of the book includes brief bios of the various significant persons in the book.

When we look to history books, tend to see the BIG picture. This is the small picture and as such, is much more interesting. What was it like to be a "normal" person in Washington DC during the Civil War? To listen to the rumors? To see the wounded, but not the battle field? This book is a jewel. Very well written. A truly great book. A lot of fun.

This book is amazing. From the moment I picked it up, it grabbed my attention. Leech does a great job in covering the time period, bringing the capital and selected citizens alive in its pages, and she does it with such eloquence. Written in 1941, it still lives and breaths vibrantly. This is not the latest edition. So you may want to pass on this edition and go for the one recently released that has an introduction by James McPherson. It may be worth noting that because of the nature of the District, it is a mix of the national and local story of the war.

I also recently finished Ernest Furgurson's "Freedom Rising," which covers the same topic. I prefer Reveille, but both are good and worth the read, and Furgurson's gives you glimpses into lives not covered in Reveille.

Among us, I'll be the one who's going off the reservation, disagreeing with those who think highly of Reveille.

Brilliant phrasing in writing cannot outflank an undisciplined author's verbosity - when, as Wolcott Gibbs put it, he or she "is ornate to no purpose, full of senseless & elegant variations, & can be relied on to use three sentences when a word would do."

Had Reveille run @ 300 pages, it would have been a masterpiece, truly deserving of the Pulitzer Prize that Margaret Leech received in 1942 (more on that, later).

But at 458 pages, it's a whale.

At some point, she had lost her way. Her creativity became habit & habit led to the act of writing by a writer whose goal was merely to continue to write.

And that's when reading Reveille - at the onset, a very enjoyable experience - turned into an unpleasant ordeal.

In 2001, Ian Frazier's overland summertime journey from Leningrad to the Pacific Ocean, through eight time zones, lasted five weeks & three days.

Given Leech's endless accounts of what people wore; where they ate & danced & slept; who had been invited to what balls & pageants; & where they stood in the grandstands reviewing the marching soldiers, I was beginning to wonder if the time it would take to finish Reveille would be longer than the time that it took Frazier to travel the length of Siberia.

Crappy Editing, Dept.:

Believe it or not, what follows is only half of one sentence:

"...And Mrs. William Sprague, with a languid smile on her lips, swept confidently into a life whose misery not the poorest girl on the [U.S. government] Printing Office, not the weariest of the superannuated trollops would have envied her."

A competent editor would have slimmed this down to:

"...And Mrs. William Sprague swept confidently into a life whose [eventual] misery not [even] the poorest girl in the Printing Office would have envied."

This is but one of hundreds of similarly constructed sentences that, if each were a limousine, the front end of which would be visible as it exited the Lincoln Tunnel at the same time that its rear end would still be visible in New Jersey.

(I know of only one contemporary author who truly mastered the art of writing exotic prose: Lucius Beebe. His "The Big Spenders" is recommended - but only for truly patient readers.)

And above, what was commended by another correspondent is, rather, just another mundane example of what survives the absent-minded scrutiny of a mediocre editor:

"No city [Washington D.C.] ever heard the noise of cannon in its suburbs with a greater appearance of sang-froid."

To which Will Strunk would have stated, "Omit needless words":

"No city ever heard the noise of cannon in its suburbs with a greater sang-froid."

Reveille does have two genuine saving graces that should be noted & appreciated:

The inclusion of an indispensable exact date "Chronology of The Main Events" (which to some extent, counterbalanced Leech's having repeatedly omitted the months & years in which crucial events occurred), &;

Lengthy, solid "bibliographical notes" on the post-Civil War activities of the surviving antagonists, whose war-time experiences are recounted in the main text.

Now, about that 1942 Pulitzer prize...

Margaret Leech became Mrs. Margaret Leech Pulitzer in 1928, by marrying the son of the man who bequeathed a fortune to Columbia University - in whose name the Pulitzer Prizes are bestowed each year.

How can you be married to a Pulitzer & be eligible to receive a Pulitzer Prize?

This book provides a good survey history of the US Civil War based in Washington DC. The information in the book is dated. The book was published originally in 1941. The book suffers from the historical writing conventions of the time. That being a lack of footnotes or endnotes and the bibliography is divided how the author deems and not by primary and secondary sources. It is a very well written book and reads quite easily, for a history book. This book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1941.