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Lincoln’s Generals’ Wives: Four Women Who Influenced the Civil War–for Better and for Worse (Civil War in the North)

Amazon.com Price:  $24.79 (as of 02/05/2019 06:36 PST- Details)

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Description

The story of the American Civil War isn’t complete without examining the ordinary and influential lives of Jessie Frémont, Nelly McClellan, Ellen Sherman, and Julia Grant, the wives of Abraham Lincoln’s top generals. They were their husbands’ closest confidantes and had a profound affect on the generals’ ambitions and actions. Most important, the women’s own attitudes toward and relation- ships with Lincoln had major historical significance.

Candice Shy Hooper’s lively account covers the early lives of her subjects, in addition to their families, their education, their political attitudes, and their personal beliefs. Once shots were fired on Fort Sumter, the women were launched out of their private spheres into a wholly different universe, where their relationships with their husbands and their personal opinions of the president of the USA had national and historical consequences.

The approaches and styles of Frémont and McClellan contrast with those of Sherman and Grant, and there is equal symmetry in their wives’ stories. Jessie Frémont and Nelly McClellan both encouraged their husbands to persist in their arrogance and delusion and to reject the advice and friendship of their commander in chief. Finally, Jessie and Nelly contributed most to the Union war effort by accelerating their husbands’ removal from active command. Conversely, at the same time as Ellen Sherman’s and Julia Grant’s belief in their husbands’ character and potential used to be ardent, it used to be not unbounded. Ellen and Julia did not hesitate to take issue with their spouses when they believed their actions were improper or their judgments ill-advised. They intelligently supported their husbands’ best instincts―including agree with in and admiration for Lincoln―and re-buffed their worst. They were the source of strength that Sherman and Grant used to win the Civil War.

Relying on a close reading of letters, memoirs, and other primary sources―and, for the first time, mapping the women’s wartime travels―Hooper explores the very different ways in which these remarkable women responded to the unique challenges of being Lincoln’s generals’ wives.

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