Lincoln's Citadel

The Civil War In Washington, DC

By: Kenneth J. Winkle

Narrated by: Robert Fass

Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

The stirring history of a president and a capital city on the front lines of war and freedom.

In the late 1840s, Representative Abraham Lincoln resided at Mrs. Sprigg's boardinghouse on Capitol Hill. Known as Abolition House, Mrs. Sprigg's hosted lively dinner table debates of antislavery politics by the congressional boarders. The unusually rapid turnover in the enslaved staff suggested that there were frequent escapes north to freedom from Abolition House, likely a cog in the underground railroad. These early years in Washington proved formative for Lincoln.

In 1861, now in the White House, Lincoln could gaze out his office window and see the Confederate flag flying across the Potomac. Washington, DC, sat on the front lines of the Civil War. Vulnerable and insecure, the capital was rife with Confederate sympathizers. On the crossroads of slavery and freedom, the city was a refuge for thousands of contraband and fugitive slaves. The Lincoln administration took strict measures to tighten security and established camps to provide food, shelter, and medical care for contrabands. In 1863, a Freedman's Village rose on the grounds of the Lee estate, where the Confederate flag once flew.

The president and Mrs. Lincoln personally comforted the wounded troops who flooded wartime Washington. In 1862, Lincoln spent July 4 riding in a train of ambulances carrying casualties from the Peninsula Campaign to Washington hospitals. He saluted the "One-Legged Brigade" assembled outside the White House as "orators", their wounds eloquent expressions of sacrifice and dedication. The administration built more than one hundred military hospitals to care for Union casualties.

These are among the unforgettable scenes in Lincoln's Citadel, a fresh, absorbing narrative history of Lincoln’s leadership in Civil War Washington. Here is the vivid story of how the Lincoln administration met the immense challenges the war posed to the city, transforming a vulnerable capital into a bastion for the Union.

©2013 Kenneth J. Winkle (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

An Important History of DC during the Civil War

This was a well done general and popular history of Washington DC during the US Civil War. Sometimes I felt he veered off the main subject of the book, but he always brought it back to the main point. A really important read for anyone who wants to learn about the social changes the war brought, and the transformation that helped make the city what it is today.

Great story from new position.

Although the book is from the standpoint of location, it is actually a story of how Black freedom took hold in the nation's capital.
It shows how the holding of Washington was the crucial factor in the Union victory.

Any Book that can give you a snapshot...

Any book that gives you a snapshot of what it was like in a city like DC in 1860s is a worthy read. I enjoyed this work very much and learned a lot from it. a great book to add to.your Lincoln library. The story was well assembled and the performance was excellent. All and All this work has a lot to recommend it.