The book introduces us to a heretofore little-known cast of Civil War heroes-among them an acrobatic militia colonel, an explorer’s wife, an idealistic band of German immigrants, a regiment of New York City firemen, a community of Virginia slaves, and a young college professor who would one day become president. It set Abraham Lincoln on the path to greatness and millions of slaves on the road to freedom. Early in that fateful year, a second American revolution unfolded, inspiring a new generation to reject their parents’ faith in compromise and appeasement, to do the unthinkable in the name of an ideal. Louis Wide Awakes (composed mostly of immigrant Germans) became so formidable that a wily Missouri politician and a maverick (and possibly psychotic) Union Army officer were able to turn them into a fighting force that scored the first significant Union victory of the war (and probably saved Missouri for the Union).įascinating chronicles of many more little-known events from early in the war and a very entertaining (though sometimes a bit too florid and digressive) writing style make 1861 a fine addition to any Civil War library.As the United States marks the 150th anniversary of our defining national drama, 1861 presents a gripping and original account of how the Civil War began.ġ861 is an epic of courage and heroism beyond the battlefields. He also chronicles popular movements of the day like the Wide Awakes, a Republican paramilitary group that sprang up overnight and became a national craze. He does this by focusing not so much on well-known or politically important individuals like Abraham Lincoln but on lesser-known people like future president James Garfield (whose extensive diaries reveal the evolution of his thoughts) and now-forgotten people like Elmer Ellsworth (the founder of the New York Fire Zouaves regiment that would be blamed for the disaster at Bull Run). Goodheart chronicles how and why Northerners came to reject compromise in favor of quashing secessionism at all costs, including war.
Even though most Northerners reviled slavery and slaveholders, they hated abolitionists even more because they saw them as dangerous radicals who were hell-bent on tearing the nation apart, all for the sake of the slaves. Until the mid-1800s, the North had seen compromise on the issue of slavery as the greatest virtue, with the goal of keeping the South in the Union trumping all other concerns. But beyond mere narrative, 1861’s main focus is on chronicling the psychological shift among Northerners that made the Civil War possible. This is a wonderful book that paints a vivid picture of America during the Secession Crisis and the early days of the Civil War.
Vintage Books/Random House (2011), hardcover, 481 pages
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