In my last post I wrote about
the national tragedy that was the loss of Abraham Lincoln (150 Years Ago – PartI). For our country, this single event was one of the largest tipping points
contained in our history—an event so enormous that it resonates still today,
shaping the very fabric of our society. This is exactly why I find tipping
points so fascinating (For more on what I mean by the term see my much earlier
post—Tipping Points). There’s
something compelling about a moment in time that changes the world we all know.
If we step back 150 years we
find a nation in turmoil. (I would ask you to close your eyes and imagine it
but then that would probably be a hindrance in reading any further!) Our Civil
War was dying, though not dead. And the entire nation, not just the North,
reeled from the shock of Lincoln’s assassination. John Wilkes Booth expected to
be heralded a hero, but instead, even Confederate President Jefferson Davis
expressed remorse for the loss of Lincoln. He knew—as did others in the
South—that the North had their martyr. Further fighting would be met by a
stiffened resolve, and the most favorable terms for any surrender were to be
had right then. Instead of energizing a failing Confederacy, Booth had driven
the final nail into the proverbial coffin.
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The Lincoln Funeral Train |
Today marks the 150th
anniversary of the capture of John Wilkes Booth. In what was the greatest
manhunt in the history of our nation, the final chapter of the Civil War began
to close with the death of a Shakespearean actor on a tobacco farm in Virginia.
Though the angst felt by the nation might be hard to comprehend today, there
are historians who bring it back to life in such glorious detail that you might
as well be reading a taut paced thriller. At times, it is hard to improve upon
real life as the source of drama, conflict, and ultimately insight into the
human condition.
For anyone interested in our
nation’s history, especially as we pass this important anniversary in American
history, I highly recommend the following works. They were both instrumental to
my research.
1. April 1865: The Month That
Saved America By Jay Winik
Winik brings to life the very
last month of the Civil War, tracing the fighting from the fall of Richmond,
General Lee’s retreat, the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, President
Lincoln’s assassination, and ultimately the final surrender of Confederate General
Joe Johnston. This is a brilliant look at thirty-days that shaped America
forever, with a masterful account of the politics, the figures, and the outcome
that gave us a new-birth.
Of particular note, Winik
outlines the last-ditch plan forwarded by Confederate President Jefferson Davis,
to fight a guerilla war. If successful, it would have paralyzed the United
States and forced exactly the type of outcome I used as the premise of my
novel—an insurgency that threatens to tear apart the nation, something very
similar to what our country has experienced in our conflicts in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
2. Manhunt: The
12-Day Chase to Catch Lincoln’s Killer By James Swanson
While Winik covered the entire
month of April 1865, Swanson zeroed in on the specifics of hunting Booth and
his conspirators. This is a gripping tale of the greatest manhunt in American
history, and Swanson does not disappoint. Sharing a birthday with none other than
Abraham Lincoln, Swanson writes with a passion that few could rival, bringing
to life a tale of murder, betrayal, and intrigue. Follow the chase from
Washington DC, to a lone tobacco farm where Booth meets his end.
Once again, a well-written account
of actual history was critical for my research, as I altered the outcome of the
greatest historical injustice in our nation’s past—the death of Lincoln. Understanding
the past, in particular all the politics swirling around the assassination,
allowed me to craft a new narrative where our greatest President survives in
Ford’s theater…only to unleash unexpected outcomes.
TJ Turner is the author of
LINCOLN'S BODYGUARD, an alternative history that rights one of the nation’s
greatest wrongs—the death of President Abraham Lincoln. Told from the
perspective of the bodyguard who saves Lincoln, it presents an alternative
dystopian view of the nation that would be, and one man’s attempt to find
redemption while saving the nation.
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