Stanton: Lincoln's War Secretary
by Walter Stahr
Buy on Amazon"Of the crucial men close to President Lincoln, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (1814-1869) was the most powerful and controversial. Stanton raised, armed, and supervised the army of a million men who won the Civil War. He organized the war effort. He directed military movements from his telegraph office, where Lincoln literally hung out with him ... Now with this worthy complement to the enduring library of biographical accounts of those who helped Lincoln preserve the Union, Stanton honors the indispensable partner of the sixteenth president"--
Recommended by
"When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton took over the immediate task of running the government in the final throes of the Civil War. Lincoln would not have been surprised, knowing as he did the complex and driven man who was the workhorse of his Cabinet. Here, biographer Walter Stahr details the grief, ambition and struggle that formed this Ohio river town lad who became perhaps the first Washington power lawyer. One Union general called him “the vilest man I ever knew,” but Lincoln gave him enormous credit for winning the war."
NPR Books We Love — 2017 · apps.npr.org