Fordham Impressions » Military History

Lincoln’s Enduring Legacy

FUPress — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 01:26:06 +0000

Long before Spielberg took on Lincoln, we were publishing books about America’s 16th president—and we continue to do so. From his cabinet’s politics to his own struggles with depression, Lincoln remains the most written-about story in our history. And each year historians find something new and important to write about one of our greatest presidents.

Lincoln Revisited is a brilliant gathering of important scholarship by the leading Lincoln historians of our time. The Lincoln Forum tackles uncharted territory as well as taking a fresh look at established debates (including those about their own landmark works).

Lincoln and Leadership: Military, Political, and Religious Decision Making offers many fresh perspectives. The book explores Lincoln’s leadership through essays focused, respectively, on Lincoln as commander-in-chief, deft political operator, and powerful theologian.

The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln remains one of the most prominent events in U.S. history. It continues to attract enormous and intense interest from scholars, writers, and armchair historians alike, ranging from painstaking new research to wild-eyed speculation.

The Lincoln Assassination: Crime and Punishment, Myth and Memory offers a close look at the assassination itself and the immediate aftermath, chronicling the pursuit and prosecution of the conspirators–a relentless period that isn’t often well covered. All of the contributors are leading Lincoln scholars, and each essay offers a different perspective on an event that shook a still-fledgling nation.

Summers with Lincoln: Looking for the Man in the Monuments won the 2009 J. Owen Grundy History Award for its provoking look at what the 200 statues erected in Lincoln’s honor mean to us as Americans. James Percoco, a high school history teacher, embarked on a journey spanning four summers and an entire country, seeking to understand the significance behind Lincoln’s being the single most commemorated American in history. Along the way, he documents each monument’s history and impact in and on its respective community, discovering the human stories behind the immutable stone. Acclaimed author and Civil War historian James M. McPherson says of the book, “This splendid evocation of Lincoln’s image in sculpture combines poetic description, human-interest anecdotes, and incisive analysis. James Percoco shows how the different styles of public art shed light on the changing memories of our greatest president. Each chapter alone is worth the price of this book.”

To find more books on Lincoln, visit our website.

The Politics of Promotion

FUPress — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 23:11:10 +0000

By Timothy J. Orr

*Photo 1

In the summer of 2006, as a member of the PHMC’s scholars-in-residence program, I spent a month in Harrisburg researching at the Pennsylvania State Archives. I spent time sifting through Record Group 19, the records of Pennsylvania’s adjutant general, examining Civil War commissions’ files.

*Photo 2

Early on, a particular set of correspondence captured my attention. I encountered a stack of letters related to the promotion of Lieutenant Colonel Gustavus Town. In 1862, Pennsylvania’s adjutant general had to answer a hefty stack of letters about Town’s promotion to colonel. As I read the ill-toned epistles, the reason for the controversy became obvious. A cluster of Union generals, all of them well-known Democrats, wanted to deny Town—a Republican—his promotion to colonel. Meanwhile, state politicians—all Republicans—insisted upon Town’s elevation. I expressed shock to learn that the promotion of a single junior officer could paralyze the functioning of Pennsylvania’s executive office for months, and I wondered what made Lieutenant Colonel Town’s case so special. But then, as I examined the commissions’ files for other Pennsylvania regiments, I noticed similar stacks of papers, all of them filled with vicious, petty squabbles over promotions. I must have examined over 100 Pennsylvania regiments that summer, and I had yet to find a single regiment that did not bicker like petty school children.

When I left Harrisburg, I wondered why Pennsylvanians were so quick to argue about promotions. Did something make them particularly factious? I kept this question in my pocket until the next summer, when I visited the state archives in Albany, New York. When examining the records of these adjutants-general, I noticed the same trend. Indeed, for four years, New York’s three adjutants-general answered volumes of letters from irate Union officers demanding promotion, usually on account of their partisan loyalty. After Albany, I visited more state archives and at each one I found the same kinds of letters. “Goodness,” I wondered, “what was wrong with the Union army?” No group of people in nineteenth-century America appeared more vindictive, more ruthless, more back-stabbing, and more ambitious than the junior officer corps of the Union army. Clearly, I had discovered a dysfunction of the Union army that had never appeared in the literature. What, though, should I make of this?

*Photo 3

My eyes opened when I presented my initial findings at the Society for Military History’s annual conference. Mark Neely, for whom This Distracted and Anarchical People honors, served as commentator. In his remarks, he announced, “Timothy Orr shows us that the typical Union regiment was as corrupt as the New York Customs House.” I let this sink in. Is that what I proved? The Union army was a crooked system founded on political spoils? As a military historian, such an idea seemed alarmingly contrarian. I understood that all modern officers derive their promotions through the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act of 1980, which set into place specific parameters that determined a person’s promotion eligibility and fitness. I always knew that in regards to command-fitness, Civil War officers lived in a pre-modern world, but until then—until Neely pointed it out to me—I never comprehended how different that world really was.

Later on, after the conference had ended, Neely offered me more advice, saying, “I see politics in everything. In fact, I borrow an idea from the historian Roy Franklin Nichols: the nineteenth-century suffered from ‘too much politics.’ Introduce a little Roy Franklin Nichols into your problem, and I think you’ll come up with an answer.”

Following Neely’s direction, I used political history to make sense of a military history problem. The result is my contribution to This Distracted and Anarchical People. I hope that readers might stand in awe of the subject as I do. Nowadays, we live in a world where the U.S. government takes strenuous precaution to elevate the most qualified officers to positions so they can lead our servicemen and servicewomen into battle competently. During the Civil War, no such system of meritocracy existed. From 1861-1865, state governments directed the course of promotions, using partisan loyalty unashamedly as the barometer for leadership in the U.S. Army.

Leadership is a fascinating thing, and I think it is an enlightening exercise to contrast the way Americans have defined the meaning of military leadership over the course of 150 years.
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Dr. Timothy J. Orr is Assistant Professor at Old Dominion University. He specializes in American Military History and History of the Civil War Era. In particular, he has written on Union mobilization and the lives of Union soldiers. His latest research focuses on partisan conflict within the officer corps of the Army of the Potomac and also upon U.S. Naval dive bombing during the Battle of Midway. Dr. Orr teaches courses on American Military History, American Naval History, Virginia History, and the History of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Captions for the photos:
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*Photo 1: The first image depicts King’s accuser, Arthur Harper Grimshaw (seated, center). In 1862, Grimshaw became colonel of the 4th Delaware Infantry. (In this photograph, Grimshaw is surrounded by his fellow officers.) The commissions’ files kept in the Delaware Public Archives reveal that Grimshaw never stopped intervening in matters of promotion. During the war, he deluged the office of Delaware’s Secretary of State (who assumed the duties of an adjutant general during a time of war) with opinionated letters, most of them aimed at elevating his Republican officers or denying promotions to the 4th Delaware’s Democrats. (Image courtesy of the Delaware Historical Society.)

*Photo 2: The second image depicts a segment of “Traitor in the Camp,” a broadside published by Arthur H. Grimshaw of Wilmington, Delaware. Grimshaw, a Republican, sent this broadside to New York’s Adjutant General, Thomas Hillhouse, with an aim to rescind the lieutenancy offered to Adam E. King, a Delaware Democrat who served in the 31st New York Infantry. Although Grimshaw’s effort to remove King represented an unusual amount of hateful obsession, by no means did it embody a rarity among the files of the adjutants-general in the Northern states. In every regiment, in every state, Republicans accused Democrats of promoting unworthy officers, and the Democrats accused the Republicans of playing political favoritism. (Image courtesy of the New York State Archives, Albany, New York.)

*Photo 3: The third image depicts Adam E. King, the subject of “Traitor in the Camp.” Although Arthur Grimshaw painted King as an inveterate secessionist, King’s fellow officers—the Democratic ones, only—vouched for his sterling character. Swayed by their plea, New York’s governor, Edwin Morgan, elected to keep King at his post. Eventually, King rose to the rank of brevet brigadier general, as seen here. (Image courtesy of the Library of Congress).

Why University Presses Matter

FUPress — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 07:27:50 +0000

We are excited to have Fordham University Press Director, Fredric Nachbaur, blogging for us as part of the University Press Week blog tour! The tour continues today at Texas A&M University Press. A complete blog tour schedule is also available here.

Witnessing all the damage caused by Sandy has me feeling a melancholy. I was born and raised in New Jersey and spent many summers “down the shore.” In recent summers I have taken my daughter to some of the same beaches I enjoyed as a kid. I’ve been a New Yorker since 1991 and am a regular visitor to Coney Island, and lived for a short time in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It is quite devastating to see all the massive destruction done to our great city and state and to our neighbors in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. As I was preparing to write my post for University Press Week, I reflected on how university presses have bonded together in the past during times of tragedy to help us all understand what is happening at the moment and how we can move forward. “Books for Understanding” was developed by the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) soon after 9/11 to bring the latest and most valuable scholarship to readers in an easy to find and easy to use place. The AAUP instantly became a resource for people who wanted to know more and to find it from reliable sources—University Presses—the pillars of knowledge. The day after hurricane Sandy hit, a reporter from the Huffington Post contacted me about a Fordham University Press (FUP) author who wrote a history of the NYC subways. She wanted to interview him about the flooding of the tunnels and the mass transit shutdown. It is a prime example of how the media turns to university presses for expertise during times of crisis.

We emphasize scholarship by being witnesses to global events, detectives for finding the best authors, and sharers of critical information that has been researched and vetted. Combining efforts to make all of our books on a specific topic of current concern to citizens of the world is invaluable. There are several lists related to Hurricane Sandy, including one on Katrina. Knowing this, I’m not feeling as sad. Thank you AAUP! In preparation for University Press Week to celebrate the AAUP turning 75, Will Underwood, Director of Kent State University Press, asked fellow directors to gather some endorsements from key stakeholders. Happily, I got a great response from faculty and administrators on the Fordham campus as well as some FUP authors and friends. Here is what the Provost of Fordham University wrote:

“As the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) celebrates its 75th anniversary, Fordham University joins in honoring a rich history of committed leadership and collaborative service to the academy and to society. Fordham University Press has partnered with AAUP since 1938 to advance academic excellence in the full pursuit of truth and to enrich public discourse through the dissemination of scholarly research of the highest quality across the disciplines. We look forward to our work with the AAUP to engage evolving challenges and opportunities for university presses in the decades ahead. —Stephen Freedman, Provost, Fordham University

FUP celebrated its 100^th anniversary in 2007. Established in 1907 to help Fordham faculty publish monographs based on their research, we now publish up to 70 books per year from faculty at institutions all over the globe. Not unlike the AAUP, FUP is a small organization with big ambitions. We have established ourselves as a leading academic press concentrating in history, literary theory, philosophy and religion. We also publish well established series in continental philosophy, American philosophy, medieval studies, World War II, and the Civil War among others and have created new series spanning a diversity of topics from Orthodox Christianity to Italian American studies. We have a long history publishing regional books focusing on New York City and the Hudson Valley. In 2010, we established the Empire State Editions imprint to better brand and market these titles.

To kick off the festivities of UP week, we hosted an open house for faculty showcasing their work as authors and series editors. Despite the previous evening’s nor’easter, we got a nice turnout and received positive feedback. Here are a few shots.

On Veteran’s Day, FUP hosted a Veteran’s Day public program entitled Five Historians Reflect on World War II: What We Know, What We Still Need to Learn and What We May Never Know. It turned out to be a successful event with a lively engaged audience. Here are some pics.

Dr. Scott H. Bennett, author of Army GI, Pacifist CO: The World War II Letters of Frank and Albert Dietrich

Dr. G. Kurt Piehler, Dr. Scott H. Bennett, Dr. Sidney Pash, Dr. Ann Pfau, Dr. John Chambers, Dr. J. Garry Clifford

FUP is lean, resourceful, hardworking, and determined. I’d say that about captures the definition of a university press and the AAUP. I’m proud to be a member of this superb, caring, humane community. Happy birthday AAUP. Here’s to another 75 years.

I’ll end with a quote from a friend and a fan of university presses:

“What words to describe the university press? Patient, ambitious, demanding, sustaining, generous, utterly essential. Serious thinking is unimaginable without it.”
—William Germano, Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Cooper Union

Fredric Nachbaur (Twitter: @FNachbaur) is the Director of Fordham University Press.

Next stop: Texas A&M University Press.

Red Tails Takes to the Screen January 20th

FUPress — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:10:25 +0000

We’re excited to see Red Tails featuring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Terrence Howard. Produced by George Lucas, the movie launches Friday, January 20, 2012 and promises to be a gripping story about the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American pilots in the military, and were named for the town in Alabama where they were trained.

We like to think the movie was inspired by one of FUP’s bestselling authors—Alexander Jefferson. While Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free is one of the few memoirs of combat in World War II by a distinguished African-American pilot, it is also perhaps the only account of the African-American experience behind barbed wire in a German prison camp.

Alex Jefferson was one of 32 Tuskegee Airmen from the 332nd Fighter Group to be shot down defending a country that considered them to be second-class citizens. A Detroit native, Jefferson enlisted in 1942, trained at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, became a second lieutenant in 1943, and joined one of the most decorated fighting units in the War, flying P51s with their legendary—and feared —“red tails.”

Alex Jefferson writes what it was like not only to be an African-American pilot flying during WWII, but also what it was like being a prisoner of war in Germany. Jefferson was shot down in 1944, right in German territory. He was immediately taken captive by German soldiers and held in a POW camp for nine months. His memoir, co-written by Lewis Carlson, spares no details of his experiences fighting for a country where he did not have equal rights.

Alex’s story is vivid and personal. An unvarnished look at life as a fighter pilot and POW, it is also a look at race and democracy in American through the eyes of a patriot who fought to protect the promise of freedom—not only on the front lines, but also as he moved through the camps, air bases, and segregated streets of hometown America.

For more information on Red Tails visit or www.Redtailsfilm.com

Old Glory

FUPress — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:01:51 +0000

Friday, February 12 not only marked what would have been Abraham Lincoln’s 201st birthday but also the start of the Winter 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. The United States has had a strong week, leading the medal count as of Sunday night. Wednesday was a particularly stellar showing for the US, with gold medals for Shani Davis in the men’s speedskating 1000 meters, Lindsey Vonn in women’s downhill alpine skiing, and Shaun White in the men’s snowboarding halfpipe. The weekend saw more victories for the United States, with golds for figure skater Evan Lysacek and skier Bode Miller, among others.

In the midst of the economic recession, bitter debates over healthcare reform, and soaring unemployment rates, it’s a refreshing reminder of American patriotism and pride.

As we celebrate the week sandwiched between Lincoln’s birthday and Washington’s birthday, we should remember all the things that make our country what it is. Here are a few upcoming titles that reflect on America and its history:

Fifth Avenue Famous: The Extraordinary Story of Music at St. Patrick’s Cathedral

The Lincoln Assassination: Crime and Punishment, Myth and Memory

Civil Rights in New York City: From World War II to the Guiliani Era

The Great Task Remaining Before Us: Reconstruction as America’s Continuing Civil War

Freedwomen and the Freedmen’s Bureau: Race, Gender, and Public Policy in the Age of Emancipation

Union Combined Operations in the Civil War

Between the Bylines: A Father’s Legacy

Italian Folk: Vernacular Culture in Italian-American Lives

68 Years Ago Today…

FUPress — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:37:31 +0000

the American naval base at Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan, spurring America’s involvement in World War II. Millions of Americans went on to serve in the war, fighting abroad in Europe and in the Pacific against what was then known as the “Axis of Evil.” Fordham’s Letters to Lee gives us a deeply personal look into the life of a soldier, Lt. General James V. Edmundson, through his letters home to his beloved wife, Lee, and also through his meticulous vignettes describing the conditions in Hawaii (where he was stationed from 1940-1942) and in the Pacific, written following Lee’s death in 2000.

Here are a few links from around the web to learn more about Pearl Harbor on Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day:

Yesterday, the NY Times published an interesting op-ed chronicling how Theodore Roosevelt’s diplomacy regarding the Russo-Japanese War had effects that reverberated all the way to Pearl Harbor and beyond.

USA Today examines the memorial at the USS Arizona and talks with a survivor of the attacks.

The Los Angeles Times uncovers the mystery of a Japanese mini-sub present at Pearl Harbor.

The Boston Globe follows a survivor as he returns to the scene for the first time since the attack.

Here’s an excerpt from Letters to Lee, describing how Lt. Gen. Edmundson first met his bride on the island of Hawaii:

I had only been in Hawaii a few days when Ercell had a party for me to meet a few people. He was established with three other Navy ensigns in a lovely cottage on the beach, right behind the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, on Waikiki. Ercell got me a date with a nurse who worked at Queen’s Hospital and there were half a dozen of Ercell’s Navy buddies there with their dates. The moon was full, the waves were lapping on the beach, and the wind was in the palm trees. What a night!

Introductions were casual. It was a nice group of young people, and the men were all Navy pilots, which gave us much in common. My blind date was a pleasant gal who already knew most of the people and I felt right at home. I met everyone in due course, and I found myself repeatedly zeroing in on a beautiful little lady who was the date of one of Ercell’s Navy buddies. My nurse would drift off on her own with friends and, whenever I could, I would join the cluster around the little beauty who had caught my eye and seemed to have me hypnotized. I found out that her name was Lee, she had been in Hawaii about a year, and she lived in Waikiki, just off of the Ala Wai with two other girls and she was head of a ladies-wear department at Liberty House, the biggest department store in Honolulu.

I didn’t learn much else. She was always busy and surrounded by guys; her date was beginning to get suspicious of me. She was pleasant enough to me but totally without interest, and I had my own date to be politely attentive to. I did ask Lee if I could drive her home from work some time, if I happened to be in Liberty House around 5 o’clock some evening. She didn’t say yes, but she didn’t say no, either. She kind of shrugged her shoulders and said, “We’ll see.”

That was enough. The door was open just a crack and I intended to make the most of it. The party wound on to a finish. I took my nurse back to where I had found her and never did see her again. To this day, I can’t remember what her name was or what she looked like. But I had been harpooned. I couldn’t get Lee out of my mind. The next day, I asked Ercell about her. He didn’t know her well, but said she was quite popular and seemed to date this guy she was with at the party fairly regularly. Ercell told me that this guy was the great operator in his squadron. He rode a motorcycle and had a lot of wahinis, but that Lee seemed to be his favorite. It wasn’t an awful lot to go on, but it was enough. I was fascinated by Lee. Now, of course, I realize that I had already fallen head over heels in love with her and wasn’t smart enough to know it at the time.

*Image from www.letterstolee.com

The Lincoln Assassination: Crime and Punishment, Myth and Memory

FUPress — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:48:53 +0000

Forthcoming Spring 2010

Harold Holzer, Senior VP for External Affairs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is one of the nation’s leading authorities on Lincoln and the political culture of the Civil War era. He serves as co-chairman of the U.S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, formed to examine Lincoln’s legacy over the course of 1809-2009. The Lincoln Assassination: Crime and Punishment, Myth and Memory is his latest book, forthcoming from Fordham Press in Spring, 2010.

Since October 9, the New York Historical Society has been running an exhibition highlighting New York’s significance in the rise of Abraham Lincoln to political prominence. Lincoln and New York, running through March 25, 2010, chronicles the iconic Westerner’s complicated relationship with the Eastern city, beginning with his first visit in February, 1860, to make a speech at Cooper Union.

Holzer appeared on the CBS Morning Show on Saturday to speak about the exhibit and the importance of New York to Lincoln’s presidential campaign. You can see the interview here.

Holzer has edited several books for Fordham, including:

Lincoln on Democracy
Edited and with a new introduction by Mario C. Cuomo, and Harold Holzer
416 pages
978-0-8232-2345-9, Paper, $24.95

Lincoln Revisited
New Insights from the Lincoln Forum
Edited by John Y. Simon, Harold Holzer, and Dawn Vogel
384 pages, 17 b/w illustrations
978-0-8232-2736-5, Cloth, $29.95
978-0-8232-2738-9, eBook, $21.00

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
The First Complete, Unexpurgated Text
Edited and with a new introduction by Harold Holzer
394 pages
978-0-8232-2342-8, Paper, $25.00
978-0-8232-2341-1, eBook, $18.00

The Lincoln Forum
Rediscovering Abraham Lincoln
Edited by John Y. Simon, and Harold Holzer
262 pages
978-0-8232-2215-5, Paper, $22.00
978-0-8232-2214-8, Cloth, $55.00

Coming Spring, 2010:

The Lincoln Assassination: Crime and Punishment, Myth and Memory
A Lincoln Forum Book
Edited by Harold Holzer, Craig L. Symonds, and Frank J. Williams
256 pages, 56 b/w illustrations
978-0-8232-3226-0, Cloth, $27.95
978-0-8232-3228-4, eBook, $20.00
The North’s Civil War (series)

An American Pilot: Alexander Jefferson

FUPress — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:20:42 +0000

Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free

Around the broadcast of The War, Detroit Public TV presented several short vignettes honoring Michiganians who served in World War II or supported the effort here at home. Alexander Jefferson, author of Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free: The Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman and POW , was one of the people interviewed.

Unbelievably, a time existed when conventional wisdom stated that African Americans were not smart enough or coordinated enough to fly a plane. Lieutenant Alexander Jefferson and the Tuskegee Airmen not only proved them wrong but were also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2007 (Michigan Voices of War DVD) .