Freedom Rising: Washington in the Civil War

by Ernest B. Furgurson

Book Overview

In this luminous portrait of wartime Washington, Ernest B. Furgurson-author of the widely acclaimed Chancellorsville 1863 , Ashes of Glory , and Not War but Murder --brings to vivid life the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375404546
• ISBN13: 9780375404542
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.5" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Freedom Rising - The Capital in Crisis

Ernest Furgurson uses the statue atop the Capitol as a metaphor for the survival of the U.S. and the liberation of African-Americans. Even throughout the turmoil of the war, construction of the Capital continued, albeit haltingly, its progress symbolizing the triumph of the Union. This book is a must read for anyone who lives or works in the capital. Riddled with southern sympathizers and spies, the capital nevertheless became a truly federal city. Slave markets stood on the south side of Independence Ave, now a two-mile-long chain of government departments, and even on Lafayette Square. D St. and 21st, the present location of the State Department, was a huge stables; on Boxing Day, 1861, a fire broke out that killed thousands of horses and sent thousands more running through the city. For days afterwards, the city stank of burned horse meat. Present day conservatives would say that they still haven't cleaned out all the horse---- from the area. Federal Triangle was the red light district, catering to all tastes; digs have found piles of bottles of expensive French champagne where the bawdy houses one stood. Constitution Avenue was a canal -- Tiber Creek -- and all of the mall west from the Washington monument was the Potomac. Within months of the outbreak of war, Washington saw a string of firsts -- the first use of trains for strategic mobility, the first use of aerial reconnaissance, the first machine gun, the first suspension of habeas corpus, the first nursing corps, the first aircraft carrier (a balloon moored to a boat in the Potomoc that allowed the feds to observe the Confederate withdrawal from Occoquan and the Pohick Creek area where I now live). Furgurson writes of Lincoln, Stanton, Seward, Chase, Winfield Scott, Grant, and McLellan; of Confederate spies such as Antonia Ford; of dozens of soldiers and nurses, poets such as Whitman, and others who created the rich fabric of a capital at war, surrounded by hostiles. Washington, Furgurson writes, went from a town divided and fearful in 1861 to a "place of focused and confident power" in 1865. He does a superb job of reporting this huge political and physical transformation. Some other notes. George Washington's grand-nephew fought on behalf of the Confederacy, and was killed in September 1861. Some vengeful Northerners wanted to confiscate Mt. Vernon but a collection of women persuaded the military authorities to let them retain it as a national historic landmark. If the hallmark of sharp political speech is that it remains as relevant today as when it was uttered, these words of Lincoln to a crowd celebrating his re-election bear diirectly on the calls of some to postpone the Iraqi elections of January 30, 2005. "We cannot have free government without elections, and if the rebellion could force us to forgo or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us." "Freedom Rising" was enlightening as well in how deeply r

Excellent feel for what was going on in the city during the war

I work in Washington, D.C, specifically in the US Capitol, and I felt that while this work lacks significant historical interpretation (as some reviewers point out) we should remember that the author is a journalist first. This book gives a strong feel for what was going on in the city during the civil war, as if the reader were following events as they were likely to be covered in the newspapers at the time. There is also more in depth coverage, gleaned from personal accounts - as though the author were interviewing those writers, and as though the author / reader were working or living in the city at the time. It should be noted that MANY of the sites by the author are from contemporaneous periodicals. No surprise there. All these first hand accounts shed some much needed light on other than a typical military history of the city and its suburbs. Looked at in that light, this is an excellent work. It is unfettered with the typical historian's personal academic spin on events. I felt I was looking through a clearer and more familiar window into the past, as opposed to those fogged by the breath of the historian. Based on this read, I will definitely purchase the author's work on Richmond during the civil war.

Street-wise, street-level history

This is a masterful book - a street-level, street wise view of the Civil War from Pennsylvania Avenue and its tributaries. Furgurson writes of all the high and low lifes, generals, prostitutes, slave pens, piles of amputated limbs, mud, malaria, con men and spies that invaded Washington during the 1860s. The City was part morgue, part hospital, completely political and closely allied to the Southern cause. Furgurson writes this book like a forensic detective with the flair of a novelist. Here is a sample: "On a given evening in the early summer of 1861, toward midnight, no one stirred at William Seward's house on the east side of the square, where Lincoln often came to talk strategy and swap stories....The windows were dark at Gideon Welles's home, looking south from H Street toward the White House. The entrance to St. John's Church, Benjamin Latrobe's little 1816 gem, where every President since Madison had worshiped, was shut against the night. But across Sixteenth Street, so close to all this quiescent power and anxiety, a portly senator range the bell of a brick townhouse, and a hall lamp briefly lit his eager face as he was admitted to the presence of Rose O'Neal Greenow." That paragraph could have been a dry recitation of events. But in Furgurson's hands, the tale is a 'little gem,' like St. John's Church, of a Senator unknowingly sleeping with, and spilling secrets to, a Southern spy. This is "you are there" journalism at its best. If you live or work or visit Washington DC in search of the Civil War's legacies, you will take Furgurson's visions with you when you walk its streets. All the people and many of the buildings are long gone, but Furgurson's book has stemmed history's tide for a long time to come.

It's OK to disagree with critics...

I was very surprised to read the negative review of this book. I agree the "journalistic parentage" of this book is apparent, but I disagree with the "ricochet" comment. The book IS about Washington during the Civil War. The problem with any book about Washington D.C. is that, because of its status as the nation's capital, it's impossible to focus only on the city itself. Any book that did so would be seriously flawed and incomplete. A history of Washington must take into account, at least periodically, the effects that actions in Washington have on other parts of the country, and what events in other parts of the country do to change the situation in Washington. This is doubly true of the Civil War era. I found the mix of local and national issues and events not at all confusing and in fact, quite palatable. Furgurson seamlessly weaves in events such as John Fremont's action in Missouri and Ben Butler's actions on the Virginia Peninsula, for example, with local events in Washington. The importance of the interaction between these events is self-evident. Indeed, such masterful weaving is half the book's charm. _Freedom Rising_ is not meant to be a source for report writing (although it works as background reading); it's meant to be an enjoyable read, and at this task Furgurson succeeds masterfully. I would recommend this book, and I will be more likely to read Furgurson's other books in the future.