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A BOOK R E V I EW BY JONATHAN H ERB ERT Lincoln’s Generals’ Wives is a stunning depiction of four influential women and an in-depth view of how their actions helped to shape America during a time of uncertainty. This telling collection of stories has something new for everyone. Author Candice Shy Hooper explores the overlooked history of these great women, which is long overdue as accounts of the American Civil War have, for the most part, neglected the extraordinary and influential lives of Jessie Frémont, Nelly McClellan, Ellen Sherman and Julia Grant, the wives of Abraham Lincoln’s top generals. The introduction sets the stage. “None of the women was a principal actor on the stage of the Civil War, but each one’s family, education, character, perception of Abraham Lincoln, and relationship with her husband uniquely fitted her to play a strong supporting role. The story of the Civil War is not complete without them,” Hooper said. Hooper (George Washington University, MA, History) has been published in The New York Times, The Journal of Military History, and more. She has presented at the Society for Military History annual conference, the Southern Historical Association, the U.S. Naval Academy and is a member of the Board of Advisors of President Lincoln’s Cottage at the National Soldiers’ Home. She is a member of the Ulysses S. and Julia D. Grant Historical Home Advisory Board as well. With her husband, Lindsay, she divides her time between Boca Grande, Arlington, VA. and Wilson, WY. One reviewer described this as “an important book for anyone who is interested in the civil war. Most of the factual books about women are about caring for the wounded service men or masquerading as men so they could fight. This one is different in that is shows that even in a society that women had very little power financially or politically, they found ways to influence the war's outcome.” The author details how “the approaches and styles of Frémont and Mc- Clellan contrast with those of Sherman and Grant, and there is equal symmetry in their wives’ stories.” With so much depth and precision on display throughout this book, here are a few examples of the influences each of these woman had on their military husbands. Jessie Frémont once defended her husband by publishing a book in 1862 titled, “The Story of the Guard.” As the story goes, Lincoln sent Frémont west to rescue a border state. Fremont complained (with substantial justification) that Lincoln did not send the support he needed, and he failed. It was attempted again. Again Frémont failed but this


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