Bücher von Jonathan W. White

The Union army's overwhelming vote for Abraham Lincoln's reelection in 1864 has led many scholars to conclude that the soldiers supported the Republican Party and its effort to abolish slavery. Jonathan White challenges this paradigm, arguing that the soldier vote is not a reliable index of the army's ideological motivation or political sentiment.

In the spring of 1861, Union military authorities arrested Maryland farmer John Merryman on charges of treason for burning railroad bridges around Baltimore to prevent northern soldiers from reaching the capital. Jonathan White reveals how the prosecution of this Baltimore farmer had a lasting impact on the Lincoln administration and Congress.