The Great Task Remaining

William Marvel, “The Great Task Remaining: The Third Year of Lincoln’s War”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010, 339 Pages plus 73 pages of notes and bib.

Marvel has written extensively about Lincoln and the conflict that divided the nation. The Great Task Remaining is the third in his projected four-volume reexamination of the entire war; I have not read the two other already finished volumes but believe this is an author well worth reading. Marvel, a winner of the Lincoln Prize, credibly challenges many of our long held beliefs of the Civil War. He convincingly argues that despite Vicksburg and Gettysburg-- after the bloodbath at Fredericksburg and the disaster at Chancellorsville-- by 1863 Northern citizens and soldiers were increasingly and openly wondering whether preserving the union and ending slavery were worth the cost. Particularly after The Battle of Chickamauga, which appeared to have restored the stalemate as the Confederacy seemed to come back to life. The Civil War is a war mostly fought by the Northern poor in pursuit of the various bounties offered. The soldiers of the North were much like mercenaries. The wealthy mostly purchased deferments for $300.

The New York City draft riot from July 13th thru July 17th, 1863 is a particularly interesting portion of the book. Another, describes Lincoln’s September 15, 1863 suspension of the constitutional right of habeas corpus for prisoners arrested for aiding or abetting the enemy, as spies, as fugitive conscripts, or as deserters form the army or navy: it seemed that too many judges had been considering the release of prisoners for whose guilt little or no evidence existed.

William Marvel is also the author of Lincoln's Darkest Year, Mr. Lincoln Goes to War, Lee's Last Retreat, & Andersonville. I believe I will first read Mr. Lincoln Goes to War.