Booknotes: Twelve Days

New Arrival:
• Twelve Days: How the Union Nearly Lost Washington in the First Days of the Civil War by Tony Silber (Potomac Bks, 2023).

Tony Silber's Twelve Days: How the Union Nearly Lost Washington in the First Days of the Civil War examines the brief, fearful interlude "that began with the federal evacuation of (Fort Sumter) and ended with the arrival of the New York Seventh Militia Regiment in Washington." "Told in real time, Twelve Days alternates between the four main scenes of action: Washington, insurrectionist Maryland, the advance of Northern troops, and the Confederate planning and military movements."

From the description: Silber's "account starts on April 14, 1861, with President Lincoln’s call for seventy-five thousand militia troops. Washington, a Southern slaveholding city, was the focal point: both sides expected the first clash to occur there. The capital was barely defended, by about two thousand local militia troops of dubious training and loyalty. In Charleston, less than two days away by train, the Confederates had an organized army that was much larger and ready to fight."

Meanwhile, "Maryland’s eastern sections were already reeling in violent insurrection, and within days Virginia would secede. For half of the twelve days after Fort Sumter, Washington was severed from the North, the telegraph lines cut and the rail lines impassable, sabotaged by secessionist police and militia members. There was no cavalry coming. The United States had a tiny standing army at the time, most of it scattered west of the Mississippi. The federal government’s only defense would be state militias."

In Silber's reconstruction of events, President Lincoln "emerged as the master of his cabinet, a communications genius, and a strategic giant who possessed a crystal-clear core objective and a powerful commitment to see it through." As revealed in the book's subtitle, good stories are often sold through a bit of added sensationalism. In the end, Washington's small window of vulnerability was not tested, and no Confederate army approached the gates of the U.S. capital in 1861. Indeed, with his own little army on Washington's doorstep in 1864, crusty Jubal Early would likely object to any assertion that the "nation’s capital never again came so close to being captured by the Confederates."!

Employing a variety of sources, including archival research, Silber draws upon his professional journalism background to present "the entire harrowing story of the first days of the Civil War" in a dialogue-driven narrative that attempts to convey to readers an immediate, 'you are there' impression of historical events and conversations.