Booknotes: Abraham Lincoln and the Heroic Legend

New Arrival:

• Abraham Lincoln and the Heroic Legend: Reconsidering Lincoln as Commander in Chief by Kenneth W. Noe (LSU Press, 2026).

From the description: Kenneth Noe’s Abraham Lincoln and the Heroic Legend "boldly questions the long-accepted notion that the sixteenth president was an almost-perfect commander in chief, more intelligent than his generals." Blindness toward Lincoln's flaws as Commander in Chief isn't quite that extreme anymore, but the backtracking has still been pretty tentative. Regardless of where we are at today, it could be said that the idea that the president's military acumen frequently exceeded that of the professional officer class "originated with Lincoln himself, who early in the war concluded that he possessed a keen strategic and tactical mind. Noe explores the genesis of this powerful idea and asks why so many have tenaciously defended it."

Naturally, every investigation of this topic must include an examination of the fraught working relationship that developed between Lincoln and George McClellan. More from the description: "George McClellan, Lincoln’s top general, emerged in Lincoln’s mind and the American psyche as his chief adversary, and to this day, the Lincoln-McClellan relationship remains central to the enduring legend. Lincoln came to view himself as a wiser warrior than McClellan, and as the war proceeded, a few members of Lincoln’s inner circle began to echo the president’s thoughts on his military prowess." Lincoln's self-confidence in matters of grand strategy did not wane, even after putting the abundantly successful Grant in charge of all Union armies. "Convinced of his own tactical brilliance, Lincoln demanded that Ulysses Grant, McClellan’s replacement, turn to the “hard, tough fighting” of the Overland and Petersburg campaigns, when Grant’s first instinct was to copy McClellan and swing into the Confederate rear."

Critically, Noe's study identifies the origins of the legend and traces its development over time. More: "Noe suggests that the growth and solidification of the heroic legend began with Lincoln’s assassination; it debuted in print only months afterward and was so cloaked in religious piety that for decades it could not withstand the counternarratives offered by secular contemporaries. Although the legend was debated and neglected at times, it reemerged in interwar Great Britain and gained canonical status in the 1950s Cold War era and during the Civil War Centennial of the 1960s." Consolidated in both the professional historical literature and the popular mind, the strength and endurance of this particular Lincoln legend has been difficult to crack. "Noe’s reappraisal is long overdue."