David Homer Bates

It is sometimes hard to realize how much communications have changed since the Civil War. I assumed (without much thought) that the telegraph would have been at Lincoln's constant disposal in the White House. What I failed to consider was how new the telegraph was then. Anyway, as a consequence of that newness, the telegraph was in the War Department offices. Lincoln, as a result, went often to the War Department offices to check the messages, in fact to check the progress of the war. This book is a report of some of his actions and conversation while he was there.

There is a fair amount in the book about the development of the telegraph and codes (or as they were called then cyphers). I would rather have had more about Lincoln but evidently the author was interested in what he know and liked as well as the actions of Lincoln who, by the way, he deeply respected.

The portrayal of Lincoln as a man and a president is extremely interesting. I wish the book had been longer and even more informative. This book is interesting and worth your time.… (mehr)

In general, an interesting book about the use of the telegraph by Lincoln. A major part of the book involves the development of the telegraph. There is also a lot of very (very) interesting information about the use of codes in the transmission of war correspondence. This is the source of the (possible) myth that Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation in the telegraph office. There is some evidence against that, but the first person witness is fairly convincing that at least some of the document was written there. If you want to learn more about the use of the telegraph during the war, read this instead of the more recent 'Lincoln's t-mails'.… (mehr)