Inside the White House in War Times: Memoirs and Reports of Lincoln's Secretary, by William O. Stoddard edited by Michael Burlingame

Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000. Pp. xxi, 226. Notes, index. $25.00. ISBN:0-8032-9257-0.

William O. Stoddard was a clerk in the White House, rather than one of the president�s secretaries. But in 1890 he published a memoir, which comprises the bulk of this new volume, to which editor Burlingame has added 13 �sketches� that Stoddard wrote in 1866 to Charles G. Halpine, editor of the New York Citizen. Stoddard�s reminiscences are wide ranging, and include word portraits of some notable � and not so notable � characters, commentary on the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln�s religious views, and more. To these the editor has added an abundance of useful clarificatory notes. Altogether a useful work for anyone interested in Lincoln or the management of the war.

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