Lincoln's Forgotten Ally

Leonard (history, Colby Coll.) encountered Joseph Holt while working on her Lincoln's Avengers: Justice, Revenge, and Reunion After the Civil War, and she recognized that such an important figure at the center of crucial legal, constitutional, and political concerns arising from secession and war demanded a close examination. She has admirably brought Holt to life, showing him as a prickly but principled advocate for the Union, even at the cost of dividing his Kentucky family and disrupting his friendships, and as a figure of considerable influence in shaping American patent practices, rules of war, and the application of military justice. Leonard's major contribution here is in going inside the workings of the government to track the competing interests and understandings of such issues as secession, dissent, the postwar prosecution of ex-rebels, and the arrest, trial, and execution of those involved in assassinating President Lincoln.