Furgurson, an author and former correspondent and columnist for the Baltimore Sun, provides a lively account of the heroes, rogues, and everyday folk who saw Washington D.C. transformed from "a dusty muddy, muddy city of 60,000, joked about by urban sophisticates from New York and Boston" to "a capital to be reckoned with throughout the world." Though much of the narrative revolves around President Lincoln and those who stood by him, Furgurson also brings to life historic figures such as poet Walt Whitman, architect Thomas Walter, and accused Confederate spy Antonia Ford. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Ernest B. Furgurson Bücher
On the day the first shots of the Civil War were fired, a mob in Richmond clambered on top of the Capitol to raise the Confederate flag. Four years later, another flag was raised in its place while the city burned below. A thirteen-year-old girl compared the stars and stripes to "so many bloody gashes." This richly detailed, absorbing book brings to life the years in which Richmond was the symbol of Southern independence and the theater for a drama as splendid, sordid, and tragic as the war itself. Drawing on an array of archival sources, Ashes of Glory portrays Richmond's passion through the voices of soldiers and statesmen, preachers and prostitutes, slaves and slavers. Masterfully orchestrated and finely rendered, the result is a passionate and compelling work of social history.