Title: God knows all your names : stories in American history /
Authors: Herbert, Paul N.
Publisher: Author House,
Year: 2009
Subjects: United States History.; United States History Sources.
Abstract: People with a light interest in history will enjoy these fascinating, short and easy to understand stories. Serious history buffs will like these lesser-known episodes, not the stories we've heard a million times. For example: try to find anyone who knows about the attempted slave insurrection in Fairfax County, Virginia. With Mary Lincoln's spending habits, who knew that Abraham Lincoln actually saved an enormous percentage of his presidential salary? A slave honored in Virginia with a monument; the history of Lee Highway which 'opened' with great fanfare in 1923 as a 3,000 mile road from Washington, DC to San Diego; a story about the Little River Turnpike, the second oldest turnpike in America, built partly by slaves and captured Hessian soldiers. You will read about two Civil War ships that collided in the Potomac River. Victims included wounded soldiers' wives and one soldier's six-year-old son. You'll read a great account of the massive Civil War corruption. You will also learn about the disastrous condition of the treasury during the Revolutionary War. The government tried everything, including a lottery to get the country afloat in a sea of red ink. But the most fascinating story may be about the Revolutionary War soldier who faked his own desertion to defect to the enemy with the highly secretive mission of going behind enemy lines to capture and return for trial the worst traitor in American history: Benedict Arnold. Bet you never heard of this story. There are many other stories in this eclectic book. Finally there are stories about the Christmas Truce in World War One, about long-forgotten holidays in Virginia, about the retrocession which sent an area of Washington back to Virginia in 1846, and about the impeachment of a Supreme Court justice (it happened only once). And more!
Contents: Part 1: The American Revolution. Benjamin Church: Revolutionary War doctor spy -- John Champe's audacious adventure -- The Newburgh conspiracy -- The plot to kidnap George Washing on -- An early American health care crisis -- Christopher Ludwick: the Baker-General -- The English-language controversy -- Revolutionary War finances -- The Revolutionary War lottery -- Revolutionary War privateers -- The Revolutionary War draft in Virginia -- The raid on Monkton and Weybridge, Vermont -- The words of Cato in the American Revolution -- The presidential cheese caper of 1802 -- The impeachment of a Supreme Court justice. pt. 2: The Civil War. Federal troops invade Alexandria -- Devilry on Duke street: the Alexandria slave pen -- The attempted slave insurrection in Fairfax -- Frank Padget: Virginia's honored slave -- Peyton Anderson: first Confederate wounded -- The Battle Hymn of the Republic -- Professor Lowe's flying machine -- Captain Gordon, the slave trader -- Blenker's Germans --^ Vice crackdown -- Some Californians--aka: the Second Massachusetts Cavalry, fight in Fairfax -- Colonel John S. Mosby -- Edwin Stoughton: the luckless sleeper in Fairfax -- Catastrophe on the Potomac -- Shipwrecks and the blockade -- Corruption in the Civil War -- Civil War pensions -- The Bogus Proclamation of 1864 -- Shocking advertisement leads to arrest -- Civil War graffiti -- The Soldier's Home: Lincoln's summer retreat -- Abraham Lincoln's personal finances -- Abraham Lincoln's favorite poem -- The saga of Wilmer and Virginia McLean -- The 27th Michigan Regiment's fighting Indian -- The 27th Michigan Regiment quells a race riot -- General William T. Sherman monument -- Book review: Black Horse Cavalry, defend our beloved country -- Book review: Alexandria goes to war: beyond Robert E. Lee -- Book review: Virginia's Civil War -- Book review: John M. Schofield and the politics of generalship --^ Book review: "Lincoln unmasked," by Thomas J. DiLorenzo; Lincoln: a foreigner's quest," by Jan Morris -- pt. 3: Other stories. Ulysses, the poem -- The Little River Turnpike -- Send books to soldiers: WWI posters -- Dissent in wartime -- Oval office veterans -- The retrocession of 1846 -- The Lee Highway blues -- War takes a holiday: WWI Christmas truce -- The Lee-Jackson-King holiday in Virginia -- 100th anniversary of Appomattox surrender -- I pledge allegiance to the flag -- Former holidays in Colonial Virginia -- White indentured servants -- Early American terror: Blackbeard -- History of the OED -- A duel in Virginia.