Lincoln’s Lie: A True Civil War Caper Through Fake News, Wall Street, and the White House

Journalist Mitchell (Liberty’s Torch) delivers a dramatic retelling of a Civil War–era mystery. In May 1864, less than a year after President Lincoln’s first compulsory draft sparked riots in New York City, two local newspapers printed a proclamation, signed by Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward, threatening a new draft unless 400,000 volunteers signed up for the Union Army immediately. Lincoln, Seward, and Secretary of War Henry Stanton declared the announcement a hoax and sent troops to halt publication at the newspapers and seize telegraph company communications in search of the culprits. Journalist Joseph Howard soon confessed to the crime as part of a stock- and gold-market manipulation scheme, though he later claimed it was only a practical joke. Rumors circulated, however, that Lincoln had actually drafted a similar proclamation (he made an official call for 500,000 additional troops just two months later), and that it had been leaked to Howard by First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, who was hoping for a financial windfall to pay off her debts. Mitchell offers plenty of circumstantial evidence in support of the latter theory, and paints a colorful portrait of the rough-and-tumble worlds of 19th-century journalism, politics, and finance. This well-researched account turns a historical footnote into an entertaining whodunit. Agent: Anna Stein. (Oct.)