More Madeleines From Reading Team Of Rivals

Filed under: Madeleines | By DrHGuy | April 18, 2008 at 2:03 pm

Lincoln Reviewing The Troops As YouTube Video

In my previous post, Madeleines From Reading Team Of Rivals, I discussed two passages which impressed me by presenting information already known to me in a way that provided new insights. Today, however, I focus on two events that I discovered for the first time in Team of Rivals.

I tend to think of Lincoln in his presidential demeanor - something like this.

Or this

Often, however, when I call to mind more modern presidents (or presidential candidates) I conjure up images of bumbling, stuttering, clumsy creatures because I repeatedly see those individuals perform thusly in awkward, error-amplifying situations on my TV or computer screen.

Imagine viewing the following scene in a popular YouTube video or watching it in the fake newscast of The Daily Show.

So goes presidential dignity.

President As Commando-In-Chief

I did realize that Lincoln had visited his generals on occasion, but I was not aware how close that brought the President (and the Cabinet members who accompanied him) to the enemy’s front lines nor did I have a sense of the hands-on approach Lincoln sometimes took toward military matters.

The Merrimac

When reading these excerpts, keep in mind that the Merrimac, the Confederate iron-clad, had only recently appeared, with devastating results to the Union ships it encountered.

Yep, the night before a major beach assault that he had ordered, the President of the United States traveled via rowboat onto enemy-held territory to scout the best landing site for the troops.

Given my recent post about Lt@14’s completion of Ranger training, I can muster only one possible response: Hoo-Ah, Mr President.