Bloody Crimes, A Book About Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis at the end of the Civil War

Finished Bloody Crimes, http://www.amazon.com/Bloody-Crimes-Jefferson-Pageant-Lincolns/dp/0061233781/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310434681&sr=8-1, by James Swanson, who has written a number of books related to Lincoln’s assassination.

This book tells parallel stories about what happened to Lincoln’s body after his assassination as it was taken on a train ride back to Springfield Illinois and what happened to Jefferson Davis during his escape from Richmond to his capture and then to the end of his life. It is well written and for those interested in the general subject area, a fairly short read with a lot of information that at least I was unaware of.

One of the events that was described toward the end of the book stayed with me after I finished. The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in 1922, with among others, Robert Lincoln, Lincoln’s surviving son attending. The crowd listening to the dedication was in large part segregated.

It took many years before the serious beginnings of the promises made at the end of the Civil War to penetrate American society in a meaningful way.