Our One Common Country: Abraham Lincoln And The Hampton Roads Peace Conference Of 1865

by James Conroy

Overview

Our One Common Country explores the most critical meeting of the Civil War. Overlooked by many historians, the Hampton Roads Conference of 1865 was a crucial turning point in the War between the States. In this well written and highly documented book, James B. Conroy describes in fascinating detail the meeting that was meant to end the fighting on peaceful terms. It failed, and the war dragged on for two more bloody, destructive months. Through meticulous research of both primary and secondary sources, Conroy tells the story of the doomed peace negotiations through the characters who lived it. With a fresh first-person narrative, Our One Common Country offers a thrilling and eye-opening look into the efforts to find a peaceful solution. The failure of the Hamptons Roads Conference shaped the course of American history and the future of America’s wars to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493018819
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/01/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

James B. Conroy practices law in Boston. He previously served as a Senate and House press secretary and speechwriter in Washington, D.C., as well as an administrative assistant (chief of staff) for a New York City congressman. His legal writing has been published in the Massachusetts Law Review and the Massachusetts Lawyers' Weekly.

Table of Contents

Cast of Principal Characters x

Prologue xvii

Part I Friends in Power

1 A Self-Immolating Devotion to Duty 2

2 Lacking in the Quality of Leadership 8

3 A Problematical Character, Full of Contradictions 14

4 Good and True Friends 20

5 The Only Way to Make Spaniels Civil Is to Whip Them 28

6 Who Will He Treat With, or How Commence the Work? 33

7 The Wise Men Are Those Who Would End It 41

8 I Do Not Think I Would Get Back 52

9 As Once a Friend and Still, I Hope, Not an Enemy 61

Part II We Are But One People

10 A Treachery Unworthy of Men of Honor 72

11 A New Channel for the Bitter Waters 80

12 We Are on the Eve of an Internal Revolution 92

13 A Determined Stand Ought to Be Made for Peace 104

14 Is There Nothing That Will Degrade a Man? 118

15 You Will Not Assume to Definitely Consummate Anything 128

16 I Was Never So Much Disappointed in My Life 140

17 With Evident Indications of High Gratification 155

18 There Has Been Nothing We Could Do for Our Country 172

Part III A Suffering and Distracted Country

19 It Is More Dangerous to Make Peace Than to Make War 202

20 You Are All Against Me 212

21 Thank God We Know It Now 221

22 To Serve a People in Spite of Themselves 231

23 It Is the Province of Statesmanship to Consider of These Things 240

24 With Cheerful Confidence in the Result 251

25 Allow Judge Campbell to See Ibis, But Do Not Make It Public 265

26 The Rebels Are Our Countrymen Again 274

27 I Am as One Walking in a Dream 282

Epilogue 293

Acknowledgments 307

Notes 309

Selected Bibliography 368

Index 380

Editorial Reviews

[A] sparkling account … An appealing cast of bullies and eccentrics populates every chapter … Conroy shows that it is possible to write exciting prose with scholarly integrity intact.

Civil War History - Harold Holzer

In this massively researched, exceptionally well-written book, James Conroy has illuminated and set in its historical context an episode familiar and yet hitherto not closely examined. By carefully inserting vignettes of the actual fighters into the Big Picture, he gives his account an immediacy and human dimension rarely found in serious historical works. This is, moreover, a page-turner to be read for sheer pleasure.

Hiller B. Zobel

Conroy is a terrific writer who tells the story of one of the war’s least known episodes, the Hampton Roads Peace Conference. But it is the way he describes the people around Lincoln, their interaction with him and each other that makes this such a good read. Great anecdotes—if you’re like me you’ll find yourself pausing every few pages and saying, ‘I never knew that’—my favorite kind of book!

CBS News

Exhaustively researched and engagingly written, James Conroy’s account of the Hampton Roads Conference makes an important contribution to the field of Civil War studies. General readers will enjoy the memorable portraits of individuals and the convincing re-creation of popular emotions as the war ground toward its close. Scholars will have to take more seriously the abundant evidence of the priority that Lincoln gave to conciliating Southern whites, in order to gain their cooperation in Reconstruction.

Paul D. Escott

A richly detailed, carefully analyzed, and well-written account of the Hampton Roads meeting...An excellent and long-needed addition to Civil War historiography.

Michael B. Ballard

Conroy is a terrific writer who tells the story of one of the war’s least known episodes, the Hampton Roads Peace Conference. But it is the way he describes the people around Lincoln, their interaction with him and each other that makes this such a good read. Great anecdotes—if you’re like me you’ll find yourself pausing every few pages and saying, ‘I never knew that’—my favorite kind of book!

CBS News

Conroy is a terrific writer who tells the story of one of the war’s least known episodes, the Hampton Roads Peace Conference. But it is the way he describes the people around Lincoln, their interaction with him and each other that makes this such a good read. Great anecdotes—if you’re like me you’ll find yourself pausing every few pages and saying, ‘I never knew that’—my favorite kind of book!” —Bob Schieffer, CBS News

“A richly detailed, carefully analyzed, and well-written account of the Hampton Roads meeting.. . . An excellent and long-needed addition to Civil War historiography.” —Michael B. Ballard, author of Grant at Vicksburg: The General and the Siege and A Long Shadow: Jefferson Davis and the Final Days of the Confederacy

“In this massively researched, exceptionally well-written book, James Conroy has illuminated and set in its historical context an episode familiar and yet hitherto not closely examined. By carefully inserting vignettes of the actual fighters into the Big Picture, he gives his account an immediacy and human dimension rarely found in serious historical works. This is, moreover, a page-turner to be read for sheer pleasure.”  —Hiller B. Zobel, author of The Boston Massacre

“Exhaustively researched and engagingly written, James Conroy’s account of the Hampton Roads Conference makes an important contribution to the field of Civil War studies. General readers will enjoy the memorable portraits of individuals and the convincing re-creation of popular emotions as the war ground toward its close. Scholars will have to take more seriously the abundant evidence of the priority that Lincoln gave to conciliating Southern whites, in order to gain their cooperation in Reconstruction.” —Paul D. Escott, Reynolds Professor of History, Wake Forest University, and author of After Secession: Jefferson Davis and the Failure of Confederate Nationalism

“Conroy’s impressively thorough and engaging document details. .. the Hampton Roads Peace Conference, which has never before been the sole subject of a book.. .. [It] illuminates the conflicting, passionate views on the Civil War. .. while giving fascinating insight into the war’s major players.”

—Publishers Weekly

“A brilliant account of the doomed effort to end the Civil War through diplomacy.  In this excellent debut, Boston-based attorney Conroy vividly captures the hope, weariness, despair and anger of the moment and the complexity of feelings on both sides.  The author lays out this tragic and fascinating story in a style that is witty, acerbic and ironic.  A splendid addition to any Civil War library.”

—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

A “sparkling account … An appealing cast of bullies and eccentrics populates every chapter …  Conroy shows that it is possible to write exciting prose with scholarly integrity intact.” – Harold Holzer, Civil War Monitor

From the Publisher