Question of the Week: 6/6-6/12/16

Question-Header

From Sarah Kay Bierle: If you could meet a civilian from the war era, who would it be? (Remember political leaders often fall into the civilian category too.)



17 Responses to Question of the Week: 6/6-6/12/16

  1. That’s an easy one–Abraham Lincoln. As George Will said in a recent talk: “One of the most luminous lives in American and even world history.”

  2. Frederick Douglas. He would chide the devil out of me for not better supporting equality for all people, and might startle me into activity.

  3. John Brown. (Sarah did say Civil War era, after all.)

    I’d ask him if he really ever believed his raid on Harpers Ferry could succeed in sparking a Southern-wide slave rebellion?

    Or did he figure, from the beginning, it was a suicide mission; that he’d probably wind up a martyr to many Northerners; and that his raid would be one of the reasons the Lower South seceded?

  4. Wow – a lot of good answers here. Lincoln was my first thought, but, trying to be different, I will go with either John Nicolay or John Hay to get their uncensored thoughts on the war, the Lincolns, etc. Picking only one, I’ll say Hay.

  5. That would have to be my great-great-grandmother, who saw her husband and three sons go off to war!

  6. Since Abe is taken and I like would go to dinner with you Meg and Ward Will Lamon but we would ask Allan Pinkerton to join us. I think you’ll find Ward very entertaining! The person besides Abe would be John Wilkes Booth. I have too many “why” questions I would liked answered.

Leave a Reply to Bob RuthCancel reply