The Life and Work of James A. Garfield, Twentieth President of the United States: Embracing an Account of the Scenes and Incidents of His Boyhood; the Struggles of His Youth; the Might of His Early Manhood; His Valor as a Soldier; His Career as a Statesman; His Election to the Presidency; and the Tragic Story of His Death. (Memorial Edition)

Ridpath, John Clark

Edité par P.W. Ziegler & Co., 1881

A propos de cet article

First edition. Edges rubbed, corners a bit exposed, spine faded, hinges weakening. 1881 Half-Leather. x, 11-672 pp. Leather spine and corners, pebbled cloth boards, gilt titles and decorations, marbled edges and endpapers, engraved illustrations throughout, including an image of the Capitol building. James Garfield, twentieth president of the United States, was born in Orange township (now Moreland Hills) in the Western Reserve region of northern Ohio, the son of Abram Garfield and Eliza Ballou, farmers. After his father's death in 1833, he was brought up amid rural poverty by his strong-willed mother. The hardships of those early years would later provide grist for campaign biographers, including Horatio Alger, who transformed Garfield's log-cabin birth and his brief stint as a canal boy into political legend. Conversion, at age eighteen, to the Disciples of Christ gave young Garfield a sense of self-worth; education, especially in classical languages, gave him his first vocation. In 1851 he entered the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (now Hiram College), and three years later he enrolled at Williams College in Massachusetts, receiving his A.B. in 1856. After graduation, Garfield returned to Hiram as professor of ancient languages, and in 1857 he was named president of the tiny school. In 1858 he married Lucretia Rudolph (Lucretia Rudolph Garfield). They had seven children, five of whom survived infancy. He was ordained a minister in the Disciples church and studied law but found himself strongly drawn to politics, even though his church frowned on such "carnal" activity. Elected as a Republican to the Ohio legislature in 1859, he expressed antislavery views in the heated debates during the secession crisis. When that crisis exploded into the Civil War, he helped recruit the Forty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was commissioned colonel of the regiment. His first assignment was in eastern Kentucky to counter a small Confederate force led by Brigadier General Humphrey Marshall. Marshall's invasion was already floundering, and after an inconclusive skirmish at Middle Creek on 10 January 1862, the Confederates withdrew, leaving Garfield in control of eastern Kentucky. It was a modest triumph, but at this stage of the Civil War even small victories were welcome. Garfield was rewarded with considerable acclaim as well as a promotion to brigadier general. In April 1862 he was given command of a brigade, just in time to participate in the last stage of the battle of Shiloh. These military laurels helped boost Garfield's political stock. Although he had a lifelong aversion to "place-seeking" and consistently refused to promote his own advancement, his friends had no such scruples. In September 1862 they engineered his nomination for Congress from Ohio's Nineteenth District. In such a solidly Republican district, nomination was tantamount to election, and Garfield won a lopsided triumph, the first of nine consecutive victories. While waiting for the Thirty-eighth Congress to assemble, Garfield served in the Army of the Cumberland as chief of staff to Major General William S. Rosecrans. In that capacity he planned the skillfully designed Tullahoma campaign of June 1863, which led to the capture of the vital railroad center of Chattanooga, Tennessee. His role in the subsequent Union defeat at Chickamauga on 19 - 20 September 1863 was ambiguous, but Garfield salvaged his military reputation by leaving the retreating Rosecrans to join General George H. Thomas in his memorable stand at Chickamauga, an act that gave him the aura of a hero and helped earn him a major general's stars. In December 1863 Garfield resigned his commission to take his seat in Congress. He initially joined the ranks of Republicans who were impatient with President Abraham Lincoln's seemingly cautious moves toward full emancipation, but after the war Garfield's radicalism moderated. Although in 1868 he supported the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, he f.

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Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The Life and Work of James A. Garfield, Twentieth President of the United States: Embracing an Account of the Scenes and Incidents of His Boyhood; the Struggles of His Youth; the Might of His Early Manhood; His Valor as a Soldier; His Career as a Statesman; His Election to the Presidency; and the Tragic Story of His Death. (Memorial Edition)
• Éditeur: P.W. Ziegler & Co.
• Date de parution: 1881
• Langue: anglais
• Reliure: Half-Leather
• Édition: First Edition.
• État de l'article: Good
• État de la jaquette: No Jacket
• Poids: 39 onces