Bloody Interesting

Bloody Times:  The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Manhunt of Jefferson Davis by James L. Swanson

Nonfiction

This is the sequel to Swanson' first book, Manhunt.

In school,  we learned about the Civil War and then Reconstruction BUT what happened between those two never came up.  "Why not?" is what I want to know because it was so fascinating.  I distinctly remember memorizing random facts of battles I had no interest in.  Had this book been around then, I think my love for history would have popped up much sooner.  My absolute favorite part was the section on Lincoln's funeral--haunting and sobering.  I don't think I've ever seen photos or read information quite like that.

Just like the first one, the facts in this book are absolutely amazing!  Why isn't this stuff more well-known and thanks, Mr. Swanson, for letting me know this stuff.  With that being said, I didn't like this one quite as well as Manhunt. This one dragged a bit in places and I would really have liked to have known more about the manhunt for J. Davis.  It seems as if more enthusiasm should have been shown for the capture of Davis (and more written about the cross-dressing story!).  This will be a harder read for young people who didn't already have the knowledge about this time period in history. 

P.S.  If you're a teacher, this would be a great Compare/Contrast lesson-comparing the manhunt of J. Davis and A. Lincoln.