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    I Held Lincoln
    A Union Sailor's Journey Home

    Richard E. Quest (Author)

    9781640124516

    Paperback / softback, published 1 June 2021

    224 pages, 8 photographs, 7 illustrations, 2 maps
    22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.334 kg

    Lt. Benjamin Loring (1824–1902) lived the life of an everyman Civil War sailor. He commanded no armies and devised no grand strategies. Loring was a sailor who just wanted to return home, where the biggest story of his life awaited him.

    Covering almost a year of Loring’s service, I Held Lincoln describes the lieutenant’s command of the gunboat USS Wave, the Battle of Calcasieu Pass, the surrender of his ship, and his capture by the Confederates. He was incarcerated in Camp Groce, a deadly Confederate prison where he endured horrific conditions and abuse. Loring attempted to escape, evading capture for ten days behind enemy lines, only to be recaptured just a few miles from freedom. After an arduous second escape, he finally reached the safety of Union lines and gained his freedom.

    On the night of April 14, 1865, Loring attended Ford’s Theater and witnessed one of the single most tragic events in American history: the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. After the shot rang out, Loring climbed into the presidential box and assisted the dying president, helping to carry him across the street to the Peterson House. Using Loring’s recently discovered private journal, Richard E. Quest tells this astonishing now-recovered story, giving insight into a little-known Confederate prison camp during the last days of the Civil War and providing much-deserved recognition to a man whose journey was nearly lost to American history.
     

    List of Illustrations
    Preface: The Loring Project
    Acknowledgments
    Author’
    s Note
    1. Getting in the Fight
    2. The Wave
    3. A Seasick Wave
    4. No Coal
    5. The Enemy Is Close By
    6. A Precious Rose
    7. Chicken Feed
    8. Prison
    9. Escape!
    10. Through the Wall
    11. On the Outside
    12. Plantations
    13. Dog Ranch
    14. De Doe Is Dead?!
    15. The Hunter
    16. Interrogation
    17. A Night Drive
    18. A Confederate Bastille
    19. Anderson Grimes County Jail
    20. The Old Pen Again
    21. Deadliest Killer
    22. Making the Best of It
    23. The Swamp
    24. Tied Up
    25. The Power of the Pen(cil) 
    26. Navigating by the Wind
    27. Parched Corn
    28. Over the River and through the Woods
    29. Bear Swamp
    30. Confederate Potatoes
    31. Goodbye, Texas
    32. Home Guard and Yankee Prisoners
    33. Old Friends?
    34. Your Passes or Your Life!
    35. Where Is My Penknife?
    36. The Last Toenail
    37. A Burned Bridge
    38. Chimneys on the Horizon
    39. Lincoln Coffee and a Civilized Bed
    40. The Surprise
    41. Washington Navy Yard
    42. I Held Lincoln
    Afterword
    Notes
    Bibliography
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