Walter Stahr

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Stanton: Lincoln’s War Secretary, tells the story of Abraham Lincoln’s indispensable Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, the man the president entrusted with raising the army that preserved the Union.
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“This highly readable biography, based on thorough research in original sources, effectively shows that Seward deserves more fame as a patriot-statesman than he has traditionally enjoyed.”

— The Wall Street Journal
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Image by Emanuel Leutze (d. 1868), Public Domain
“Stahr has succeeded splendidly in his aim of recovering the reputation of John Jay as a major founder. His biography is a reliable and clearly written account [and] makes a persuasive case for including Jay among the first rank of Revolutionary leaders.”

— Gordon S. Wood in The New York Review of Books
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About Walter Stahr

Walter Stahr was born in Massachusetts and grew up in Southern California. For twenty-five years, he worked as a lawyer, both in Washington and the Far East, both in government and private practice. He was working as a lawyer while researching and writing his first book, a biography of John Jay, published in 2005.
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Latest Blog Entry…

Seward Prize; Chase Contract

I learned yesterday that my Stanton biography has won the Seward prize for Civil War biography. This is an annual award, presented by the Civil War Forum of Metropolitan New York, for the best biography of a Civil War figure. I am the first person, I am told, to win this award twice, first for my … READ MORE

About Stanton

Of the crucial men close to President Lincoln, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (1814–1869) was the most powerful and controversial. Stanton raised, armed, and supervised the army of a million men who won the Civil War. He organized the war effort. He directed military movements from his telegraph office, where Lincoln literally hung out with him.
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