Dr. George C. Rable

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - A University of Alabama history professor’s acclaimed book about the worst military defeat that Abraham Lincoln’s Union armies suffered during the Civil War has won the 13th annual Lincoln Prize.

Dr. George C. Rable, the Charles G. Summersell Professor of Southern History at UA, won first prize and $20,000 for “Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!” (University of North Carolina Press), a majestic account of the military, political, and social impact of that epochal battle. Announcement of the Lincoln Prize winners for the best works of 2002 was made today by Gettysburg College, which administers the awards.

“Great military writing has entered a bold new era-requiring an understanding of the roles not only of soldiers and their officers, but of politics, diplomacy, religion, and more; civilians black and white, male and female, people who were severely tested by gigantic encounters,” said Dr. Gabor Boritt, director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College. “George Rable has created a bold book,” Boritt said, “and has elevated a neglected battle into the realm of importance.”

The Lincoln Prize was founded and is endowed by business leaders Richard Gilder and Lewis Lehrman, with the support of others. Boritt worked with Gilder and Lehrman in establishing the prize.

Rable’s book was chosen from among 144 books considered for the prize. This year marks the first time that the prestigious Lincoln Prize for the best book on Lincoln and the Civil War era has gone to a volume about a battle. The December 1862 Union disaster at Fredericksburg, Va. was called “a black day in the calendar of the Republic” by the New York Times and prompted Lincoln himself to lament: “We are now on the brink of destruction. It appears to me the Almighty himself is against us, and I can hardly see a ray of hope.” The two armies suffered nearly 18,000 casualties in the one-day fight.

Despite the defeat, and the enormous political pressure that followed, Lincoln went on to issue the Emancipation Proclamation three weeks after the battle. Rable’s account of Fredericksburg and its history-altering aftermath considers “the mundane, the horrific, and the transcendent” in freshly demonstrating its significance, according to a statement issued by the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College.

“No battle more severely tested the will of Lincoln and the Union than Fredericksburg, and no book about this engagement more ably and originally deals with the soldiers’ courage and suffering, and their President’s resolve and commitment to freedom and Union, than George Rable’s superb study of the battle,” according to the Gettysburg College statement, announcing the prize. “It is a privilege for us to recognize this book, and to remind modern Americans of the sacrifices that were made in the 19th century to preserve the nation which we revere in the 21st.”

Gilder and Lehrman and the Institute that carries their name has amassed one of the nation’s great private collections of American historical manuscripts. The institute devotes itself to education by supporting magnet schools, teacher education, curriculum development, exhibitions, and publications.

John Stauffer won second place for “The Black Hearts of Men: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race” (Harvard University Press) and Michael W. Fitzgerald earned honorable mention for “Urban Emancipation: Popular Politics in Reconstruction Mobile, 1890-1890” (Louisiana State University Press).

In addition, a special “E-Lincoln Prize” was bestowed on Harpweek.com’s web site, “Lincoln and the Civil War.com,” founded by John Adler.

A three-member jury recommended the 2003 winners of the book awards: Lincoln Prize alumnus William C. Harris of North Carolina State University in Raleigh,
chairman; Lesley Gordon of the University of Akron; and Thavolia Glymph of Duke University. Final selections were made by the Board of Trustees of the Prize.

The Lincoln Prizes are announced, by tradition, on Lincoln’s birthday. They will be formally presented to the winners on April 15, at a banquet at Gettysburg College. First place is accompanied by a bronze replica of Augustus Saint-Gauden’s life-size bust, “Lincoln the Man.”

Rable joined the UA faculty in 1998. He earned his doctoral and master’s degrees from Louisiana State University and his bachelor’s from Bluffton College. His previous books include “The Confederate Republic: A Revolution against Politics,” “Civil Wars: Women and the Crisis of Southern Nationalism” and “But There Was No Peace: The Role of Violence in the Politics of Reconstruction.” Rable is currently researching the role of religion in the Civil War.