Lincoln and the Tools of War

Lincoln and the Tools of War, first published in 1956, is the masterful account by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Robert V. Bruce (1923-2008) of Abraham Lincoln's efforts to equip the Union Army during the Civil War. Fascinated by mechanical gadgetry and technology, Lincoln introduced breechloaders and machine guns into warfare and promoted the use of incendiary weapons, ironclad warships, breech-loading cannons, and aerial reconnaissance. Author Bruce chronicles the President's struggle against a bureaucracy reluctant and slow to change, and his dealings with a stream of inventors, ordinance experts, government officials, military officers, and lobbyists to start a new era of weapons and warfare. Illustrated with prints from the period.