Two historians discuss the wartime leadership styles of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. This is the first in a series of sessions from a conference organized by the Virginia Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission. The theme of this year’s gathering was Leadership and Generalship in the Civil War. The event took place at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia.

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William Seale, an independent scholar specializing in writing about and in the restoration of historic American buildings, compared the two White Houses in the nation between 1861 and 1865. He talked about the history and architecture of the White House in Washington, D.C., and the residence of the Confederate president in Richmond, Virginia. Then he detailed the daily lives there of President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis, including the political aspects.

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Author and University of Pennsylvania history professor Stephanie McCurry speaks about her book, “Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South.” She says the South sowed the seeds of its demise in creating a regime that excluded white women and slaves, who together comprised a majority of the population. 

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This week on The Civil War, historians and professors discuss Confederate officer Edward Porter Alexander’s memoir, “Fighting for the Confederacy,” which he wrote in the 1890s about his wartime experiences and observations.

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Author and historian Geoffrey Perret talks about the leadership of Abraham Lincoln, and compares Lincoln’s leadership with that of Ulysses S. Grant, Douglas MacArthur and John F. Kennedy.

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History professor Victoria Ott talks about the views of young, upper-class women of the South toward the North and President Abraham Lincoln. She spoke at the Lincoln Forum Symposium in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

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A team of researchers from The Papers of Abraham Lincoln are at work in the National Archives every day looking for any documents related to the 16th president. American History TV visited the team after one researcher discovered a missing page to President Lincoln's Second Annual Message to Congress.

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On The Civil War, author and history professor Stephen Berry discusses the relationships of President Abraham Lincoln and the Todd Family – the brothers and sisters of first lady Mary Todd Lincoln.  He spoke at November’s Lincoln Forum Symposium in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

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Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation Chairman Harold Holzer discusses Abraham Lincoln and the Freedom of the Press during the Civil War.

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