Q&A with Scott Ellsworth

 

Scott Ellsworth is the author of the new book Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America. His other books include The Ground Breaking. He teaches at the University of Michigan, and he lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Midnight on the Potomac?

 

A: There were a few things at work here, but prominent among them was the desire to remind today's readers that there are heroes and heroines in our past that we can draw strength and inspiration from. In our current, hyper-divided era, so many of our traditions and liberties are under attack that it sometimes feels overwhelming.  

 

But we went through this once before, during the Civil War era, and we can learn from how a remarkable generation of loyal Americans--men and women, soldiers and civilians, Black and white, native-born and immigrant--defeated the Confederacy, destroyed slavery, and gave our country a new chance to more fully live up to its founding ideals. 

 

They saved their country in their time. And if we work together, we can as well.

 

Q: The writer Gilbert King said of the book, “Capturing both the urgency and humanity of the Civil War’s final year, Ellsworth offers a riveting account of courage, sacrifice, and rebirth—the story of how America nearly lost itself—and how it fought to become whole again.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Not surprisingly, I love it.  Of course, practically anything that Gilbert King says is good by me.

 

Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: One of the great benefits of teaching at the University of Michigan is the fact that I could hit the second largest university library in America with a baseball thrown from my office window. They have practically everything, with a vast collection of Civil War books, including memoirs and regimental histories, which were of great value. 

 

But I also benefited from the works of amateur historians and Civil War enthusiasts, some of whom spend decades of their lives studying this or that aspect of the war. Their work was equally compelling.

 

Q: Of the various characters you write about in the book, are there some you find especially compelling?

 

A: There were so many!  

 

The biggest surprise was John Wilkes Booth, who was not the second-rate actor living in the shadow of his far more famous father and brother. Rather, Booth was a genuine superstar of the American stage, who was hailed by critics as a genius and who regularly sold out theatres across the country. And no lone wolf, Booth had multiple contacts with the Confederate Secret Service.

 

Lincoln, of course, is always compelling. But I was also taken by the genius of Sherman, the steadfastness of Louisa May Alcott, and early African American civil rights activists such as Elizabeth Keckley and Henry Highland Garnett.

 

Lastly, discovering the incredible wartime journalism of Lois Adams, who was the Washington correspondent for a Detroit newspaper, was transformative. She is one of the truly great writers of the war.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Trying to figure out what the topic of my next book should be! If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to reach out to me at scottell@umich.edu.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: To learn more about me and my work, go to scottellsworthauthor.com. And, oh yes, I hope that you like Midnight on the Potomac. It was an honor to write it.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Scott Ellsworth.