Juries in Lincoln's day and Civil War music covered in 2 new books

[March 28, 2012]  SPRINGFIELD -- Researchers with The Papers of Abraham Lincoln have recently published books that shed new light on the Lincoln-era judicial system and the music that inspired the nation during the Civil War.

Stacy Pratt McDermott's new book, "The Jury in Lincoln's America," demonstrates how central the law was for people who lived in Abraham Lincoln's America. McDermott draws from a rich collection of legal records, docket books, county histories and surviving newspapers to reveal the enormous power jurors wielded over the litigants and to show the character of their communities.

According to the 1860 census, Springfield and Sangamon County comprised an ethnically and racially diverse population of settlers from Northern and Southern states, representing both urban and rural mid-19th-century America. It was in these counties that Lincoln developed his law practice, handling more than 5,200 cases in a legal career that spanned nearly 25 years.

McDermott is assistant director and associate editor of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln and co-editor of "The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases and The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln."

Christian M. McWhirter's "Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War" analyzes the many ways music influenced both blacks and whites, North and South, during the years surrounding the Civil War.

Music was everywhere during the Civil War. Tunes could be heard ringing out from parlor pianos, thundering at political rallies and setting the rhythms of military and domestic life. With literacy still limited, music was an important vehicle for communicating ideas about the war, and it had a lasting impact in the decades that followed. McWhirter gauges the popularity of the most prominent songs and examines how Americans, including Lincoln, used them. The author returns music to its central place in American life during the nation's greatest crisis.

McWhirter is an assistant editor with The Papers of Abraham Lincoln, working at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

Daniel W. Stowell, director and editor of the Lincoln papers project, said of his colleagues' work: "These new volumes demonstrate the range and depth of talent the project employs. McDermott's and McWhirter's volumes are important contributions to the study of the era in which Lincoln lived, and their research enhances their ability to understand and contextualize the wide assortment of documents we are editing in the Papers of Abraham Lincoln."

The Papers of Abraham Lincoln is a long-term documentary editing project dedicated to identifying, imaging, transcribing, annotating and publishing all documents written by or to Abraham Lincoln during his lifetime (1809-1865). The project is administered through the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, and is co-sponsored by the Center for State Policy and Leadership at the University of Illinois Springfield and by the Abraham Lincoln Association.

[Text from file received from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency]