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    Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War
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    Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War
    Unavailable
    Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War
    Ebook333 pages4 hours

    Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War

    By Tom Wheeler

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    About this ebook

    The Civil War was the first "modern war." Because of the rapid changes in American society, Abraham Lincoln became president of a divided United States during a period of technological and social revolution. Among the many modern marvels that gave the North an advantage was the telegraph, which Lincoln used to stay connected to the forces in the field in almost real time.

    No leader in history had ever possessed such a powerful tool to gain control over a fractious situation. An eager student of technology, Lincoln (the only president to hold a patent) had to learn to use the power of electronic messages. Without precedent to guide him, Lincoln began by reading the telegraph traffic among his generals. Then he used the telegraph to supplement his preferred form of communication—meetings and letters. He did not replace those face-to-face interactions. Through this experience, Lincoln crafted the best way to guide, reprimand, praise, reward, and encourage his commanders in the field.

    Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails tells a big story within a small compass. By paying close attention to Lincoln's "lightning messages," we see a great leader adapt to a new medium. No reader of this work of history will be able to miss the contemporary parallels. Watching Lincoln carefully word his messages—and follow up on those words with the right actions—offers a striking example for those who spend their days tapping out notes on computers and BlackBerrys.

    An elegant work of history, Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails is an instructive example of timeless leadership lessons.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061749834
    Author

    Tom Wheeler

    Tom Wheeler has a long track record of building organizations to develop commercial software, including products for financial services and contact centers. He has built, sold and been a senior manager in a variety of different types of companies, including international conglomerates and garage-sized start ups. He first created the Six Week Solution back in the 1980’s and has been fine-tuning it since.

    Read more from Tom Wheeler

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    Reviews for Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails

    4/5

    33 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A very enjoyable discussion of Lincoln as an early adopter of the telegraph. The author discusses Lincoln's ongoing problems with incompetent generals, in light of his use of the telegraph as a communication and management tool. No President before Lincoln had the ability to monitor and direct American armies in the field - or had to deal with a press corps emboldened by same-day reporting of the news.
    • 4/5
      This was a very interesting trip through the American Civil War with a close focus point of how the use of the telegraph gave Abraham Lincoln the ability both to communicate with far flung generals and gather information about unfolding events in real time. More importantly, due to how new telegraph technology was, Lincoln was the first head of state to have that ability.This book was first published in 2005, and Wheeler makes effective comparison, as book's title suggests, between the advent of the telegraph and email, making a credible case that the telegraph was actually the much more revolutionary development. Wheeler avers early on that the Congress members of the early 1960s were much more able to conceptualize (and therefore vote funding for) sending a man to the moon that those of the early 1850s were to wrap their brains around the concept of sending electronic pulses long distance across wires.We see through Lincoln's telegraphs, all of which are on archive, the poor quality of the Federal commanders over the early years of the war, and Lincoln's frustrations with their dithering and reluctance to go on the offensive. Eventually, Lincoln, who was also receiving telegraphs from post commanders and so knew where enemy forces were and which way they were going, became less and less reluctant to provide strategic recommendations.Wheeler makes the point that Lincoln's gradual ability to fully master this new communication tool and its functions is one more indication of the president's remarkable character and intelligence. He was learning these things on the fly with--because the technology was so new--no blueprint to follow and nobody to advise him as he learned.Wheeler starts with a clear and to-the-point background about the advent of the telegraph. He makes the point that of the three technological advances that changed the nature of warfare as the Civil War progressed--the rifle bored musket, the proliferation of the railroad and the telegraph system--the South largely rejected the last two of those, the railroad and the telegraph, because they saw these inventions as promoting centralized authority over the regional identities and states' rights philosophy that they favored and were will to fight for. (Ironically, Wheeler identifies the Confederate victory at the first Battle of Bull Run as being made possible by the first ever transport of troops directly to a battle by rail.)I found this book to be very well organized, clearly written and sharply edited, and quite interesting. I certainly don't consider myself any sort of an expert on the Civil War, but I have read quite a few histories of the period. It was nice to read a book that provided me a previously unrealized perspective and new insights.
    • 4/5
      This was an entirely different lens through which to look at one of our most famous presidents. An enjoyable read concerning Lincoln's effective use of "technology" to not only win the civil war with information but also communicate with his wife as well.
    • 4/5
      When Lincoln became president, the telegraph was still a very new technology. The civil war would be the first time this tech would be used to radically connect generals to the government in the field. The South had neglected to modernize and the telegraph was just one of many weapons in the arsenal of the North. Lincoln's early adoption would be integral to his success and would contribute a lot to the overall war effort.A fascinating history about emerging technology and its effect on warfare.
    • 4/5
      This book provided an interesting insight into the relationships between Abraham Lincoln and his generals, made possible by the telegraph. This instrument changed the way war was fought and leaders lead. It was the beginning of war time information made instantly available to the political leaders and the public as well as to the commanders directing and fighting the battles.
    • 5/5
      This is a fascinating historical tidbit as Tom Wheeler talks about President Abraham Lincoln's use of the latest technology - the telegraph - during the American Civil War. While not an unknown subject to historians, Wheeler retells the story in a readable way and yet also brings out some new historical insights as he recounts how Lincoln's use of the telegraph in new and innovative ways that set out new models of the relationship between a President and his military commanders and foreshadowed our daily use today of the internet and of email. Although written very much as a popular history, the author's work stands equally well as a work of scholarly history supported by extensive endnotes and a good bibliography. The result of his effort is a history of interest to the general reader and yet also useful to the historian.