Lincoln's Code

This acclaimed, award-winning book is a “sweeping history” ( The New York Times Book Review ) of the code of laws of war for American armies, set forth by Abraham Lincoln in the midst of the Civil War. In the closing days of 1862, just three weeks before Emancipation, the administration of Abraham Lincoln commissioned a code setting forth the laws of war for US armies. It announced standards of conduct in wartime—concerning torture, prisoners of war, civilians, spies, and slaves—that shaped the