Moonlight - Abraham Lincoln and the Almanac Trial

[Gene C]

Written by John Walsh in 2000. 164 pages including Prologue, Appendix A, B and C,
and 28 pages of Notes. 97 pages of text.

John Walch also wrote The Shadows Rise : Abraham Lincoln and the Ann Rutledge Legend. That was a good book.
This one is not so good.

In his Prolgue, Walsh states on p.2, "...he (Lincoln) did something totally out of character for him, manipulating the truth. The manipulation certainly involved witness tampering and the suppression of evidence, and may have involved the criminal act of suborning perjury"

Walsh is quick to point out "...considering how every moment, every utterance of Lincoln's life has become under scrutiny - no one ever bothered to make a full scale investigation (the present volume is the first book devoted to the subject, a surprise in itself)

A more detailed review of this book by Daniel Stowell titled "Moonlight Offers Little Light" is in the winter 2003 issue of The Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Society
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/262986...=Moonlight
In this thorough review, Stowell concludes
"Unfortunately, Walsh's examination of this case fails to capture the significance of the case for Lincoln or for the study of Lincoln's legal career. His careless use of sources and his determination to accuse Lincoln of suppressing evidence, tampering with witnesses, and suborning perjury force him to make unfounded leaps and to ignore competing evidence, resulting in a work of fiction disguised as history. The people's case against William "Duff" Armstrong awaits more careful treatment.

It also doesn't get the greatest reviews on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Moonlight-Abraham...13&sr=8-1#

I was disappointed in this book. Still, it does have it's good points. There is more background information (some of it conflicting) than you will find in most other books, the print size is very readable, and there are very affordable copies available. I got mine from ABE Books, like new, for only $6.14