The names are familiar to today's consumers. In homes across America, you can find the products of companies that supplied Union soldiers and sailors. They range from the obvious, such as gunpowder from du Pont and uniforms from Brooks Brothers, to equally necessary items such as soap from Procter & Gamble and condensed milk from Borden’s.

In Lincoln’s Labels, James Schmidt relates the rarely-told stories of these and other companies that played an important role in the Civil War by supplying food, medicine, clothing, weapons, and services as grim as shipping home the bodies of the fallen. The book also explores how the war affected the companies. Each firm has a tale that mirrors the war itself: family and friendships torn asunder, political intrigue, pitched battles, and paths crossed with the book’s namesake, Abraham Lincoln.

As historian Albert Nofi writes, Lincoln’s Labels is about “the many ways which we—Americans of the early twenty-first century—are linked inextricably to the great national epic. It is a good read for anyone: scholar, buff, or ordinary citizen.”

ISBN 978-1889020211
$27.95

Catch author Jim Schmidt at the following speaking engagements.

November 22-23, 2008: Liendo Plantation Civil War Weekend, Hempstead, TX

February 7, 2009: Local Author's Day, Brazos Bookstore, Houston, TX

December 14, 2009: Mahoning Valley Civil War Round Table, Youngstown, OH

Read a review of Lincoln's Labels at Civil War Books and Authors.

Listen to an interview with author Jim Schmidt on Civil War Talk Radio. In the archives, look for the October 3, 2008, broadcast.

Visit the website of Edinborough Press, publishers of Lincoln's Labels to find more good stories, good history, and good authors.