Killing Abraham Lincoln: Who Turned the Union's Defeat into Victory in the Battle of Five Forks & the Epic of Cincinnatus with Background Notes

By Festus Ogunbitan

This epideictic oratory is dedicated to,Thespis of Icaria, the inventor of acting, the first actor, playwright, director, and producer in the worlds theater.

My project is a classic drama style of political theater started in Greece thousands of years ago by Thespis of Icaria on the stage for demonstrating the political views of the Greek civilization. This revolution was passed on to the Romans in the Basilica and Supreme Court where Roman politicians communicate their political views to fellow Romans and Countrymen. Later, the revolution surfaced in England when John Milton, Christopher Marlow, and William Shakespeare started the classic British theater. In the contemporary period, America has carried on this tradition on the Senate Floor, and the House of RepresentativesCongress. The country has also generated talk show hosts, comedians, and moviemakers to carry on this tradition of political theater.

I came across this idea while studying Masters of Arts in Liberal Arts at Sacramento State University in Sacramento California. Since then, I have been adapting history of the Greeks, Romans, Americans and other nations, into Greek style epideictic drama, distinctively reflecting the identities and political views of each nation through classic drama.

Hoping to permanently retell the history of America, I have decided to use Aristotles theory of catharsis to rewrite Americas history through the locus of all presidents to have a permanent knowledge of Americas history. All the plays shall incorporate the principles of American politics, focusing on the values and virtues of the Conservatives and the Liberals.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 17, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469747149

Festus Ogunbitan

Festus Ogunbitan was born in Ibadan, Nigeria to Elder and Mrs. Oguniyi Ogunbitan of Temidayo Printing Press. He immigrated to United States and attended Sacramento State University where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in English Language. He later changed to Liberal Arts department and obtained a master’s degree in Liberal Arts. It was in Liberal Arts department that Festus got interested in Roman and Greek religions because their values and virtues are well interpreted and advanced into science and technology for producing uncountable goods and services for all mankind to enjoy. As a result of this, Festus wrote Cincinnatus and A Tale on Homer’s Odyssey, and he has written several titles on European and American literatures.

Book preview

Contents

Introduction

About the Author

Epic No.1

Plot construction

Killing Abraham Lincoln

Canto 1 Scene 1

Canto 1 Scene 2

Canto 1 Scene 3

Canto 2 Scene 1

Canto 2 Scene 2

Canto 2 Scene 3

Canto 3 Scene 1

Canto 3 Scene 2

Canto 3 Scene 3

Canto 4 Scene 1

Canto 4 Scene 2

Canto 4 Scene 3

Works Cited

Play No. 2

Preamble to the battle of Mount Algidus

Plot of Cincinnatus as told by Titus Livy in his History of early Rome

Cincinnatus Turns a Roman Defeat into Victory in the Battle of Mount Algidus

Canto 1 Scene 1

Canto 1 Scene 2

Canto 1 Scene 3

Canto 2 Scene 1

Canto 2 Scene 2

Canto 2 Scene 3

Canto 3 Scene 1

Canto 3 Scene 2

Canto 3 Scene 3

Background Information On Cincinnatus

458 B.C.E.

INTRODUCTION

Titus Livy’s Early Years in Patavium

How the Augustan period influenced Livy’s History

Livy’s use of Aristotle’s theory of catharsis and purification of the soul

Livy’s dramatic technique of writing using the pentad division of account

Character sketches of the actors of Roman Political Theater

Functions of the actors of Roman Political Theater

Dramatic adaptation of Cincinnatus

Objectives of the play, and how I achieved them.

Conclusion

BIBLIOGRAPHY

This epic is dedicated to

Thespis of Icaria

The inventor of acting, the first actor, playwright, director, and producer in the world’s theater

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A Theater

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Abraham Lincoln & Quinctius Cincinnatus

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Abraham Lincoln Turned

His Nation’s Defeat into Victory in the Battle of Five Forks.

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Quinctius Cincinnatus Turned

a Roman Defeat into Victory in the Battle of Mount Algidus

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Introduction

My motivation to write Greek style epideictic oratory plays for all United States’ presidents is to retell the great history of this country through reciprocity method of story telling. Modern literature regards telling stories through epic heroes as backward and anachronistic; but there is something that the society can learn through the locus of these heroes. Playwrights and poets through the centuries seemed not to have narrated the great history of this country for permanence in our memory as Sophocles, Aristophanes, William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlow and many other great writers narrated the great history of Greece and England on the theaters of all schools and colleges through epideictic oratory. I have decided to start this project with the great contribution, which President Abraham Lincoln achieved for the Union of America. According to Prof. Athanassakis Apostolos in his lecture to Hellenistic Society at Sacramento State University in 2008, he mentioned that modern literature, and contemporary historians have failed to retell the story of our great heritage for permanence; he warned that if care is not taken to find the right language and literature (epideictic rhetoric) to retell history, ‘our children will forget.’

David Starkey, a British Historian, also commented on how contemporary culture has caused disappearance of articulate language and literature in the British society; but he mistakenly accredited the phenomenon to the impact of African American Hip Hop lyrics when he said, "‘It is a Jamaican patois that has intruded in England, which is why so many of us have this sense that we are literally living in a foreign country.¹

Charlene Spretnak, in Resurgence of the Real, also referred to the disappearance of educative rhetoric in our schools and colleges, and said, Learning, especially at the university level, is strictly divided into departments, which have little interaction. One of the ‘compartments, spiritual and religious life, is devalued in modernity because modern history celebrates the escape from religion and other ‘superstitions.’ In the modern era, institutionalized religions have downplayed spiritual connectedness with creation, instead, they focus on rationalist application of morals and ethics."²

Fred D’Aguiar, a literary critic also pointed out from Prof. Everest Percival’s Erasure that un-educative rhetoric is proliferated in our schools to erase critical thinking in students through the help of publishing industries that promote only certain kinds of literature—those with vague speeches and ghetto settings, at the expense of intelligent writers like the Monk personality in Erasure. Monk happens to be black but he cannot get published because he writes the wrong kind of books which contain classical rhetoric that could project critical thinking for articulate college composition in students.

Modern literature has misled us to believe that College of Liberal Arts, which is the beginning of all departments in all our colleges and universities is no longer relevant in twenty first century. As a result, the foundation of creativity and industrial growth, which the great scholars of deposed College of Liberal Arts built for thousands of years of earth’s growth, has been wrongly accredited to the success of plain and dry modern literature that contains no philosophy and psychology. In less than one hundred years, the rich inheritance from the College of Liberal Arts will soon dry up in our children, and the earth may fall into unfathomable problem, as students are void of the high energy of reasoning through the proliferation and publication of vague novels for our schools and colleges.

From my high school days, I have been opened to British history through Shakespeare’s plays; when I reached the University, I started to further appreciate the British history through the great works, which this playwright did for Europe by rewriting European history with philosophical poetry that consciously controls the minds of its readers.

Examples of other literatures that consciously control the minds of its readers are: Iliad, The Odyssey, Livy’s Pentads, Bible, Taoist Books, Book of the Dead, Bhagavad Gita, Vedic Books, and I Have a Dream; these writers have used epideictic oratory style of writing to make the history and struggle of their various nations very permanent in our memory, and even to control the souls of most readers to go to the Shrine, Church, and Temple.

Hoping to permanently retell the history of America, I have decided to use Aristotle’s theory of catharsis to rewrite America’s history through the locus of all presidents, or the first family—reciprocity—to have a permanent knowledge of America’s history. All the plays shall incorporate the principles of American politics, focusing on the values and virtues of the Conservatives and the Liberals.

About the Author

Festus Ogunbitan obtained an associate degree in Journalism from Sacramento City College, Sacramento California. He also obtained a bachelors degree in English Language, and a masters degree in Liberal Arts from Sacramento State University. During his Liberal Arts Master’s program, he adapted the history of how Cincinnatus turned a Roman defeat into victory in the battle of Mount Algidus, and the return of Odysseus from the battle of Troy to his palace in Ithaca. These two plays are tilted, Cincinnatus, and A Tale on Homer’s Odyssey. It is from here that he continued to adapt more stories into epideictic oratory plays for education and entertainment. Titles of works done are:

1, Creation Story of the Yorubas.

2, Exodus of Sixteen Sons of Oduduwa.

3, Akhenaton Turns Egypt to the Sun God, 1379-1362 B.C.E.

4, A Tale on Homer’s Odyssey.

5, Cincinnatus, Rome 456 B.C.E.

6, Trial of John Shakespeare, Father of William Shakespeare 1577 A.D.

7, Mystifying Revelation at Nero’s Birth, Oracle of Apollo Predicts His Fate, Rome 70 A.D.

8, I Have to Dream: Early Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 1929-1955 A.D.

All the above titles are also available in one anthology, Lyric Poems From Around the World: Epic Thinks Beyond Feelings.

Other titles are:

9, Lyric Poems on Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955.

10, Killing Abraham Lincoln who turned his nation’s defeat into victory.

All these books are available at Amazon.com., Xlibris com., IUniverse.com., Borders, and Barnes & Nobles.

Epic No.1

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Killing Abraham Lincoln

Who turned his nation’s defeat into victory

Plot construction

Canto 1 Scene 1

General Ulysses Grant is about to arrive at the White House to brief President Abraham Lincoln about the progress of the Civil War. Meanwhile, President Lincoln holds a meeting in the Oval Office with Vice President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Secretary of State William Seward, and a Senator.

Canto 1 Scene 2

General Ulysses Grant finally arrives at the White House to brief President Lincoln about the progress of American Civil War. But there is no progress as Gen Grant experienced a bloody outcome in the Battle of the Wilderness, and the Battle of Cold Harbor.

Canto 1 Scene 3

The meeting ends as General Grant and his entourage leave for the warfront, and Lincoln is to join later. At the Union’s campground in Petersburg Virginia, soldiers mobilize for a new strategy to encounter the Confederates Army near a valley.

Canto 2 Scene 1

At the battlefield in Virginia, Union Soldiers mobilize for a fresh battle with the Confederates Army. In the camp of the generals, General Grant, General Philip Sheridan, and General William Sherman are eating and drinking wine of the officers’ mess for relaxation. One of the bodyguards, having noticed the herald that accompanies President Lincoln’s arrival, comes in to alert the generals that the president approaches.

Canto 2 Scene 2

It is about half hour as the generals continue to discuss among each other, cracking jokes, drinking wine, and eating bread and cakes of the officers’ mess, another alarum sounds from the camp, and Captain Holmes receives the herald that the president has finally arrived. In a duel with Confederate General Jubal Early at Washington D.C., Lincoln observes the combat from an exposed position as bullets fly around him. ³

Canto 2 Scene 3

President Lincoln’s entourage arrives at the City of Petersburg, and he is welcome by General Grant, and the Union Army. Lincoln also "visits the vanquished Confederate capital; as he walks through the city, the white southerners welcome him with stone-faces, while the African Americans greet him with cheers and military lyrics, and call him a hero.

Canto 3 Scene 1

After Lincoln’s speech to the Southerners, Wilkes Booth and his fellow conspirators gather inside a room, and plan to forestall the victory claimed by the North. Their first plan is to kidnap the president in exchange for the release of the Confederates’ prisoners. Later, they decide to assassinate President Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Stewart.

Canto 3 Scene 2

In the White House in Washington D.C., President Lincoln sleeps and has a horrible dream about the plan of the conspirators. He sees that he is dead, and people are mourning him in the East Room. In the background, he hears echoes of ghost songs as he moves about the White House looking for answers to the mystery.

Canto 3 Scene 3

After this mysterious dream, there comes a large burst of grieve from the crowd of mourners, and Lincoln wakes up on his bed. His wife, Mary Todd Lincoln is scared and asks him questions about his nightmare. After this, Lincoln and his wife sleep again for the remaining part of the night

Canto 4 Scene 1

The next day at the home of Wilkes Booth, the conspirators meet again to bring intelligence reports about the target position of those to be assassinated on April 14th, 1865 on a Good Friday.

Canto 4 Scene 2

The conspirators disperse, and set for their respective targets. On this day, the stage is set for the presentation of Our American Cousin, a popular American play. People start to arrive at the theater, and not long, the hall is filled with a crowd of spectators who are fans of the popular play. The president and his wife arrive with the company of Major Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris. Later, Wilkes Booth also arrives, and he takes a close look at his target before going to his seat in preparation for his mission.

Canto 4 Scene 3

Lt. John Parker, Lincoln’s body gourd, takes permission from the president to go to the Star Saloon next door at Ford’s Theater to find something to eat. Meanwhile, Booth has been looking at the president on and off; as he sees Parker leaves his station for somewhere else, he speaks to himself ‘go and seize the opportunity to sneak over to the president’s seat and shoot him.’ Fortunately for him, the play is running into halfway through Act III, Scene 2, the character of Asa Trenchard, playing that night by Harry Hawk, utters a line, which is one of the play’s funniest to Mrs. Mountchessington: Don’t know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal—you sockdologizing old man-trap".⁴ At this time, the audience gets into laughter more than before. Booths quietly calculates these chances and pulls the trigger.

Killing Abraham Lincoln

Who turned his nation’s defeat into victory

CHARACTERS IN THE EPIC

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Commander-in-Chief, and 16th President of United States.

MARY TODD LINCOLN, Wife of Abraham Lincoln.

ANDREW JOHNSON, Vice President of United States.

EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

SENATOR, a member of Lincoln’s administration.

GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT, Commander of the Union Army.

GENERAL PHILIP SHERIDAN, Commander of the Union Army.

GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN, Commander of the Union Army.

GENERAL ROBERT LEE, Commander of the Confederate Army

CAPTAIN OLIVER WENDEL HOLMES, Camp Commandant of the Union Army.

HENRY RATHBONE, Army Major who tries to defend President Lincoln.

CLARA HARRIS, Fiancé of Major Henry Rathbone.

JOHN PARKER, Bodyguard to President Lincoln.

GATEMAN, welcomes the president, his wife, and members of his entourage.

JOHN WILKES BOOTH, Assassinates President Lincoln.

GEORGE ATZERODT, to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson in his hotel.

LEWIS POWELL, to attack Secretary of State William Stewart in his home.

SAMUEL ARNOLD, conspirator.

MICHAEL O’LAUGHLEN, conspirator.

JOHN SURRATT, conspirator.

DAVID HEROLD, conspirator.

Canto 1 Scene 1

General Ulysses Grant is about to arrive at the White House to brief President Abraham Lincoln about the progress of the Civil War. Meanwhile, President Lincoln holds a meeting in the Oval Office with Vice President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Secretary of State William Seward, and a Senator.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

talking to members of his administration in the White House Oval Office before General Grant arrives for war briefing.

Of wars and peace, in the world of ours, of Gods and humans, for destiny of mankind. Of mortals and immortals who die and survive with the fate of the days. So let it be with the struggle of the Union in this battle of the Titanic. The tension of war cannot behold its threat on us, as it tries the skill of our soldiers, for the well being of our country in the fight for freedom, justice, liberty and equality for all people.

Pauses and gets a round of applause from members of his administration.

To the souls of our armed forces who died in the rugged hills of battle. To the hearts of the Confederates, who persist to continue with rage of dread upon our liberty and justice. God in his higher forces, greater than our armed forces could have either saved or destroyed the union without a human contest. Yet the contest has begun, and having begun, God could give the final victory to either side any day.⁵

SECRETARY OF WAR

Mr. President, thou arth spoken this metaphor from a Christian’s point of view. Of the ages of mankind on earth, acknowledge me not a union of humankind with different choices who unite without a human contest as each side desires absolute triumph over the other. John Milton indicated to us in Paradise Lost that heaven itself had to go into contest when Lucifer the Choirmaster of the Morning Star Band, and his warring angels declared war on God. And ‘war broke out in heaven’ between Michael and Lucifer. Then follows the peace of Celestial Matters for we Terrestrial Matters as the Choirmaster and his warring Angels were defeated and evicted from heaven. Thus is the foundation of the knowledge that we know on earth today through the Christian Bible. Therefore, we should not let the heat of causalities in this war arouse us to tremble upon the heat of war as our soldiers fall and die by the mortals of the enemy Confederates.

VICE PRESIDENT

Accomplice arth thou in thought with the ideal of a soldier, but to be considerate in the quest of His