The Introduction

In Waldo Glover's book, he outlines the reasons for William Scott's court martial and pardon by Lincoln. The story behind the "Sleeping Sentinel",was one of the first war stories to come out of the Civil War. The incident made headlines in the New York Times, the Boston Herald, and the Burlington Free Press.

The book, "Lincoln and the Sleeping Sentinel" was written in 1936 and published by the Vermont Historical Society.

Today, the story of the Sleeping Sentinel is largely forgotten. The Civil War is beyond the memory of most Americans and has been replaced by the more recent horrors of WWII, Vietnam and now Iraq and Afghanistan.

But in 1926, the Boston Herald published an op-ed piece that viewed the story of William Scott as myth more than fact. The case was closed. Lincoln most probably had no knowledge or had no official contact with the young soldier from Groton, VT.

Mr. Glover, in his book on the Sleeping Sentinel begins his book by trying to find the truth behind the story and separate it from the romanticized chaff that still existed at that time. In the following chapters, Mr. Glover explores the story of William Scott.