Mark A. Neels is a History Teacher at Chaminade College Preparatory School. This interview is based on his new book, Lincoln’s Conservative Advisor: Attorney General Edward Bates (Southern Illinois University Press, 2024).
JF: What led you to write Lincoln’s Conservative Advisor?
MN: I was inspired in two key ways. First, by reading Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals, which explores the role of Lincoln’s cabinet in his decision-making. While Edward Bates is featured in the book, I thought he remained somewhat enigmatic and wanted to learn more about this man from my hometown of St. Louis. Second, I was struck by the fact that only one full-length biography had ever been written about Bates—and that was over sixty years ago. This inspired me to delve deeper, writing a master’s thesis and later a doctoral dissertation on Bates’s conservative political philosophy. In 2015, while working at the Papers of Abraham Lincoln, I met Sylvia Frank Rodrigue at SIU Press, and the rest, as they say, is history.
JF: In 2 sentences, what is the argument of Lincoln’s Conservative Advisor?
MN: Lincoln’s Conservative Advisor tells the story of Edward Bates—a founding father of Missouri and a prominent leader in Whig politics during the mid-nineteenth century. Selected by Abraham Lincoln to serve as Attorney General during the Civil War, Bates sought to shape the course of events by applying his conservative principles to the administration’s major decisions.
JF: Why do we need to read Lincoln’s Conservative Advisor?
MN: Lincoln’s Conservative Advisor contributes to a growing trend in Lincoln studies, shifting the focus from the president himself to his close associates, who played crucial roles in shaping major events of his era. Recent works have offered remarkable insights into figures like William Seward, Edwin Stanton, and Salmon Chase. Now, for the first time in sixty years, Edward Bates—the nation’s highest-ranking legal officer during the Civil War—receives fresh attention. Readers will discover the compelling story of a man whose political career spanned the Jeffersonian, Jacksonian, Antebellum, and Civil War eras. Through Bates’s perspective, they will gain deeper insight into the complexities of issues such as civil liberties and equal rights during this transformative period in American history.
JF: Why and when did you become an American historian?
MN: I have always been fascinated by the stories of the past. As a young boy I used to love to watch movies based on real events. The fact that someone actually did the things depicted on screen was simply inspiring. Then, in 1985, I was captivated by the discovery of the wreck of the Titanic, which sparked a passion that led me to collect every book and article I could find about the ship and its passengers. The Titanic became a gateway into other areas of history, and as I explored topics in American and world history, I eventually gravitated toward the American Civil War and the life of Abraham Lincoln. Reading Stephen Oates’s With Malice Toward None was a turning point—I knew I wanted to become a Lincoln scholar, and I never looked back. I earned a Bachelor of Arts in History at Missouri State University, pursued a master’s degree at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and completed my Ph.D. at Southern Illinois University.
JF: What is your next project?
MN: I am in the early research phase of a book focusing on the critical period between the fall of Fort Sumter and the First Battle of Bull Run. This project was inspired by Erik Larson’s The Demon of Unrest, which compellingly chronicles the time between Lincoln’s election in November 1860 and the opening shots of the Civil War in April 1861. Larson’s book was a page-turner—I couldn’t put it down—but I felt it ended just as the story was gaining momentum. My goal is to continue that narrative into an even more critical period of American history, as both the Union and the Confederacy braced for war, clinging to the hope that it would be short-lived.
This is a story of how ordinary Americans and their leaders struggled, often with great courage, to confront the extraordinary challenges of their time. Yet, what neither side realized during these pivotal months was how their missteps would guarantee that the war would be both protracted and devastatingly bloody.
JF: Thanks, Mark!