North Star

A riveting, dramatic account of the years, months and days leading up to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, revolving around the unexpected ways Canadians were deeply involved in every aspect of the American Civil War.

Canadians take pride in being on the "good side" of the American Civil War, serving as a haven for 30,000 escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad. But dwelling in history's shadow is the much darker role Canada played in supporting the slave South and in fomenting the many plots against Lincoln.

The North Star weaves together the different strands of several extraordinary Canadians and a handful of Confederate agents in Canada as they all make their separate, fateful journeys to the night of the assassination on April 14, 1865. They ended up crossing paths with Lincoln or his assassin John Wilkes Booth, as they were caught up in the maelstrom of history.

The book shines a spotlight on the stories of such intrepid figures as Anderson Abbot, Canada's first Black doctor, who joined the Union Army; Emma Edmonds, the New Brunswick woman who disguised herself as a man to enlist as a Union nurse; and Edward P. Doherty, the Quebec man who led the hunt to track down John Wilkes Booth. We also meet the wealthy men who aided and supported the Confederate side, such as Toronto aristocrat George Taylor Denison III and banker and Montreal mayor Henry Starnes.

Sher creates vivid portraits of places we thought we knew. Montreal was a sort of 19th-century Casablanca of the North: a hub for assassins, money-men, mercenaries and soldiers on the run. Toronto was a headquarters for Confederate plotters and gun-runners. The two largest hotels in the country became nests of Confederate spies.

Meticulously researched and richly illustrated, The North Star is a sweeping tale that makes long-ago events leap off the page with a relevance to today.