The prestigious Lincoln Prize was awarded to Douglas Wilson, founding director of the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello, for his book, Honor's Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln (Alfred A. Knopf), a study of Lincoln's life from age 22 to 33.

The prize (a bronze bust of Lincoln and $35,000) is awarded each year by the Lincoln and Soldiers Institute of Gettysburg College to honor outstanding scholarship in Lincoln and Civil War studies. A jury of historians (chaired by Elizabeth Fox-Genovese) considered 82 entries before making its recommendations.

Wilson, a former professor of English and American literature at Knox College, previously published Lincoln before Washington: New Perspectives on Lincoln's Illinois Years (University of Illinois Press).

J. Tracy Power, a historian with the State Historic Preservation Office of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, received the second place for his book, Lee's Miserables: Life in the Army of Northern Virginia from the Wilderness to Appomattox (University of North Carolina Press), a social history of Lee's army during its final year.