Author, Jean Soman, is the great-great granddaughter of Colonel Marcus Spiegel, one of the highest-ranking Jewish officers in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Jean Soman became interested in her great-great grandfather’s life and letters as a college history major. She wrote a paper for a Civil War history course about Colonel Spiegel. These letters written by Marcus Spiegel, home from the Civil War to his wife Caroline and family had been passed down in Jean’s family for generations. They were kept in her mother’s closet for years. For more than a decade, Jean Soman worked on transcribing the letters and researching the life of her great- great grandfather. Her goal was to give his Civil War letters to the world.

In 1985, Jean Soman’s book on the letters of Marcus Spiegel, entitled Your True Marcus: The Civil War Letters of a Jewish Colonel,was published by Kent University Press and co-edited by Dr. Frank L. Byrne with a Foreward by Jacob Rader Marcus the Director of the American Jewish Archives. The book was re-published by the University of Nebraska Press in 1995, and re-titled: A Jewish Colonel in the Civil War, Marcus M. Spiegel of the Ohio Volunteers. This book presents a compelling portrait of this Civil War Colonel, who was killed during the war. It is currently available.

Jean Soman, is currently researching the life of her great grandfather, Abraham Lincoln’s, Jewish photographer Samuel G. Alschuler, who took two famous photographs of Lincoln. On April 25, 1858, Lincoln came to Alschuler’s photography studio in Urbana, Illinois to have his picture taken. Lincoln was wearing an old, dusty coat and Alschuler lent him his black velvet collared coat for the photograph.A few years later, on November 25, 1860, President-elect Lincoln, went to Alschuler’s Chicago photography studio to have a photo taken. This photograph is unique, the first one with Lincoln growing a beard. Jean is a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln and recently served as the Acting President of the National Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission Foundation. At the present time, she is serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation.

Jean is married and has two children and three grandchildren. She is active in the Jewish Community and is a member of a long list of organizations. Jean Soman is also a member of numerous Museums and civic organizations.