by John C. Waugh
On the night of his reelection on November 8, 1864,
President Abraham Lincoln called on the nation to “re-unite in a common effort,
to save our common country.” By April 9 of the following year, the Union had
achieved this goal with the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia to
General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. In this lively volume, John
C. Waugh chronicles in detail Lincoln’s role in the final five months of the
war, revealing how Lincoln and Grant worked together to bring the war to an
end.
Beginning with Lincoln’s reelection, Waugh highlights the
key military and political events of those tumultuous months. He recounts the
dramatic final military campaigns and battles of the war, including William T.
Sherman’s march through Georgia to the sea; the Confederate army’s attempt to
take Nashville and its loss at the battle of Franklin; and the Union victory at
Fort Fisher that closed off the Confederacy’s last open port. Other events also
receive attention, including Sherman’s march through the Carolinas and the
burning of Columbia; Grant’s defeat of the Army of Northern Virginia at the
Battle of Five Forks, and Lincoln’s presence at the seat of war during that
campaign; the Confederate retreat from Petersburg and Richmond; and Lee’s
surrender at Appomattox.
Weaving the stories together chronologically, Waugh also
presents the key political events of the time, particularly Lincoln’s final
annual message to Congress, passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, the Second
Inaugural, Lincoln’s visit to Richmond the day after it fell, and Lincoln’s
final days and speeches in Washington after the Confederate surrender. An
epilogue recounts the farewell march of all the Union armies through
Washington, D.C., in May 1865. Throughout, Waugh enlivens his narrative with
illuminating quotes from a wide variety of Civil War participants and
personalities, including New Yorker George Templeton Strong, southerner Mary
Boykin Chesnut, Lincoln’s secretary John Hay, writer Noah Brooks, and many
others.
About the Author
John C. Waugh, a reporter at the Christian Science
Monitor for many years, is the coeditor of How Historians Work, and
the author of eleven other books on the Civil War era, including The Class
of 1846, Reelecting Lincoln, and Lincoln and McClellan.
ISBN 978-0809333516, Southern Illinois University Press, ©
2014, Hardcover, 152 pages, Photographs & Illustrations, Maps, End Notes,
Sources Cited and Index. $24.95. To purchase this book click HERE.
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