1864 : Lincoln at the gates of history / Charles Bracelen Flood.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 475-491) and index.

The beleaguered giant -- Steering into a stormy year -- Lincoln juggles in the "shop" ; Grant comes east -- On the verge of the great collision -- Troubled military and political campaigns -- Trimming the political tree -- "I begin to see it"--the elusive "it" -- A pretty place from which to drop into a dark, dramatic summer -- Trying to pick up the military and political pieces -- August : the darkest month -- Six words from Sherman -- Sheridan goes in ; Lincoln gets out the vote -- The final mile to the polls : rocks, smooth places, puzzles -- The forty-eight-hour election day -- An epic year begins its dramatic close -- Lincoln's last Christmas -- Goodbye, Mr. Lincoln.

Historian-biographer Charles Bracelen Flood brings to life the drama of Lincoln's final year, in which he oversaw the last campaigns of the Civil War, was reelected as president, and laid out his majestic vision for the nation's future in a reunified South and in the expanding West. In that crucial year, the Civil War was far from won: as the year began, Lincoln had yet to appoint Ulysses S. Grant as the general-in-chief who would finally bring victory. At the same time, with the North sick of the war, Lincoln was facing a reelection battle in which hundreds of thousands of "Peace Democrats" were ready to negotiate to leave the Confederacy as a separate American nation. In his personal life, he had to deal with the erratic behavior of his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, and was unknowingly stalked by John Wilkes Booth.--From publisher description.