1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Charles Bracelen Flood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 3, 2009

At the beginning of 1864, the Civil War was far from won; terrible and bloody Union setbacks and casualties lay ahead. Abraham Lincoln was facing a re-election battle as some northern Democrats were ready to start peace talks that could leave the Confederacy a separate slaveholding American nation and as his secretary of the treasury, Salmon P. Chase, challenged him for the Republican nomination. But by the end of the year, the war's end was in sight, and slavery was on the verge of extinction.Despite all the turmoil of war and political infighting, Lincoln also set the stage for a new era of westward expansion. He shaped the decades to come through laws and subsidies that propelled railroads westward, by the Homestead Act that offered western lands to immigrant farmers and by the Act to Encourage Immigration that enabled 615,000 men, women, and children to arrive in America during the Civil War.As the year ended, John Wilkes Booth, who stalked Lincoln throughout 1864, was only a few weeks away from assassinating our greatest president.

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Critically acclaimed historian Flood (Grant and Sherman: The Friendship that Won the Civil War) provides a brilliant, compelling account of Lincoln's dramatic final full year of life-a year in which the war finally turned in the Union's favor and Lincoln faced a tough battle for re-election. After Union defeats at the Battle of Cold Harbor and the siege of Petersburg, Confederate General Jubal Early came within five miles of Washington, D.C., before he was beaten back; General Sherman's September victory at Atlanta followed, with his bloody march to the sea. At the same time, Lincoln found himself running against his own secretary of the treasury, Salmon Chase, for the Republican nomination, and then against the Democrat (and general) George B. McClellan for the presidency. Lincoln won by a narrow popular majority, but a significant electoral majority. At the close of 1864, as Lincoln celebrated both his re-election and the coming end of the war, John Wilkes Booth laid down an ambitious plan for kidnapping that soon evolved into a map for murder. Combining a novelist's flair with the authority and deep knowledge of a scholar, Flood artfully integrates this complex web of storylines. 16 pages of b&w photos, maps.
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From Booklist

Flood follows Abraham Lincoln’s fourth year as president, ranging across matters that arose in his office, in person, or on paper, whether of minor or major importance. Securing his readers’ engagement with a detailed account of business Lincoln conducted on January 1, 1864, Flood depicts for them the appearance of Lincoln’s workplace, to which access was extraordinarily easy to obtain. Petitioners and their pleas—for government posts, for stays of execution, for an autograph—parade through Flood’s chronicle, as do bringers of tidings connected with the two biggest things on Lincoln’s mind during 1864: winning reelection and winning the Civil War. Flood’s overall effect shows how contingent each was: he recounts Lincoln’s hardheaded electioneering actions—involving money, political favors, and sidetracking rivals such as Salmon Chase—alongside Lincoln’s exercise of his commander-in-chief role. Neither objective was entirely separable, and there’s a sophistication in Flood’s portrayal that shows how Lincoln’s actions to further one furthered the other, as in his furlough of Union soldiers to vote for him. Flood’s high-quality historical narrative will capture the Civil War readership. --Gilbert Taylor

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (February 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416552286
• ISBN-13: 978-1416552284
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,000,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lincoln in 1864, March 5, 2009

By 

Robin Friedman (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History (Hardcover)

Charles Bracelen Flood graduated from Harvard with ambitions to become a creative writer. After writing two early novels, he began to write history and biography. In recent years, Flood has turned his formidable writing skills to the American Civil War, writing a moving biography of the final years of Robert E. Lee and, in 2006, his "Grant and Sherman: the Friendship that Won the Civil War." Flood is an outstanding popular historian who uses his literary skills, interest in character, and ability to tell a story, to educate and to entertain.

Flood's latest book "1864:Lincoln at the Gates" begins slowly, but it soon gathers momentum as Flood ties together the threads of Lincoln's life and the progress of the Nation's life during the momentous year of 1864. In 1864, Lincoln stood for reelection to the presidency. The military aspect of the Civil War also came to a climax as Ulysses Grant became commander of the Union armies. Political and military affairs both took see-saw courses during 1864. Flood's book, with its novelistic skill in plots and sub-plots admirably ties together politics and military affairs together with much more about Lincoln's life and character.

The book shows Lincoln both as an idealist and as a consummately masterful politician. At the beginning of 1864, Lincoln's renomination was much in doubt. He was under attack from the radical wing of his party, including his Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, who wished a more aggressive prosecution of the war. Chase worked surreptitiously and feverishly to secure the presidential nomination for himself. Lincoln was also under attack from the various wings of the Democratic party, both those which supported the war effort and those which favored an immediate end to the conflict and a peace with the South. Flood shows how Lincoln used political muscle and acumen to secure the nomination and how Lincoln was involved in the fateful decision to give the vice-presidential nomination to Andrew Johnson. After securing the nomination, Lincoln, and most experts, believed up through August that Lincoln would likely lose the presidency to the Democratic candidate, General George McClellan. Military and political events late in the year worked to change the situation.

Flood's book does not include the detailed accounts of military movements that are found in many military studies of the conflict. His discussions of the Wilderness campaign, Cold Harbor, Grant's movement south to Petersburg, the Crater, Early's raid on Washington, Sheridan's campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, Sherman's capture of Atlanta and march to the Sea, and Thomas's victories at Franklin and Nashville are riveting, easy to follow, and compelling. More important, Flood places these military events in their political context and shows how they effected Lincoln's fortunes and the course of the 1864 election.

Flood also describes some of the other events that made 1864 a memorable year even apart from the Civil War, including the beginning of the transcontinental railroad, expansion of the telegraph, and a massive increase in immigration and industrialization. His portrayal of Lincoln suggests something of the complex inner workings of the man, including his troubled relationship with his wife Mary Todd. Flood offers a telling little scene of Lincoln playing with three stray cats on a visit to Grant near the end of the war. The book places great emphasis on Lincoln's meetings in his "shop" with common people seeking relief of various kinds from the vicissitudes of the conflict. Lincoln's meetings with Frederick Douglass are described as well as Lincoln's less well-known meeting with the abolitionist and feminist leader, Sojourner Truth. Lincoln's failings are shown as well. For example, there are some details in this book about Lincoln's involvement in black-market trade in cotton during the course of the war. The picture that emerges is that of a highly gifted, driven, but very human leader.

In this year of the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth and of national transition, there have already been many books encouraging reflection about Lincoln. For readers with a good basic overview of Lincoln and of the Civil War, this study by Charles Bracelen Flood will be an excellent choice.

Robin Friedman

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly written portrait of a man that few people really know..., March 10, 2009

By 

K. Wilson "smart_shopper" (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History (Hardcover)

I have to start off by saying that this was far from the first book I had read on the Civil War...but it was the first book that I have read that was solely devoted to Lincoln. And I have to say that Flood really paints a personal portrait of a man that few people really know outside of his iconic image in American history. Lincoln the politician was so much smarter and better at political maneuvering than I think people have ever given him credit for...Lincoln the man was so unassuming in his interactions with the public - he seemed to care deeply for, and carry the burdens of, his constituents with him at all times...something that weighed heavily on his mind towards the end of the war. The best part of this book to me is that Flood's portrait of Lincoln is painted, not only with historical facts, but also with anecdotes and stories from the folks who actually had interactions with Lincoln during the last full year of his life.

This book also sheds light on many of the brilliant (and often on the Union side, the unfortunately misguided) military leaders on both sides of the conflict...but without getting into accounts of the battles that are too detailed so as to detract from the overall flow of the story that takes the reader through the full year of 1864.

Flood is a truly a first class writer...for a book of considerable length, I couldn't put it down. By the time I reached the end of this book, I'll be honest - we all know how Lincoln's story ends...but there was a part of me that wanted history to be re-written...a part of me that hoped that an assassin's bullet wouldn't have taken this great leader, this great man, from his country when it needed him the most. As illogical as that may initially appear, once you spend so many pages delving into the character and personality of someone such as Lincoln, you can't help but feel the loss all over again.

All in all, a highly enjoyable read...and one that is HIGHLY recommended!

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Epic Year, February 21, 2009

By 

Christian Schlect (Yakima, Washington/USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History (Hardcover)

A narrative--aimed at the general reader--of the year that clinched Abraham Lincoln's place in history.

Charles Bracelen Flood writes within the known facts of 1864 but with an eye to the interesting tale; he is a storyteller, not a dry academic expert. While an admirer of Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Flood still is balanced in his approach to this very human leader.

The book is quite good at showing the multitude of political, war, and social obligations/decisions that bombarded Mr. Lincoln in a year that might have seen victory tipped either way in terms of both military and political battlefields. Intense presidential election-year infighting is nicely described, while some of the key military incidents of the year are highlighted, such as the Early's bold raid on the Capital, the Union's disaster at the Crater, Sheridan's ride from Winchester, and Sherman's March to the Sea.

As Wellington said after the battle of Waterloo, "It was a close run thing."