366 Days in Abraham Lincoln's Presidency: The Private, Political, and Military Decisions of America's Greatest President

Stephen A. Wynalda

Skyhorse Publishing Inc., May 18, 2010 - Biography & Autobiography - 590 pages

In a startlingly innovative format, journalist Stephen A. Wynalda has constructed a painstakingly detailed day-by-day breakdown of president Abraham Lincoln’s decisions in office—including his signing of the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862; his signing of the legislation enacting the first federal income tax on August 5, 1861; and more personal incidents like the day his eleven-year-old son, Willie, died. Revealed are Lincoln’s private frustrations on September 28, 1862, as he wrote to vice president Hannibal Hamlin, “The North responds to the [Emancipation] proclamation sufficiently with breath; but breath alone kills no rebels.”

366 Days in Abraham Lincoln’s Presidency includes fascinating facts like how Lincoln hated to hunt but loved to fire guns near the unfinished Washington monument, how he was the only president to own a patent, and how he recited Scottish poetry to relieve stress. As Scottish historian Hugh Blair said, “It is from private life, from familiar, domestic, and seemingly trivial occurrences, that we most often receive light into the real character.”

Covering 366 nonconsecutive days (including a leap day) of Lincoln’s presidency, this is a rich, exciting new perspective of our most famous president. This is a must-have edition for any historian, military history or civil war buff, or reader of biographies.

Contents

• 1860: 1
• Forts: 10
• The Green president: 41
• Maryland and Secession: 57
• Sewards Argument: 117
• Lincoln Refuses a Pardon: 127
• A Bull Against a Comet: 194
• The Cigar Wrapper: 195
• Antietam: 196
• The promise of Freedom: 197
• 39 Queer little Conceits: 198
• Habeas Corpus Suspended nationally: 199
• 40 Multiple Suspensions: 200
• That Is not the Game: 201
• Breath Alone Kills no Rebels: 202
• How the Troops Felt: 203
• McClellans Bodyguard: 204
• 41 ditties: 205
• no enemies Here: 207
• 42 Mary and the Wounded: 208
• To Hurt the enemy: 209
• Buell: 210
• Tad and the Military: 211
• 43 Cussed Old Abe Himself: 212
• lincoln Meets Commodore nutt: 213
• lincoln Removes Buell: 214
• The Couchant lion: 215
• lincolns purpose: 216
• Hard Tough Fighting: 217
• ellets Rams: 218
• A Soldier or a Housekeeper: 219
• Impedimenta: 220
• Missed Opportunities: 221
• The Minnesota Sioux Uprising: 222
• Mercy: 223
• 44 lincoln and native Americans: 225
• Resolutions: 226
• Fernando Wood: 227
• Fredericksburg: 228
• The Emancipation Proclamation: 237
• 56 The Black Flag: 297
• TO Live in History: 298
• Bullocks into a Slaughter Pen: 299
• The Tycoon Is in a Fine Whack: 300
• 57 The Physical Man: 301
• Lincoln Meets Frederick Douglass: 302
• War Governors: 303
• The Symbol: 305
• The Telegraph Office: 306
• The Conklin Letter: 307
• Bountyjumpers: 308
• The Judiciary vs the Executive: 309
• Old Friends: 310
• 58 The Almanac Murder Trial: 311
• River of Death: 312
• The Rant: 313
• Reinforcements for Rosecrans: 314
• Temperance: 315
• No Friends in Missouri: 316
• Grovers National Theater: 317
• Prison Camps: 318
• The Cracker Line: 319
• The Chinfly: 320
• 59 Pieces Upon a Chessboard: 321
• Murder in Maryland: 322
• Arming the Disloyal: 324
• Fords Theatre: 325
• I Am Used to It: 326
• Tyrannicide: 327
• The Competition: 328
• A Cemetery in Gettysburg: 329
• Writing the Gettysburg Address: 330
• The Address: 331
• Freedom of Religion: 344
• Lincoln Meets Anna Dickinson: 351
• The Dahlgren Conspiracy: 364
• Nevada to Become a State: 366
• Fugitive Slave Laws: 390
• The Confederates Escape Again: 399
• We Sleep at Night: 400
• The SisterinLaw: 401
• 70 Disloyal Kin: 402
• Let em Wriggle: 403
• I Fear He Is a Failure: 404
• The Robinson Letter: 405
• 71 Damned in Time and Eternity: 406
• Wroughtiron: 407
• The Tide Is Against Us: 408
• Worse than Losing: 409
• Am I to Have No Rest?: 410
• 72 The Soldiers Home: 411
• Damn the Torpedoes: 412
• 73 If Lincoln Was Not Reelected: 413
• Conscientious Objectors: 415
• Women in the Ranks: 416
• Lincoln and the Bible: 417
• 74 What Did Lincoln Believe?: 418
• Writing Mary: 419
• The Soldiers Vote: 420
• Blows Upon a Dead Body: 421
• The Deal: 422
• The First Installment: 423
• OCTOBER IO Cleaning Up a Piece of Ground: 424
• Reading Balderdash: 425
• A Close Race: 426
• Citizen Taney: 427
• Little Phils Ride: 428
• Lincoln Meets Sojourner Truth: 429
• 75 Was Lincoln a Racist?: 430
• Nevada Becomes a State: 431
• Election Preparations: 432
• 1865: 451
• The Lincolns Head for the Front: 467
• AFTERWORDI: 483
• NOTES: 489
• AFTERWORDII: 563
• INDEX: 573

Bibliographic information

• Title: 366 Days in Abraham Lincoln's Presidency: The Private, Political, and Military Decisions of America's Greatest President
• Author: Stephen A. Wynalda
• Editor: Stephen A. Wynalda
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc., 2010
• ISBN: 1602399948, 9781602399945
• Length: 590 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Historical; Biography & Autobiography / Presidents & Heads of State; History / United States / 19th Century; History / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877); Political Science / American Government / National