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Volume Seven
1864: Most Hallowed Ground
The summer of 1864 is the North's darkest hour. Washington is panic-stricken
when Jubal Early boldly attacks the outskirts of the city. To the south,
Confederate cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest, the "wizard of the saddle,"
slashes at William Tecumseh Sherman's supply lines, slowing his approach to Atlanta.
Meanwhile at Petersburg, U.S. Grant's siege drags on with no end in sight. In the
North, public opinion turns strongly against Lincoln and the war. That fall the
presidential campaign sets Lincoln against his old commanding general, George
McClellan, now the Democrat's "peace" candidate. Even Lincoln believes his
reelection unlikely but dramatic eleventh-hour Union victories at Mobile Bay,
Atlanta, and the Shenandoah Valley changed the odds. Lincoln wins in a landslide
and the Confederacy's last hope for independence dies.
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