The day Lincoln was almost shot : the Fort Stevens story / Benjamin Franklin Cooling III.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cooling, Benjamin Franklin, III, 1938-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fort Stevens (Washington, D.C.)--History--19th century.

Fort Stevens (Washington, D.C.).

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865.

Lincoln, Abraham.

Maryland Campaign, 1864.

Washington (D.C.)--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.

Washington (D.C.).

History.

Physical Description:

xv, 322 pages, 28 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Maryland : The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2013.

Summary:

The Day Lincoln Was Almost Shot: The Fort Stevens Story recounts the story of President Abraham Lincoln's role in the Battle of Fort Stevens in July 1864. This engagement stands apart in American history as the only time a sitting American president came under enemy fire while in office. In this new study of this overlooked moment in American history, Cooling poses a troubling question: What if Lincoln had been shot and killed during this short battle, nine months prior to his death by John Wilkes Booth's hand in Ford's Theater? A potential pivotal moment in the Civil War, the Battle of Fort Stevens could have changed-with Lincoln's demise-the course of American history. The Day Lincoln Was Almost Shot, however, is more than a meditation on an alternate history of the United States. It is also a close study of the attempt by Confederate general Jubal Early to capture Washington, D.C., remove Lincoln and the Union government from power, and turn the tide of the Civil War in the South's favor. The dramatic events of this attempt to capture Washington-and the president with it-unfold in stunning detail as Cooling taps fresh documentary sources and offers a new interpretation of this story of the defense of the nation's capital. Commemorating this largely forgotten and underappreciated chapter in the study of Lincoln and the Civil War, The Day Lincoln Was Almost Shot is a fascinating look at this potential turning point in American history. Book jacket.

Contents:

Mr. Lincoln's capital as center of gravity

Lincoln and the army come to the suburbs

Abe's re-election, Old Jube and the moment of greatest danger

Sigel, Weber and upper Potomac delays

Monocacy, a secretary's son and the road to Washington

Blindness or stupidity on a hot weekend

First defenders to the front: Lincoln at Fort Stevens, July 11

The president is almost shot: July 12

Rebel recessional/yankee repercussions

Lincoln, Fort Stevens and American memory.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780810886223

0810886227

OCLC:

823209410