“The war is eating my life out.”

1864:  Abraham Lincoln’s worst year.

“Harsh Year in Lincoln’s Fight for the Union”

“The bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth will occur on Thursday, and it has brought forth a tidal wave of new opining about Lincoln. Some historians have opted for overviews of Lincoln’s life; others have cordoned off specialty areas like Lincoln’s writing, military leadership, marriage, staff members and pre-presidency. But the survey books can be superficial. And the narrow-turf studies can suffer from tunnel vision. Mr. Flood’s “1864” compresses the multiple demands upon Lincoln into a tight time frame and thus captures a dizzying, visceral sense of why this single year took such a heavy toll. It takes many different kinds of expertise in order to do 1864 full justice. And Mr. Flood’s versatility is impressive. He analyzes Lincoln’s consummate political canniness in benching potential rivals for the presidency like Salmon Portland Chase (who eventually became chief justice of the Supreme Court and wound up swearing in his rival for a second term). He relives the great battles of 1864, with particular emphasis on how difficult it could be for the commander in chief to know where his armies were or what they were doing. He conveys Lincoln’s versatile approach to crisis management through broad and anecdotal evidence. Mr. Flood describes how Lincoln could physically eject annoying visitors from his office — even, on one occasion, when the annoying visitor was Mary Todd Lincoln, the president’s high-strung, shopaholic wife.” Written by Janet Maslin.

The book reviewed is Lincoln at the Gates of History by Charles Breacelen Flood.

from The New York Times

DB notes:  1864 is also the year Lincoln became the only president in U.S. history–perhaps the only leader in all history–to allow and then win a re-election in the middle of his own country’s civil war.

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