Chapter 24: “Atlanta Is Ours”: Summer–Fall 1864

With Grant's campaign bogged down in the trenches around Petersburg and Sherman encountering fierce opposition in Georgia, Northern morale plummeted as casualty lists grew and battlefield progress stalled. Lincoln deployed rhetorical leadership through addresses like his Sanitary Fair speech, framing the conflict's suffering within a larger moral purpose. He also traveled to Grant's headquarters at City Point, where encounters with troops and especially Black soldiers reinforced his emotional connection to the war's sacred mission. Domestically, Lincoln navigated treacherous political waters by accepting Chase's resignation and installing Fessenden as Treasury Secretary, a move that stabilized Congressional confidence and financial markets despite ongoing tensions with the Radical Republican faction over reconstruction policy and the Wade-Davis Manifesto. When Confederate forces threatened Washington under Jubal Early's command, Lincoln demonstrated physical courage by standing exposed on Fort Stevens' ramparts, rallying civilian confidence during the raid. Political enemies simultaneously maneuvered to displace him from the Republican ticket, prompting Lincoln to draft contingency plans ensuring cabinet commitment to war prosecution regardless of electoral outcome. He also engaged Frederick Douglass to accelerate the migration of enslaved people toward Union lines, anticipating that a Democratic victory could reverse emancipation gains. The chapter's turning point arrives through three dramatic military successes: Farragut's capture of Mobile Bay, Sheridan's victory over Early in the Shenandoah Valley, and most significantly Sherman's taking of Atlanta on September 2. These triumphs restored Northern confidence, exposed the Democratic peace platform as delusional, and catalyzed Lincoln's landslide reelection with overwhelming soldier support. The transformation from August despair to November triumph secured the presidency for a second term and guaranteed the Union's path toward victory and permanent emancipation, validating Lincoln's steady leadership through institutional crisis.