Abraham Lincoln, 1864

Mathew Brady
Albumen silver print

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

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“A hand,  steady and firm”


Despite Lincoln’s leadership, as the war ground on, casualties became enormous, and people despaired that the war might never end. By the middle of the summer of 1864, the public mood was such that Lincoln confided that it was “likely” that the administration would not be reelected. Only when General Sherman took Atlanta in September did the military and political atmosphere brighten.

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