1864 is the story of
Lincoln's struggle with the war on the battlefields and a political scene in which his own secretary of the treasury,
Salmon P. Chase, was working against him in an effort to become the Republican candidate himself in the
election of 1864. The North was shocked by such events as
Grant's attack at
Cold Harbor, during which seven thousand Union soldiers were killed in twenty minutes, and the
Battle of the Crater, where three thousand Union men died in a bungled attempt to blow up Confederate trenches. The year became so bleak that on August 23, Lincoln wrote in a memorandum, "This morning, as for several days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be reelected." But, with the increasing success of his generals, and a majority of the American public ready to place its faith in him, Lincoln and the nation ended
1864 with the close of the war in sight and slavery on the verge of extinction."
1864 presents the man who not only saved the nation, but also, despite the turmoil of the war and political infighting, set the stage for westward expansion through the
Homestead Act, the railroads, and the Act to Encourage Immigration.
Background Information
Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican President and led the Union during the Civil War. In November 1864, Abraham Lincoln carried the election to earn a second term as president that seemed very unlikely earlier in the year. Ulysses S. Grant rose from obscurity to head the victorious Union army in the Civil War and later became President. Cold Harbor was a bloody battle during the American CIvil War that was fought in 1865 between Union forces under Grant and Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee. The Homestead Acts were designed to open the West to farming settlement by offering a section of land to those who would farm it with certain restrictions.
