The Day Lincoln Was Almost Shot: The Fort Stevens Story [Hardcover]

The Day Lincoln Was Almost Shot: The Fort Stevens Story recounts the story of President Abraham Lincolns 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 Booths hand in Ford's Theater? A potential pivotal moment in the Civil War, the Battle of Fort Stevens could have changedwith Lincoln's demisethe 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, DC, to remove Lincoln and the Union government from power, and to turn the tide of the Civil War in the South's favor. The dramatic events of this attempt to capture Washingtonand the president with itunfold in stunning detail as Cooling taps fresh documentary sources and offers a new interpretation of this story of the defense of the nations capital. Commemorating this largely forgotten and under-appreciated 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.

Most Civil War buffs are aware that Lincoln came under Confederate fire, and this work presents all the details they could wish to learn about the incident. It occurred in July 1864, when the president traveled to one of Washingtons forts to see the combat that erupted when a Confederate force attacked. To prepare his readers for the narrative of the battleló{