Only the studious cultivation of the myth of Abraham Lincoln, coupled with his timely death have caused him to be raised to the level of a sacred cow in American history.

Lincoln was nearly defeated in his reelection attempt in 1864, by that summer, Lincoln himself feared he would lose. His Emancipation Proclamation was still a problem for many Northern voters.

Despite Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg a year earlier, the Southern armies came back fighting with a vengeance. During three months in the summer of 1864, over 65,000 Union soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing-in-action. In comparison, there had been 108,000 Union casualties in the first three years. General Ulysses S. Grant was being called The Butcher. At one time during the summer, Confederate soldiers under JUBAL EARLY came within five miles of the White House.