Every Drop of Blood

The Momentous Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln

Edward Achorn

• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9780802148742
• eBook ISBN:
  9780802148766
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This vividly rendered Civil War history presents "a lively guided tour of Washington during the 24 hours or so around Lincoln's swearing-in" (Adam Goodheart, Washington Post).

By March 4, 1865, the Civil War had left intractable wounds on the nation. Tens of thousands crowded Washington's Capitol grounds that day to see Abraham Lincoln take the oath for a second term—and witness what was perhaps the greatest inaugural address in American history. Lincoln stunned the nation by arguing that both sides had been wrong, and that the war's unimaginable horrors might have been God's just verdict on the national sin of slavery.

In Every Drop of Blood, Edward Achorn reveals the nation's capital on that momentous day—with its mud, sewage, and saloons, its prostitutes, spies, reporters, social-climbing spouses and power-hungry politicians. Swirling around the complex figure of Lincoln, a host of characters are brought to life, from grievously wounded Union colonel Selden Connor to the embarrassingly drunk new vice president, Andrew Johnson, to poet-journalist Walt Whitman; from soldiers' advocate Clara Barton and African American leader Frederick Douglass to conflicted actor John Wilkes Booth.

In indelible scenes, Achorn captures the frenzy and division in the nation's capital at this crucial moment in America's history. His story offers new understanding of our great national crisis, and echoes down the decades to resonate in our own time.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Also by Edward Achorn
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Image Credits
• Prologue: The Nation’s Wounds
• Chapter 1: Bloody Gashes on the Face of Heaven
• Chapter 2: One and a Half Times Bigger
• Chapter 3: A Message from Grant
• Chapter 4: The Real Precious and Royal Ones
• Chapter 5: Meditation on the Divine Will
• Chapter 6: Public Sentiment Is Everything
• Chapter 7: Indefinable Fascination
• Chapter 8: The Blighting Pestilence
• Chapter 9: There Was Murder in the Air
• Chapter 10: A Future with Hope in It
• Chapter 11: Andy Ain’t a Drunkard
• Chapter 12: An Excellent Chance to Kill the President
• Chapter 13: With Malice toward None
• Chapter 14: A Truth That Needed to Be Told
• Chapter 15: A Sacred Effort
• Epilogue: The Stuff to Carry Them Through
• Appendix: Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
• Photos
• Acknowledgments
• Bibliography
• Notes
• Index
• Back Cover