ABSTRACT
On May 5th, as Sherman was preparing for his march through Georgia, the opposing armies of Grant and Lee clashed in what the Union general later called "the bloodiest swath ever made on this globe." Abraham Lincoln, during the darkest days of the Wilderness Campaign, went to the opera. By spring 1864, Salmon P. Chase's Presidential boom was virtually deflated. Republican radicals continued their abuse of Mr. Lincoln, who was "severely censured" for his "conservatism and timidity in dealing with the emancipation question." Most vociferous in their antagonism toward Lincoln were the ultra abolitionists, who were united primarily by their hatred of him. Enemies and unfriendly critics of the Lincoln Administration were predicting "all sorts of disasters, political and military," should the President be "forced upon the people," Brooks remembered. The New York Herald was constantly boosting Grant for the White House as "the man who knows how to tan leather, politicians and the hides of rebels.".
