The Last Weeks of Abraham Lincoln: A Day-by-Day Account of His Personal, Political, and Military Challenges

Out of the myriads of the thousands upon thousands of books that have been written about the Civil War and the assassination of President Lincoln, one might think nothing new can be produced. Johnson’s most recent work defies that assumption. This is not a biography of Abraham Lincoln, nor a chronicle of the American Civil War. Instead, it is a journey into the past through newspaper articles, diary and journal entries, letters, and forgotten interviews with survivors of that fateful spring in 1865.

The day-to-day progression begins with the second inaugural address of President Lincoln on March 4, 1865, a mere forty-one days before John Wilkes Booth fatally shot him at Ford’s theater. Knowing the ending before beginning a book makes for tricky writing, but Johnson manages to transport the reader back in time to reveal the tremendous uncertainties underlying each presidential decision. The vigilant student of American history will recognize many of the details of battles fought at the close of the war for emancipation and the first hints that peace might actually be re-born out of such a blood-thirsty slaughter. Nevertheless, Johnson includes a few surprises, tucked neatly into the quotes of some not so famous ordinary citizens from both sides of the conflict.