Get Down You Damned Fool! President Abe Lincoln Under Fire During the Battle of Fort Stevens July 12, 1864
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By July of 1864 the Union Army’s assault on the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia though massive and determined, had ground to a complete and bloody halt. Tens of thousands of young American soldiers lay dead scattered across the fields and woodlands of northern Virginia. A veritable state of siege, centered around the strategically important railroad town of Petersburg, had begun to settle in between the two opposing armies. Public outcry in the north started calling Ulysses S. Grant -Commanding General of the Union Army of the Potomac-a drunkard and a butcher. The press clamored for President Lincoln to fire or demote his erstwhile General. Sensing an opportunity, and seeking to capitalize on the bloody stalemate that was the American Civil War in July of 1864, a Confederate Army composed of 10,000 elite troops led by the audacious and flamboyant General Jubal Early moved north towards Washington DC. The Confederacy hoped to take the Union forces by surprise and to