Prologue

Dedicated to my Lunchables pals, Peter and Sharon

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.
Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The
mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to
every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus
of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of
our nature.

Abraham Lincoln 1^st Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861

The book provides an abbreviated look at the life of America’s sixteenth President from his birth in 1809 to the tragic assassination in 1865.  All credit for this story belong with scholars such ad David Donald, Harold Holzer, Alan Guelzo, William Gienapp, Douglas Wilson and others who informed my writing.