Team Of Rivals Part 169

"A profound stillness fell upon the Wigwam" (33) as the results of the crucial third ballot hung in the balance. Seward awaited the news from Chicago in the garden of his Auburn home (34).

Residents of Springfield congregated before Lincoln's home for a campaign rally after his unexpected capture of the Republican nomination over Seward, Chase, and Bates.

a.s.sa.s.sination threats prompted President-elect Lincoln to enter Was.h.i.+ngton at the crack of dawn. A scurrilous rumor that he had disguised himself in a Scotch plaid cap and military cloak circulated widely in the media, causing him much embarra.s.sment.

President Abraham Lincoln, photographed by Mathew Brady in 1862.

Lincoln's office in the White House (38) doubled as the cabinet's meeting room. Late at night, he liked to relax and share stories with his two secretaries, John Nicolay (39) and John Hay (40), who became almost like sons to him.

Seventy-five-year-old General Winfield Scott (42), veteran of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, commanded the U.S. Army when Lincoln took office. Shown here with the cabinet (41), Scott suffered from a variety of ailments that limited his active role in military planning.

Even during the Civil War, ordinary people had nearly unlimited access to the White House. Volunteer troops bivouacked in the East Room in May 1861 (43), while large public receptions (44) attracted a "living tide of humanity" who poured in to shake hands with the president and first lady.

In February 1862, while Mary Lincoln (45) hosted a triumphant reception downstairs, her twelve-year-old son, Willie, lay dying upstairs. After Mary fell into a depression (46), Lincoln was left to care for their youngest son, Tad (47), who was equally devastated by Willie's death.

When Seward became secretary of state (48), he installed his son Fred as his second in command (49) and settled his close-knit family, including Augustus (50), Fred (left), f.a.n.n.y (right), and Fred's wife, Anna (foreground), into an elegant mansion on Lafayette Square.

Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase (51) craved the presidency with every fiber of his being, an ambition shared by his beautiful daughter Kate (53 left, and seated, right). Rumors circulated that her 1863 marriage to William Sprague (52) "was a coldly calculated plan to secure the Sprague millions" to finance her father's 1864 campaign.

When his first war secretary, Simon Cameron (54), resigned under fire, Lincoln called on Edwin M. Stanton (55), who overcame his initial contempt for the president to embrace a deep friends.h.i.+p. The Lincoln and Stanton families spent their summers together at the Soldiers' Home (56).

Francis P. Blair and his wife, Eliza (59), presided over a political dynasty that included their sons, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair (61) and Union general Frank (60). Daughter Elizabeth's (58) voluminous letters to her husband, Captain Samuel P. Lee (57), left a vivid record of life in Was.h.i.+ngton during the Civil War.

In addition to their cabinet duties, both Navy Secretary Gideon Welles (62) and Attorney General Edward Bates (63) kept detailed diaries that recorded the inner workings of the Lincoln administration.

In letters to his wife, Mary Ellen (64), General George B. McClellan regularly derided Lincoln, his cabinet, and most of the hierarchy in the Union army, while crediting himself with every success. Admirers hailed him as a young Napoleon (65).

Lincoln went through a succession of generals, including Ambrose E. Burnside (68) and Joseph Hooker (69), before he found a winning team in Ulysses S. Grant (66) and William T. Sherman (67).

Antislavery leader Frederick Dougla.s.s (70) and Senator Charles Sumner (71) urged Lincoln to bring blacks into the Union army. Ultimately, almost two hundred thousand black men served, including this young soldier (72).

Lincoln took more than a dozen trips to the front, both to consult with his generals and to inspire the troops (73). Scenes of the dead littered on the battlefield (74) tore at his heart.

Lincoln and his son Tad walked through the Confederate capital of Richmond on April 4, 1865. Freed slaves crowded the streets, shouting, "Glory! Hallelujah!" when Lincoln came into view.

As Lincoln lay dying in the Petersen boardinghouse, he was surrounded by family, members of his cabinet, congressmen, senators, and military officials. When Lincoln died at 7:22 A.M. on April 15, 1865, Stanton proclaimed: "Now he belongs to the ages."