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[b]Lincoln Narrowly Elected, Fate of Slavery Amendment Questionable[/b]
-- [i]New York Herald[/i] Headline

War is hell. Even I who regard the death and mangling of a couple thousand men as a small affair, a kind of morning dash, see that for fact. These battles have taken their toll on my spirits. I confess, without shame, that I am sick and tired of fighting. War's glory is all moonshine; even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentations of distant families, appealing to me for sons, husbands, and fathers. It is only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated, that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, and more desolation. But we need to press on. We must make the deaths of all these man stand for something. To end now in stalemate or armistice negates the sacrifice of so many.

-- William Tecumseh Sherman to Ulysses S. Grant

This election as a referendum on Abraham Lincoln's popularity. Even with the capture of Atlanta, he barely squeaks back into office. Atlanta is captured, the Mississippi is under Union control, and the entire Southern coasts is blockaded but yet the South still fights with all they have. Look no further than this blood year. Over one hundred thousand of our boys were killed, wounded, or captured. One hundred thousand! Grant and Sherman are not generals, they are cattle drivers pushing herds of men into the abattoir for the slaughter! I give not one single of iota of compassion for Negro freedom and equality if the price for that freedom is to be paid with the lives of good white men.

-- Representative Alexander Long on the House floor.