The Lesson of Lincoln

The Lesson of Lincoln

Lincoln vs. Davis: The War of the Presidents, by Nigel Hamilton. Little, Brown, and Company, October 2024, 800 pages. On the same day—February 11, 1861—Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln both set out on fateful meandering train trips: Davis from Vicksburg, Mississippi, over five days and 700 miles, to Montgomery, Alabama; Lincoln from his hometown of Springfield, Illinois, over twelve days and 1,900 miles, to Washington, D.C. That is where Nige…