Chapters 19-20 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 19 is entitled "I Am Pretty Sure-Footed," and is a quote from a story by Lincoln relating how, for being somewhat awkward, he is able to avoid falling.

As Lincoln's depression worsens, the fighting worsens in the summer of 1864 until Washington itself is threatened by Confederate troops. The threat is repulsed, but Lincoln's impatience grows with General Grant and he sends him a pointed message that he expects Grant to pursue and defeat the Confederate army, not merely defend against its attacks. Grant appoints Philip Sheridan to command the armies of the Shenandoah Valley.

Lincoln is put in a difficult position by the editor Horace Greeley, who informs the President that a party of Confederate representatives are in Canada, near the border, willing to speak to a Union representative about terms of a possible peace settlement. Lincoln, suspecting that...