I found this passage intriguing:
The immediate magnet was the national convention of the Democratic party, convening on August 29 to nominate a candidate … Broadly speaking, this convention was bringing together everybody who disliked the way the war was being run, with the single exception of the dissident Republicans who felt [the president] was not tough enough. Among the assembling Democrats … were others who wanted only to have the war end — with … victory if possible, without it if necessary. And there were also men who saw the war consuming precious freedoms and creating tyranny, who blended extreme political partisanship with blind fury against the war party and who at least believed that they were ready to strike back without caring much what weapon they used.
They nominated a popular former general who had taken a “courageous” stand against the administration and was personally fired by the president; they established a peace platform calling for rapid truce with the enemy combatants.
It was also known that foreign nationals with definite ties to terrorist groups had come to the convention by way of Canada, aiming to stir up trouble or support, whichever presented itself.
It all sounds very familiar and up to date, maybe even prophetic.
Unfortunately for the Democrats, they could not have known that before the week was out Sherman would be in Atlanta, in six weeks Lincoln would be re-elected, and six weeks after Lincoln’s inauguration Lee’s army would be history. The convention was in 1864, and paragraph quoted is from Bruce Catton’s A Stillness At Appomattox, published during the Korean War.
