Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies: President Lincoln Relieves General Joe Hooker of Command (Illustrated)

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) is one of the most famous Americans in history and one of the country’s most revered presidents. Schoolchildren can recite the life story of Lincoln, the “Westerner” who educated himself and became a self made man, rising from lawyer to leader of the new Republican Party before becoming the 16th President of the United States. Lincoln successfully navigated the Union through the Civil War but didn’t live to witness his own accomplishment, becoming the first president assassinated when he was killed at Ford’s Theater by John Wilkes Booth.

Lincoln is still popular amongst Americans, and rightfully so, but the narrative of his life and presidency often leave out just how difficult a time he had managing the Civil War, especially in the East. Lincoln had a front row seat for Robert E. Lee’s constant bedeviling of the Army of the Potomac, and Lincoln fired several commanders, including George McClellan and Ambrose Burnside.

It was after firing Burnside in early 1863 that Lincoln put Fighting Joe Hooker in command of the Army of the Potomac, writing him a famous letter informing him of his promotion. But after Hooker lost at Chancellorsville, correspondence between the government and Hooker led to Hooker offering his resignation, which Lincoln accepted just days before the Battle of Gettysburg. The correspondence that led to Lincoln relieving Hooker of command was preserved in The War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies.

This edition includes pictures of both men and other important generals.