He Served in Place of Abraham Lincoln

[maharba]

Good points, Houmes, and close analysis. Thanks. I have heard of even younger children fighting against the swarms of 'Shermans bummers' fresh off the boats and paid to burn, loot, rape Southerners. Of even young girls firing from windows at the invading 'soldiers'. If I were Abraham Lincoln, I think I would have spent a bit more time in producing an enlistment substitute. I would have selected a man from Kentucky or a border state, so that (if the timing was just right), Lincoln could point to this man from Kentucky...who was stirred into devotion to preserve the sacred Union. Lincoln could have assigned Seward to cook up a brief speech with pious-sounding Biblical invocations larded throughout the speech.