During the last fraught months of the Civil War, the fate of the United States was far from secure. Tens of thousands of Rebel troops were still in the field, the Lincoln presidency was collapsing, and a peace movement was gaining traction in the North. Using long-forgotten evidence, best-selling author and historian Scott Ellsworth P’24 unveils a startling new interpretation of the Lincoln assassination, and pays tribute to the remarkable coalition of loyal Americans—men and women, Black and white, native-born and immigrant—who defeated the Confederacy, destroyed slavery, and gave the nation a new burst of freedom.