No American president has enjoyed as intimate a relationship with the soldiers in his army as did the man they called "Father Abraham." In historian William C. Davis draws on thousands of unpublished letters and diaries — the voices of the volunteers — to tell the hidden story of how a new and untested president became "Father" throughout both the army and the North as a whole. How did Lincoln inspire the faith and courage of so many shattered men, as they wandered the inferno of Shiloh or were entrenched in the siege of Vicksburg? Why did soldiers visiting Washington feel free to stroll into the White House as if it were their own home? In this through and authoritative work, Davis removes layers of mythmaking to recapture the real moods and feelings of an army facing one of history's bloodiest conflicts. casts a new light on our most famous president and on America's revolution — on our country's father and its rebirth.