LYCOS RETRIEVER 
President Abraham Lincoln: General Grant
built 132 days ago
After the general store failed, Lincoln was appointed postmaster of New Salem. The appointment came from Jackson's Democratic administration. Lincoln's Whig views were well known, but, as Lincoln explained it, the postmaster's job was "too insignificant to make his politics an objection." As postmaster, Lincoln earned $60 a year plus a percentage of the receipts on postage. He ran an informal post office, often doing favors for friends, such as undercharging them for mailing letters. The job gave him time to read, and he made a habit of reading all the newspapers that came through the office. To augment his income, he became the deputy surveyor of Sangamon County.
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Lincoln authorized Grant to target civilians and infrastructure, hoping to destroy the South's morale and weaken its economic ability to continue fighting. This allowed Generals Sherman and Sheridan to destroy farms and towns in the Shenandoah Valley, Georgia, and South Carolina. The damage caused by Sherman's March to the Sea through Georgia totaled in excess of $100 million by Sherman's own estimate.[30]
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Interesting note: Giuseppe Garibaldi, the great Italian patriot and freedom fighter was considered for the top post in the Union Army by President Lincoln at the start of the war. This was before the Union finally found a winning General in U.S. Grant!
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After the Union victory at Gettysburg, Meade's failure to pursue Lee and months of inactivity for the Army of the Potomac persuaded Lincoln to bring in a western general, Ulysses S. Grant. Grant already had a solid string of victories in the Western Theater, including the battles of Vicksburg and Chattanooga. Responding to criticism of Grant, Lincoln was quoted as saying, "I cannot spare this man. He fights." Grant waged his bloody Overland Campaign in 1864 with a strategy of a war of attrition, characterized by high Union losses at battles such as the Wilderness and Cold Harbor, but by proportionately higher Confederate losses. His invasion campaign eventually bottled Lee up in the Siege of Petersburg, so that Grant could take Richmond, and bring the war to a close in the spring of 1865.
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General Grant