Few Presidents have been as revered in memory as Abraham Lincoln; none, from his first inauguration, has been so continually threatened with death. (introduction)

In Richmond, Virginia, in the early months of 1864, almost three years from the inception of the Civil War, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, raised the colossal sum of five million dollars (equivalent to $57 million today) from the Confederate Congress for a Secret Service fund that would unofficially be operated by Judah P. Benjamin, his accomplished and ingenious Secretary of State.