In the last full year of the Civil War, Washington, D.C., came within hours of being invaded and Lincoln within inches of being shot. During the summer of 1864, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was laying siege to Petersburg, Virginia, deploying every available Union soldier to end the bloody conflict. His counterpart Gen. Robert E. Lee, who along with his famed Army of Northern Virginia, was trapped in nearby Richmond recognized that the Confederate capital would fall. Lee knew Grant and understood that he would never stop attacking until he had Richmond. It was then that Lee hatched a desperate and bold plan to save the Confederacy and perhaps bring the war to an end—but on the South’s terms.

Robert Watson, a professor of American history at Lynn University, recounts this largely forgotten attack on Washington and its defense, as well as the fascinating events surrounding the battle. His book Rebels at the Gates: The Confederacy's Final Gamble and the Battle to Save Washington (Rowman & Littlefield) is available for purchase.

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