Opening paragraphs......

"The man with fourteen days to live is himself witnessing death.  Lincoln (he prefers to go by just his last name.  No one calls him 'Abe,' which he loathes.  Few call him 'Mr. President.'  His wife actually calls him 'Mr. Lincoln,' and his two personal secretaries playfully refer to him as 'the Tycoon') paces the upper deck of the steamboat River Queen, his face lit now and again by distant artillery.  The night air smells of the early spring, damp with a hint of floral fragrance.  The River Queen is docked at City Point, a bustling Virginia port that was infiltrated by Confederate spies last August.  Yet Lincoln strides purposefully back and forth, unprotected and unafraid, as vulnerable as a man can be to sniper fire, the bombardment serving as the perfect distraction from his considerable worries.  When will this war ever end?"
-Bill O'Reilly, Killing Lincoln