US Civil War

Because of his views on slavery, Abraham Lincoln inspired both passionate supporters and equally vehement detractors. John Wilkes Booth despised Lincoln's desire to end slavery; Booth supported the Confederacy. After he assassinated Lincoln, Booth was surprised that the public opposed what he had done. He expected to be regarded as a hero.
He hoped to revive the spirit of the South and continue the War of Northern Agression.
John Wilkes Booth originally planned to kidnap Lincoln but then decided to shoot him.

vicksburg

the public was shocked and horrified by the large number of dead and injured. (novanet)

General Lee responded by having another shot at invading the North, which came to grief at Gettysburg.

An exceptionally talented President who could control a troublesome cabinet of heavyweights who had been better-known than him, and eventually learned to choose and use the best Generals.

Southern democrats appealed to small farmers after the Civil War because they wanted to get the farmers to see that building roads would end in higher taxes. They also wanted to get the farmers to see that the higher taxes would happen if schools were to be built.
One way in which Southern Democrats appealed to small farmers was by arguing that the construction of new roads led to higher taxes. They made the same argument in terms of building new schools.

they worked to put white southerners back into power

Leon says about the town of Kinston, "The town has been severely damaged by Union troops". This is from The Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier by Louis Leon.

The Wade-Davis Bill required that a majority of prewar southern voters swear loyalty to the Union.

the deaths of nearly 25,000 Union and Confederate troops at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.

He couldn't declare war, because that would mean recognising the Confederacy as a sovereign nation.

So he called for volunteer troops - and the other side was in no doubt what they were meant for.