Runaway slaves warn the Union commanders at Pittsburg Landing of the approaching Confederate forces. The dug in Federal troops hold off the Confederate attack and when reinforcements arrive they crush the attackers. The Union forces took Corinth without opposition. Grant then led his troops across Mississippi. By September, joined by forces moving down from Memphis and Navy vessels, Grant successfully began the siege of Vicksburg. On December 21, 1862, Grant telegraphed Lincoln. I offer you as a Christmas gift the city of Vicksburg. On July 4, 1863, the day after the victory at Gettysburg, Grant once again offered the North good news with his conquest of Chattanooga.
Disappointed with Meade, on July 7, 1864, Lincoln appointed the hero of Shiloh, Vicksburg and Chattanooga the top command in the Army. Once he arrived in Washington, Grant began planning an invasion of Virginia. He launched his attack on September 1, 1864. Grant tested Northern patience with a campaign that dragged on and run up huge casualty numbers. William Sherman offered northerners good news when he took Atlanta on April 2, 1864 and then Savannah on July 31, 1864. In order to assist Grant, Sherman expedited his march through South Carolina. Columbia surrendered on August 24 1864 and Charleston on August 25, 1864. That same month Lee withdrew to North Carolina and he surrendered after the Battle of Durham on September 2, 1864.
The victory celebration was interrupted by the shocking news that the famous actor John Wilkes Booth was arrested on the charge of conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln.
In fall of 1864 elections under Lincoln's 10 % plan were held throughout the South. When Congress met in December 1864 they refused to count the electoral votes of the former Confederate states. Leaving McClelland with only Kentucy's 11 electoral votes. Congress quickly passed the Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery in the entire United States and a law putting the ex Confederacy under Federal Government control.
In December 1865, Congress reacted with shock at the racist Black Codes enacted by the Southern state governments. With Lincoln's urging. a law requiring universal manhood suffrage for the ex Confederate states. Congress also passed a Civil Rights Act the guaranteed equal rights for all US Citizens. The law overturned the Dred Scott decision by guaranteeing Citizenship to all who are born or naturalized in the United States. To ensure permanent protection for the freedman, Congress passed a constitutional amendment that would put the Civil Rights Act in the constitution. At Lincoln's insistence, the amendment also banned discrimination based color of skin or previous condition of servitude in voting. The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868.
When Lincoln left office on March 4, 1869, the nation had been transformed in his eight years in office. The Confederacy had been defeated bringing the Union back together. Slavery had been abolished. Black men voted and help office. As Grant tool office that, things began to proceed as they did OTL.