First Paragraph

 The year began with a day so warm and fine that only the calendar said January. There would be few pleasant moments in 1862, but New Year's Day in Washington, D.C. was one of them. Everyone was out enjoying the sunshine that morning - women in demure bonnets, men wishing they had left their overcoats at home, children dodging and shouting. The dusty streets of the half-built city were filled with people making their way toward the White House, where, by tradition, the president threw open the doors on the first day of each year.

- From Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America's Most Perilous Year by David Von Drehle