Secession and Civil War
South Carolina promptly seceded from the Union, in December 1860. When efforts at compromise failed, six other Southern states followed its example. Together they formed the Confederate States of America. All this happened before Lincoln became president on March 4, 1861. In his inaugural address he pleaded for harmony and insisted that the Union could not be dissolved. He hoped for a peaceful solution but was prepared to risk war rather than see the nation permanently divided.
The critical spot was Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. This was one of the few places within the Confederacy still held by Federal troops. Lincoln, proceeding cautiously, planned to send supplies but not reinforcements to the garrison there. Early in the morning of April 12, however, Southerners opened fire on the fort and soon forced its surrender. Lincoln immediately proclaimed a blockade of the Confederacy and issued a call for volunteers to suppress the rebellion. This provoked the secession of four more Southern states. As spring gave way to summer, both sides were preparing hastily for war.
War President
From the beginning, Lincoln understood the essential nature of the Civil War better than most of his generals. The Confederacy could gain independence merely by defending itself successfully. However, the Union forces had to conquer the enemy in order to win. Most of the material advantages were with the North. It had greater manpower, wealth, and industrial strength. Lincoln's task was to mobilize Northern superiority and make it effective on the battlefield. He favored pressing forward on several fronts to prevent the Confederates from concentrating their defenses. He also believed that the primary aim of Union strategy should be the destruction of Southern armies rather than the capture of Southern cities like Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital. In the early part of the war, however, Lincoln was unable to find a general capable of maintaining an offensive against the great Confederate general Robert E. Lee.
The Battle of Bull Run in July 1861 was only the first of many Union defeats and disappointments on the Virginia front. More successful in the West, Union forces captured New Orleans and were gaining control of the lower Mississippi. At the end of 1862, however, the war was obviously still far from over.
Although military affairs occupied much of his attention, Lincoln had many other presidential duties to perform. On the whole he was content to allow his cabinet members a free hand in the administration of their departments. He rarely sought to influence Congress and seldom used his veto. Some of the more notable bills that he signed were the Homestead Act, which provided free land in the West to settlers; the Pacific Railway Act; and the National Banking Act.
Emancipation
Despite his own strong antislavery feelings, Lincoln insisted at first that the purpose of the war was to save the Union, not to destroy slavery. But pressure from abolitionists, who demanded an immediate end to slavery, steadily increased, and the president decided that emancipation could be justified as a military measure to weaken the enemy. It would also make the Northern cause more noble in the eyes of the world. After announcing his intention in September 1862, Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.
Since it applied only to the areas still under Confederate control, the proclamation did not actually free very many blacks from bondage. Yet it was a symbol and a commitment that changed the nature of the war. From then on, everyone knew that a Northern victory would mean the end of slavery. Emancipation became complete and final with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. Approved by Congress at Lincoln's urging, it was not ratified by a sufficient number of states until after his death.
Toward Victory
The responsibilities of his office and the mounting toll of battle casualties weighed heavily on Lincoln's spirit. For relaxation he swapped jokes, read books of humor, and visited the theater. In his more serious moments, however, he turned to Shakespeare and the Bible. Pondering the causes of the war, Lincoln came to believe that it was a divine punishment of all Americans for the sin of slavery.
The turning point of the war came in early July 1863. Lee's army, attempting a second invasion of the North, was defeated at the battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. At the same time, General Ulysses S. Grant captured Vicksburg, the last important Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. Later that same year Lincoln helped dedicate the military cemetery at Gettysburg. His memorable address of only a few hundred words summoned the nation to complete the great task in which so many men had given “the last full measure of devotion…”
Early in 1864, Lincoln promoted Grant to the command of all Union armies. Grant then began the hard, bloody work of driving Lee back toward Richmond. At the same time, General William T. Sherman launched an nvasion of Georgia. When his troops occupied Atlanta in September 1864, the war entered its final phase.
Meanwhile, the time for another presidential election had arrived. Lincoln, although opposed by some dissatisfied Republicans, won renomination without much trouble. The Democrats chose General George B. McClellan as their candidate, with a platform demanding immediate peace. For a time Lincoln despaired of victory, but Sherman's progress in Georgia helped his cause. Union soldiers voted overwhelmingly for Lincoln, and he was re-elected.
The Last Full Measure
As the Union armies pressed forward, Lincoln gave increasing attention to the problem of restoring peace when victory was achieved. It must be done, he said in his second inaugural address, “With malice toward none; with charity for all…” Desiring the speedy “reconstruction” of a united republic, he set forth a simple plan. Ten percent of the voters in a Confederate state, if they took an oath of allegiance to the United States, could organize a government and resume their old place in the federal union. By 1865 several states were putting the plan into operation. But strong opposition had developed in Congress. Many Republicans believed that such generosity was unrealistic. They felt that there should be more punishment for Southern traitors and more protection for freed slaves. The whole question of Reconstruction remained unsettled at the time of Lincoln's death.
On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. Throughout the North there were joyful celebrations. Five nights later, Lincoln and Mary attended a play at Ford's Theater in Washington. There he was shot by John Wilkes Booth, an actor devoted to the Confederate cause. Lincoln never regained consciousness and died the next morning, April 15. Booth escaped to Virginia but was later trapped by Union soldiers and killed.
While the news of the assassination sped across the country, Vice President Andrew Johnson hastily took the oath of office as president. The war had ended, but the war leader had fallen. A crowd of mourners gathered at each railway station as the funeral train rolled westward toward the Illinois prairie, to Springfield, where Abraham Lincoln was buried. It was a tragic ending but also a triumphant one, for he left behind a nation reunited and a people set free.
Don E. Fehrenbacher
Stanford University, Author, Prelude to Greatness: Lincoln in the 1850's