• Civil War Lecture: Lincoln, Leadership and Race, Emancipation as Policy

Background information on major turning points in the war:

• Military Campaign of 1862 was very important!

• Resulted in the Emancipation Proclamation

• Battle of Gettysburg major event / battle in the war

• Fourth of july 1863, Gettysburg is over, Lee & the South would never recover.

• Grant (Union) attacks Vicksburg Maryland, July 3rd: Confeds ask for surrender terms from Grant

• Turning pint : fall of Atlanta 1864

• Now the confederacy is cut into two parts

• Election of 1864: major turning point, Lincoln vs. McClellan…Lincoln “I’m going to be beaten, and
unless some great changes take place, badly beaten.”…Changes did take place (militarily) and
Lincoln won the election

• Relection of Lincoln in 1864 was crucial.

Key idea from the Lecture: How emancipation changed the war
• Greatest single turning point: the emancipation of the slaves

• Emancipation of 4.2 million slaves destroyed southern society (July 1st, 1863)

• Only freed slaves behind Confederate lines:

o Did not apply to southern land already occupied by the Union

o Did not apply to slave states that had not seceded

• Emancipation changed what the Civil War was being fought over

• 180 000 slaves will end up in the Union Army

South Begins their invasion attempt

• Lee invaded the north through the Blue Ridge Mountains.

• Point of the invasion of the North was to take the war out of Virginia, Great Britain was about to
recognize the confeds…if confeds can with, than Great Britain might give the confederacy access to
the British Navy (Union then looses)

• Lee believed that in Maryland there was confederate sympathy and the men were enthusiastic about
fighting.

• 3-4 thousand union soldiers wounded confederates starving and not very well clothed Maryland
farms being robbed?

• Union surrounded D.C, there was little resistance. Lee split his army into three parts
• Lincoln put McClellan back in command in Washinghton D.C

• McClellan had 90,000 troops, but he never attacked Lee’s separated 60,000

• September 17, 1862 Battle of Antietam: the single bloodiest battle in American history

• McClellan’s stroke of luck…found out Lee’s plans wrapped around bunch of Cigars…he attacked

• 23000 casualties on both sides 5000 dead and no clear winner at Antietam

• McClellan blew it at Antietam…he possibly could have crushed Lee because Lee hat the Potomac at
his back. Could the war have been over in 1862? The South lost ¼ of their men, but crossed the
Potomac into Virginia to fight again.

• Lincoln fires McClellan in Nov. of 1862…Lincoln’s thoughts on McClellan, he has “the slows.”

• Lee would have been defeated and the war in the east would have been ended but he went back
again

• Wake of Antietam was when Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation: January 1, 1863

• Lincoln has become known for many powerful ideas and words, but in reality, he has many legends
around his name. 1.) Humorous, light man. 2.) Political genius and leader.

• He was never really open with the public about his personal life, probably wanted to be seen more as
a political figure.

• Why hadn’t McClellan moved? “I love him. Not because he was perfect but because he was not
perfect. There was something left, so at the crisis he was big enough to be inconsistent.” WEB
DuBoise

• Lincoln wanted to preserve the Union, not save the slaves.

• Left off at 30:45

• Abe Lincoln had the capacity for growth

• Appalled at slave trade of district of Columbia

• Supported the compromise of 1850, believed in giving owners $ for slaves in DC

• He believed in colonization for the slaves

• 1861 slaves started to try and fight…slowly migrated over to union lines (what does the union do?)

• Dred Scott = slaves are property…union starts to confiscate slaves as property from the
Confederacy.

• Any slave who escaped into union lines, the officer in charge of that unit had to return the slave to
the owner, if the owner was loyal to the union. (impossible to prove who is loyal and who isn’t)

• Majority of congress was northern…leads to new fugitive slave policy

• Fugitive slaves must be admitted to owners and taken out of union camps (denial had caused chaos)

• January 1862, all slaves must be returned to the camps. There was a rebellion in Massachusetts over
the issue

• 16th of April passed law congress ended slavery in the District of Columbia.

• 1862, Lincoln supported sending emancipated slaves “home” to Africa.

• Congress finally abolished slavery in the western territories in 4/1862

• July 17, 1862 “second confiscation act” , freed any slaves in rebellion

• Second Confiscation Act…meanwhile Lee is invading the North and Lincoln starts to draft the E
Proc. As a legal draft, as early as 6/7 of 62

• Lincolns original idea was to free the slaves gradually(35 years) = flip flopper... true politician

• Save the union with all the slaves or save the union with some of the slaves= preserve the union

• Lincoln issued the preliminary emancipation act. Jan 1st – preliminary and states in rebellion slaves
freed.

• 22 year old slave accomplishes a lot more then most in life, writes a story of his escape, eventually
becomes free; talks about individuals becoming free everyday.