Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief
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on Butler’s occupation of Baltimore
conflict with McClellan
evacuation of Fort Sumter urged by
failure to meet expectations
Lincoln’s assertion of authority over
Lincoln’s orders to retake forts
Lincoln’s visit in June 1862
retirement of
as Virginian
secession:
Baltimore’s enthusiasm for
Lincoln on latent Unionism of seceded states
Lincoln’s denial of legitimacy of
Lincoln’s efforts to keep border states from seceding
of lower South states of Tennessee of Virginia
Second Confiscation Act
Seven Days’ battles
Seven Pines, Battle of
Seward, William H.:
Emancipation Proclamation’s postponement urged by
evacuation of Fort Sumter urged by
at Hampton Roads Conference
Lincoln’s announcement of Emancipation
Proclamation to
on Lincoln’s first inaugural address
and Lincoln snubbed by McClellan
McClellan on in Powhatan misadventure
on reinforcements from East to Rosecrans
Republican attempt to force out
on Southern Unionism
Shenandoah Valley:
in Early’s Washington raid
in Grant’s coordinated strategy for 1864
Jackson’s 1862 campaign in
in Lee’s march into Pennsylvania
in Lincoln’s strategy of July 1861
in McDowell’s plan for Bull Run
Sheridan given command in
Sheridan’s campaign in
Sigel defeated at New Market
Sheridan, Philip H.
Sherman, William Tecumseh:
Atlanta taken by
to Chattanooga
distance from Washington as advantage for
East Tennessee invasion called off by
given command in West by Grant
in Grant’s coordinated strategy for 1864
learning to reduce supplies
Lincoln’s role in giving top command to
march to the sea
political sponsorship of
stalled short of Atlanta
talking Grant out of resigning
in Vicksburg campaign of 1862
in Vicksburg campaign of 1863
Shields, James
Shiloh, Battle of
Sigel, Franzslavery: colonization supported by Lincoln
Congress’s prohibition on returning slaves to their masters
in evolution of Lincoln’s policy
freed slaves in Union army
freed slaves’ view of Lincoln in Richmond
Frémont’s liberation of slaves
Hampton Roads discussion on
Hunter’s liberation of slaves
Lincoln’s abolition efforts in border states
Lincoln’s attitude toward
in Lincoln’s conditions for peace
Lincoln’s denials of threat to
Lincoln’s proposed constitutional amendment to abolish
McClellan’s attitude toward
Maryland and Missouri abolition movements
military strategy affected by
Northern attitude hardened against
Northern backlash against emancipation
Peace Democrats on
Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction on
in Second Confiscation Act
Thirteenth Amendment’s abolition of
See also Emancipation Proclamation
Smith, William F.
South Carolina:
islands off coast captured
as only state with secessionist majority
Port Royalsecession of
Sherman’s march through
Unionists on enforcing federal law in
See also Charleston
Special Order No. 1 (Lincoln)
Spencer repeaters
Stanton, Edwin M.:
appointed secretary of war
on Burnside’s proposed move across Rappahannock
on court-martialing McClellan after Second Bull Run
Dana sent to check on Grant by
Hitchcock offered command by
Hooker’s removal supported by
Lincoln’s failure to heed advice from
McClellan’s blaming for defeat on Peninsula
McClellan’s demand for removal after Antietam
on McClellan’s Harpers Ferry fiasco
and McClellan’s refusal to take responsibility for failure on Peninsula
and McClernand’s in de pen dent command
Meade favored for army command by
prisoner exchanges suspended by
public criticism of after Seven Days
on reinforcements from East to Rosecrans
relations with McClellan
returning McClellan to command opposed by
on Rosecrans’s Tennessee campaigns
on Thomas’s delays in attacking Hood
Stephens, Alexander
Stones River, Battle of strategy. See military strategy; national strategy Streight, Abel
Stuart, Jeb
tactics
Taney, Roger B.
Tennessee:
Battle of Shiloh
Battle of Stones River
Buell’s attempt to liberate East
Chattanooga
Confederate cavalry raids in 1862
exemption from Emancipation Proclamation in
Union
fall of Forts Henry and Donelson
Forrest’s raid of March 1864
Knoxville
Lincoln’s call for militia refused by
Lincoln’s continuing concern for in 1864
in McClellan’s August 1861 plan
Memphis
Nashville
Rosecrans’s campaigns of 1863
Unionists in East
Texas
Thirteenth Amendment
Thomas, George H.: advance toward East Tennessee
Battle of Chickamauga
given army command by Grant
Hood defeated at Nashville by
left by Sherman to deal with Hood
Lincoln’s desire to replace Buell with
Lincoln’s role in giving top command to
Thomas, Lorenzo
Trent affair
Tullahoma campaign
Vallandigham, Clement L.
Van Dorn, Earl
Vicksburg:
Banks given responsibility for taking
black troops in siege of
Grant’s 1862 campaign against
Grant’s 1863 campaign against
holding out in 1862
McClernand’s plan for campaign against
Northern morale lifted by capture of
surrender of
Virginia:
Alexandria
becoming main theater of the war
Butler’s declaration that slaves were contraband of war in
Campbell’s proposal that legislature repeal secession ordinance
exemption from Emancipation Proclamation in federal-occupied
federal military officials and commanders from
in Grant’s original strategy for 1864
Grant’s Overland campaign of 1864
Harpers Ferry
initial rejection of secession
Lincoln’s attempt to prevent secession by
Lincoln’s call for militia refused by
in McClellan’s August 1861 plan
McClellan’s delay in late 1861
in McClellan’s Urbana plan
Norfolk
Occoquan Valley
Petersburg
secession of
U.S. military bases seized in
See also Manassas; Peninsula campai
gn; Richmond; Shenandoah Valley
Wade, Benjamin
Wade-Davis bill
War Powers of the President (Whiting)
Washburne, Elihu B.
Washington, D.C.:
Early’s raid on outskirts of
enemy batteries on Potomac below
Lincoln’s insistence on defense for
Lincoln’s opposition to arrest of Confederate sympathizers in
McClellan’s overestimate of threat to
slavery abolished in
strengthening defenses of
Welles, Gideon:
anger with McClellan after Second Bull Run
on casualties of 1864
on Du Pont’s attack on Charleston
on failure to follow up Antietam victory
on Lincoln after Lee’s escape from Gettysburg
Lincoln’s announcement of Emancipation
Proclamation to
Lincoln’s complaints about Meade to
on Lincoln’s doubts about Hooker
McClellan on
on mood in Washington in early 1864
receiving word of Vicksburg’s surrender
on retaliation for killing black soldiers
Whiting, William
Wilder, John T.
Wilderness, Battle of the
Wright, Horatio
Yorktown, siege of
PHOTOGRAPHIC INSERT
Abraham Lincoln may have been the most photographed president before the twentieth century. Portraits by Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and other photographers show a president who aged a lifetime over the four stressful years of war; in this photograph from the middle of the war, he appears much older than his age of fifty-four. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
General-in-chief of the U.S. Army at the outbreak of the Civil War, Winfield Scott was America’s most celebrated soldier since George Washington. He had fought in the War of 1812 and led the army that captured Mexico City in 1847. But by 1861 he was seventy-five years old, weighed more than three hundred pounds, suffered from edema and vertigo, and sometimes fell asleep during conferences. His physical incapacities were matched by the passiveness of his “Anaconda Plan” strategy. On November 1, 1861, he retired from the army. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Few Union officers looked less like a general than Benjamin Butler. A prewar Democrat, he had actually supported Jefferson Davis for the party’s presidential nomination in 1860. But the initiative and energy he showed in the occupation of Annapolis and Baltimore with Union militia at the beginning of the war earned Lincoln’s gratitude and Butler’s promotion to major general. His war record thereafter, however, was decidedly mixed. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
At the age of thirty-four, George B. McClellan was appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac in July 1861 and general-in-chief in November of that year. Newspapers extolled him as “the Young Napoleon,” an image that he tried to convey in this Napoleonic pose for the photographer. Lincoln soon discovered, however, that McClellan’s generalship was anything but Napoleonic. NATIONAL ARCHIVES
A former Democrat and a close friend of General McClellan in 1861, Edwin M. Stanton shared with McClellan a contemptuous opinion of the Lincoln administration. After Lincoln appointed him secretary of war in January 1862, however, Stanton’s opinions of the president and the general underwent 180-degree reversals. An efficient administrator, Stanton was also a lighting rod for hostility from McClellan and his supporters. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
The author and translator of books on military history and theory, mining law, and international law, Henry W. Halleck was known as “Old Brains.” On the strength of his administrative ability and the success of armies under his command in the Kentucky-Tennessee theater in 1862, Lincoln appointed him general-in-chief in July of that year. Halleck’s indecisiveness, however, caused Lincoln to lose faith in him. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Gen. Ambrose Burnside successfully commanded a small army that won control of key areas and cities on the North Carolina coast in 1862. Disappointed with McClellan after the Seven Days’ battles and Second Bull Run, Lincoln twice offered Burnside command of the Army of the Potomac. Burnside declined and urged second and third chances for McClellan. Lincoln decided not to give that general a fourth chance, however, and appointed a reluctant Burnside to the command in November 1862. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
This photograph of Lincoln and McClellan in a tent near the Antietam battlefield was taken by Alexander Gardner on October 3, 1862, during Lincoln’s visit to the Army of the Potomac after the battle. Ten days later the president wrote to McClellan, reminding him of their discussion of “what I called your over-cautiousness.” That conversation probably occurred in this tent. McClellan did not take Lincoln’s advice to heart, and a month later the president removed him from command. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
An obscure colonel of an Illinois regiment in 1861, Ulysses S. Grant disovered that the enemy colonel during a minor confrontation in Missouri “had been as afraid of me as I had been of him. The lesson was valuable.” He demonstrated this lesson in the capture of Fort Donelson, in seizing victory from the jaws of defeat at Shiloh, in the capture of Vicksburg, and in the victory at Chattanooga. Lincoln appointed Grant general-in-chief in 1864, expecting that he would finally infuse this spirit into the officer corps of the Army of the Potomac, which was previously more afraid of Robert E. Lee than Lee was of them. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS