Shoes...

After Chancellorsville, Lincoln was pretty distraught, so distraught, he threw his hat.



He told Hooker to follow Lee's troops, but Hooker decided to take a page out of Ol' McClellan's book and drag his feet.

While he was wasting time, Confederate troops marched into Pennsylvania.



With Lee and the Confederates in Pennsylvania, Lincoln got rid of Hooker, next in command would be General George Meade.



Remember Cinderella? She had an evil stepmother, horrible step sisters, and animals that made her a dress. Long story short....she went to a ball, had to be back by midnight, or she'd turn into a pumpkin or something. She met the Prince, he was like "Dang girl, you got it going on". The clock was about to turn twelve, she was like "ohh no...I must flee into the night". She runs off the prince follows and she randomly loses a shoe, a glass slipper to be precise. The Prince took the slipper and decided that he would make every girl in the kingdom try on the shoe until he found who owned it, because there would never be any possibility of more than one person having the same shoe size. Anyway.....

So eventually, after some lame shenanigans performed by evil step mother and step sisters, Cinderella tries on the shoe and it fits, they live happily ever after....



So, now that I've rambled about Cinderella, you are probably wondering what is the point? How does this have anything to do with the Civil War?

Well, a pair of shoes changed Cinderella's life and the biggest battle of the Civil war occured, because of Shoes.



The Confederates knew there was a stock pile of shoes in Pennsylvania. They really needed them, so they set out to get them, hoping that when they got there they wouldn't have to deal with the ridiculousness of a Shoe Carnival store.



Luckily, it was not a Shoe Carnival, but, that was as far as their luck went, they didn't realize the entire Army of the Potomac was right behind them..and they would meet...in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Hello Hooker, Goodbye Jackson.

Alright...the Emancipation Proclamation has been passed, General Burnside lost a battle...where are we now? Luckily for you reader, I KNOW!

After the ol' Burnside mishap of taking his troops and charging them directly at the Confederate troops no less than 14 times, Lincoln was looking for a new general.



The next general in line was Joseph Hooker, he was kind of a drunk.

He met Lee's army near Chancellorsville. The plan was to outflank Lee, this didn't work. Lee sent ol' Stonewall Jackson to outflank Hooker and his men.


Even though the Union outnumbered the Confederates two to one, the Confederates won the battle, but, it cost them a lot. Lee lost 13,000 men, and.....Stonewall Jackson. He was hit by fire from his own men. Lee was at a loss.



Even though the loss of Jackson was devastating for Lee, he knew what had to be done. A move so bold, a move so daring, he would have to attack the North!

Emancipation Procolomation

The war was raging, the country was still split, and thousands were dead.

Lincoln needed something, he wanted support from abroad, he needed a feel good sentiment, he needed something great. Whatever it was, he knew it had to be BIG.


He thought and he thought...and then....




Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation!

This freed the slaves in the Confederate States, IN YOUR FACE, CONFEDERACY!!!

After this, the slaves were free...or were they?

No...not really. First, the Confederate states were not under the authority of Lincoln, their president was Jefferson Davis.



Second, we have the Boarder States, remember them? Well..you should....but, if you don't, these were the states still in the Union that had slaves. Were they free? No...

What about the areas in the South that were under Union control...were they free? No, they weren't either.

Well, I guess its the the thought that counts.



Side Note!!!!!

After this was issued many freed blacks became soldiers. There were around 180,000 black soldiers in the Union Army. One very famous regiment was the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry....they were from Massachusetts.

They fought valiantly at Fort Wagner, South Carolina.

To learn more about this regiment, watch Glory, starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, and the always fantastic, Morgan Freeman!

General Ambrose Burnside...

Lincoln named Ambrose Burnside the new head guy, Burnside was known for his sweet sideburns, its even where they got their name!



General Ambrose Burnside took 110,000 men towards Richmond.

They came upon 75,000 Confederate soldiers at Fredericksburg. Lee figured the Union would cross the river above or below town, but, Burnside thought a surprise would be better.




Yes, Burnside decided to cross directly in front of the Confederates. He figured their size alone would force the Confederates to retreat.

He was wrong. Over the course of the day, Burnside had his men charge 14 times, his commanding officers begged him to stop. After it was all said and done, the Union lost 13,000 men. The North went back into its depression.

In Some Cases, Slow and Steady Does Not Win the Race....

Meanwhile, back in the East......things were pretty terrible.

They were still trying to reach Richmond, so General McClellan had an idea....



It was a good idea, but McClellan was a little slow on the uptake which often frustrated Lincoln.



Finally, McClellan and his men moved out. He had around 100,000 troops when they met up with 15,000 Confederate soldiers in Yorktown. 100,000 v. 15,000, should have been an easy win, but nope, not for McClellan.

He wanted more troops from Lincoln, Lincoln said no and told him to stop being a wuss.



Of course, McClellan ignored Lincoln and curled into the fetal position for a month until he decided to finally go to Yorktown.

The Confederates turned around and went towards Richmond, but because of McClellan's delay, the Confederates were able to gather more troops.

The Union were still traveling when, OMG! The Confederates attacked when the Union forces were on opposite sides of a river.



This was the Battle of Seven Pines, neither side won, but both sides suffered heavy losses.

Once again, McClellan waited for reinforcements and while he was waiting, Robert e. Lee knew McClellan was a "wait around Wanda", so he sent Stonewall Jackson to fight in the Shenandoah. This left Lee really short handed, but he pretty much knew McClellan wouldn't act.

Then the Confederates decided to be tricksters and let it out that they were going to attack Washington D.C. Lincoln heard this and told McClellan reinforcements to stay in D.C.

This is what the Confederates were hoping for.

Jackson returned to Lee and no reinforcements were coming to McClellan. Confederates attacked, these battles lasted for 7 days, they called it the Seven Day's Battle, they were very clever.

The Union won 4 of these battles, but still, under McClellan's orders, they retreated.


While McClellan was doing nothing, Lincoln sent another General, John Pope, to Northern Virginia.

Lincoln told McClellan to attack and trap Lee's forces. Guess what..?

He didn't do it. Then Lincoln told him to join Pope's troops in Virginia.

Lee decided to strike before the two armies combined. They met in Mananas and fought. Pope was defeated.

Ironically enough, it was pretty much the same place the Union lost their first battle a year earlier. The Union had lost the 2nd Battle of Bull Run.

The Civil War Begins...

South Carolina got together and talked about leaving the Union. This idea was easily passed with no objections.

Four days later, South Carolina issued the reasons why they were leaving.



After these reasons were stated, other states followed South Carolina's lead.

Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas all left. Eventually four other states; Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas warned that if the federal government used force against a state, they would leave too.

Lincoln now had to decide what he was going to do. He thought that if he pubically said something, he would make it worse, so he privately tried to talk southern leaders into staying in the Union.




Meanwhile, the South was forming their government. They chose Jefferson Davis as president and named their new nation the Confederate States of America.

Things reached a climax at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Even though South Carolina had succeeded, the fort was still controlled by the United States.

Jefferson Davis had to decide what to do, so he chose to attack.



On April 12, Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, the American Civil War had begun.

Ladies and Gentleman, Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln has been mentioned a few times, but this was where Lincoln really broke out. Lincoln was a man of humble beginnings. Born in Kentucky in a log cabin, he and his family moved to Illinois. This is why Illinois is the Land of Lincoln.



Growing up, Lincoln saw slavery and disliked it, he later became a legislator in the Illinois General Assembly. He spent some time in Vandalia, IL (we have historic sites to prove it). He married Mary Todd who was also crazy, but probably not John Brown Crazy.

He was then a Congressman then he went into political retirement.

His retirement was short lived, the Kansas Nebraska situation really bothered him. Stephen Douglas bothered him. He would face Douglas for a race for a Senate seat.




Lincoln and Douglas would take part in a series of debates that drew massive crowds.

They debated in 7 towns throughout Illinois, they stood on tree stumps!



Even though Lincoln did not like slavery, he was still a man of his times. In no way am I character assassinating Lincoln, but I think its important to not paint a pretty picture with no bad in it.

In a debate in Charleston, Illinois (Visit the Lincoln Douglas Debate Museum in Charleston, IL!!!), Lincoln said "I will say then, that I am not, nor have ever been in favor of bringing about in anyway social and political equality of the white and black races".

This will be interesting to remember, remember it, seriously.

When all the debates were over, Lincoln did not win the Senate seat. Some people would see this as a major loss, but it did make Lincoln pretty famous. It also made southerners not like Douglas all that much.

If you think Lincoln did a good job of getting his name out there then, just wait till he grows a beard.



A bearded Lincoln faced off against Douglas, John C. Breckenridge, and John Bell for president in the election of 1860.

This election was very sectional, Lincoln won the north, while Bell and Breckenridge split the south. Lincoln became the 16th president of the United States with less than 40% of the popular vote.




The North Celebrated




The South was concerned....



One week after Lincoln was elected, trouble started to brew...

Bleeding Kansas

During this time, tides were turning against the Democrats and the Whigs. A new party was rising, the Republicans, or sometimes called the "free soil" party. It was called this because they opposed the spread of slavery. So the soil would be free....get it?! Huh, huh, get it?!

Another young politician from Illinois joined this party. Who was this man? This man was Abraham Lincoln.



You might want to remember Lincoln for later.

As you could probably imagine, a subject as controversial as slavery would result in some high tensions. Things got pretty violent and Kansas became known as "Bleeding Kansas".

Both pro slavery and anti slavery people were rushing to the new territory to have an affect on popular sovereignty.




The first election for the question of slavery took place in November of 1854. 1700 armed Missourians crossed into Kansas and threatened violence if they couldn't vote.



Because fear is a good motivator, a pro slavery delegate was elected.

Other fraud with the voting occurred so both sides decided to set up their own governments in Kansas.

This obviously will not work.