I apologize for going over time tonight, sometimes I don't pay enough attention to the clock. I know that quite a bit of time tonight was spent on the war and not specifically on Abraham Lincoln, but I believe that it is hard to understand the momentus nature of what he had to do if you don't understand the massive, violent nature of the Civil War. I again owe Royce Ann a debt of gratitude for sharing that four minute video of the war with me...I believe it is easier to understand the war and its flow if you can visualize the general nature of the actions and that video does a great job of showing that flow. It is normally difficult for people to comprehend that it took until August 1862 before the Union got a victory that Lincoln could use to launch the Emancipation Proclamation, but that is the reality. Up until then the Union had lost at every turn... Royce Ann mentioned driving home that it helped to see how successful Grant and Sherman were in the West and I realized that I had left out recognition of Henry Halleck. While Grant and Sherman were the operators in the western theater, the strategic decisions were made by Halleck. Because of this success, he was brought to Washington by Lincoln to be the Commanding General and supervise George McClellan until McClellan was fired. He and Lincoln then brought Grant and Sheridan east later and they carried the fight to Lee...in the interim Lincoln went through a variety of commanders for the Army of the Potomac...Burnside, Hooker, Meade...all whom eventually lost the president's confidence. Next week we'll look at Lincoln's relationship with Grant and the last two years of the war. I promised you the links for the sites I mentioned so here we go...the four minute video can be found at http://www.idkwtf.com/videos/latest-videos/the-civil-war-in-four-minutes , the Civil War maps from West Point are at
http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/web03/atlases/american_civil_war/index.htm , and the Teaching Civil War with Technology site is at http://blog.teachthecivilwar.com/ . I hope that you are enjoying yourselves...remember, if you have questions you can post them here and I'll answer them as soon as possible. The picture at the top is a famous Matthew Brady photo of Lincoln and McClellan (the little squirt looking at President Lincoln) at the Army of the Potomac's camp on the site of the Battle of Antietam.
http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/web03/atlases/american_civil_war/index.htm , and the Teaching Civil War with Technology site is at http://blog.teachthecivilwar.com/ . I hope that you are enjoying yourselves...remember, if you have questions you can post them here and I'll answer them as soon as possible. The picture at the top is a famous Matthew Brady photo of Lincoln and McClellan (the little squirt looking at President Lincoln) at the Army of the Potomac's camp on the site of the Battle of Antietam.
So, the Union won at Shiloh in April '62. Was the battle not decisive enough for Lincoln to talk emancipation? Or was it too early or the fact that it took place in the South? I spent a week hiking 100+ miles around that battlefield and read Shelby Foote's book 'Shiloh' many years ago (which, btw, I remember as being very cheesy). Anyway, I know the Union lost the first day but won the battle when reinforcements arrived overnight. Why no credit for the Union victory there?
ReplyDeleteThe 4-minute war video is amazing. It's heartbreaking to watch those casualty numbers rise.
ReplyDeleteFrom the available information, Lincoln drafted the Emancipation Proclamation in the May/June timeframe, as the first draft he shared with anyone was shown to Secretaries Welles and Seward on July 13th. This was well after the victories in March at Pea Ridge and in April at Shiloh. Both are considered victories for the North, though the press largely ignored Pea Ridge and they played on the Union army being surprised at Shiloh. At the end of the second day at Shiloh Grant's army had just gained back the ground that was taken from them on day one and had nothing left to give Beauregard's southern forces, who were also spent. Lincoln needed a victory in the east, as only there where the media focused and the world watched would a win be significant enough to allow him to make the proclamation public. It goes back to the fact that with the short distance between Richmond and Washington D.C., the focus of most observers was the war in Virginia...the west was considered a side show for much of the war. To hometeammj, I agree with you on the video...it's the first time I've seen it done that way and it has an amazing effect.
ReplyDeleteAbe, in stereograph 3D. It's the dude look... http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/3253742804/
ReplyDeleteA recent TV special commented that Lincoln loved to have his picture taken. No attribution for that, of course, but there do seem to be a lot of pictures. Imagine if he'd had a Facebook page!
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