hi everyone today we'll be looking at the election of 1860 the secession of the southern states from the union and the outbreak of the civil war when the leaders of the new republican party analyzed the election results from 1856 they realized how close they'd come to winning if pennsylvania and just one midwestern state either indiana or illinois had gone their way they would have captured the presidency when they gathered for their convention in 1860 in chicago several candidates stood out as possibilities but the most well-known figures all had liabilities that hurt them william seward of new york who we have again here and salman p chase of ohio captured again in this image both were seen as too radical on the slavery issue to appeal to midwestern and pennsylvania voters chase could not even marshal his own ohio delegates behind him edward bates of maryland who we have here was too conservative only coming out just prior to the chicago convention in support of the party's platform which recognized slavery's legality and legitimacy in states where it already existed but called for banning it from all future territory simon cameron captured in this photograph had the advantage of being from pennsylvania one of the states republicans had to have but he was widely known to be a crooked and corrupt politician then as we see here there was the hometown favorite abraham lincoln of springfield illinois his star had risen substantially thanks to the famous debates against stephen a douglas in 1858 and he possessed the twin advantages of being a midwestern candidate and of not being an abolitionist like seward or chase he could likely win in both pennsylvania and in his home state of illinois he'd even once lived in indiana although he was not as he acknowledged at the time almost anyone's first choice outside of illinois on the third ballot at the 1860 convention lincoln secured the republican party's nomination to run for president in 1860 the democratic party succumbing momentarily to the divisions over slavery that had completely destroyed the whig party fatally split into northern and southern halves with northern democrats nominating the little giant stephen a douglas seen again here for president and southern democrats nominating john c breckenridge of kentucky who we have in this photograph a fourth party remnants of the old whig and no-nothing parties now called the constitutional union party nominated john bell of tennessee for president captured in this image the public picture forged of lincoln in the 1860 campaign endured partly because it was by no means entirely false to the real man and partly because it so neatly personified the republican message at the illinois nominating convention and old settler came forward with logs from a rail fence lincoln had split years before when he first entered illinois the candidate was thus christened the rail splitter depicted in this illustration from the campaign he really had split rails and he really had been born in a log cabin the idea that lincoln had risen from such rustic poverty to the presidential nomination captured the american imagination always lured by the myth of social mobility lincoln's reputation for honesty embodied in the nickname honest abe also was true to the man and celebrated as we can see here in a campaign song complete with sheet music when it came time for americans to vote lincoln's name did not appear on the ballot of the deep south slave states at all lincoln and the republicans were generally depicted below the mason-dixon line in 1860 as radical abolitionists bent on destroying southern institutions november 6th was election day lincoln received about 39 percent of the popular vote but it was concentrated in states with many electoral votes this map shows the results he took every free state except new jersey while failing to get any electoral votes out of the slave states at all save one from virginia still he had won the election all eyes now turned to the south to see how it would react to the outcome the harvest of disunion came quickly after the thunderstorm of lincoln's election not surprisingly south carolina acted first as a correspondent for the london times explained at the time writing from charleston there's nothing in all the dark caves of human passion so cruel and deadly as the hatred the south carolinians profess for the yankees in this mood the south carolina legislature called a convention to consider secession it was depicted in this illustration of the time on december 20th 1860 amid extraordinary scenes of marching bands fireworks and huge rallies of citizens waving palmetto flags and shouting slogans of southern rights the convention by a vote of 169 to zero enacted its so-called ordinance of secession from the union as political leaders in south carolina hoped this bold step triggered a chain reaction by conventions in other lower south states this map tells the story on january 9th 1861 mississippi voted to secede followed by florida the very next day in alabama on january 11th georgia followed suit on january 19th louisiana on january 26 in texas on february 1st although none of these state conventions exhibited the unity evident in south carolina their average vote in favor of secession was 80 percent southerners used metaphors to describe what they called the phenomenon of secessionitis is one observer put it people are wild you might as well attempt to control a tornado his attempt to stop them southern secession was an unequivocal act which relieved the unbearable tension that had been building for years it was a catharsis for pent up fears and hostilities it was a joyful act that caused people literally to dance in the streets not that the flag waving singing crowds in charleston and savannah and new orleans wanted or expected war on the contrary they believed that the yankees were cowards and would not fight or said they did to assure the timid that there was no danger so far as civil war is concerned remarked a georgia newspaper in january 1861 we have no fears of that in atlanta the american revolution was the preferred model for southern secessionists is one from alabama asked were not the men of 1776 secessionists if the south remained in the union said a florida slaveholder we'll be deprived of that right for which our fathers fought in the battles of the revolution what were these rights and liberties for which confederates contended they were the right to own slaves the liberty to take what they called their property into the territories and freedom from the potentially coercive powers of a centralized government what southerners referred to as black republican rule in washington threatened republican freedoms as they understood them to create what became known as the confederate states of america or the confederacy in just six days at montgomery alabama delegates drafted a temporary constitution turned themselves into a provisional congress for the new government elected a provisional president and vice president and then spent the next month fashioning a permanent constitution and setting the machinery of government in motion the convention did its best to project a moderate image to the upper south befitting the new confederacy's claim to represent the true principles of the u.s constitution which the north had trampled upon most of the provisional constitution was copied verbatim from the original for the most part the permanent constitution adopted a month later did the same with some obviously significant departures the preamble omitted the general welfare clause and the phrase a more perfect union and added a clause after we the people each state acting in its sovereign and independent character instead of the u.s constitution's evasions on slavery persons held to service or labor the confederate virgin called a slave a slave it guaranteed the protection of bondage in any new territory the confederacy might acquire the confederate constitution did forbid the importation of slaves from abroad to avoid alienating britain and especially the upper south whose economy benefited from its monopoly on the export of slaves to the lower south most of the interest at the montgomery alabama convention that meant to form the confederate government focused on the choice of a provisional president there was no shortage of aspirants but the final nod went to a west point graduate who would have preferred to become the commander of the confederacy's army austere able experienced in government as a senator and former secretary of war a democrat and a secessionist but not a radical fire eater jefferson davis of mississippi who we see again here was the ideal candidate though he had not sought the job and did not really want it the delegates elected him unanimously on february 9 1861. his sense of duty and destiny bid him to accept the job to strengthen the confederacy's moderate image georgia's one-time whig and more recently douglas democrat alexander stevens captured in this photograph was selected as vice president to satisfy geographical balance davis apportioned his six cabinet level posts among each state of the confederacy except his own mississippi he was introduced to a cheering crowd in montgomery on february 16th in his inaugural address which we have a photograph from here davis assured everyone that the confederacy wished to leave the union in peace and he extended a warm invitation to any states that as he put it may seek to unite their fortunes to ours davis then settled down to the heavy responsibilities of organizing a new nation and of trying to convince the upper south to join it knowing that the fate of the upper south and of hopes for voluntary reconstruction of the lower south might rest on what he said on inauguration day march 4 1861 lincoln devoted great care to every phrase of the address while he worked on his speech seven states were not only seceding but were also seizing federal property within their borders customs houses arsenals mints and forts the first draft of the inaugural therefore had one theme and two variations the theme was lincoln's determination to preserve an undivided union the variations offered as counterpoints both the sword and an olive branch the sword was an intention to use all the powers at my disposal to reclaim the public property in places which is which have fallen to hold occupy and possess these and all other property and places belonging to the government and to collect the duties on imports the olive branch was a reiteration of his oft repeated pledge not to interfere with the institution of slavery where it exists and to enforce the constitutional injunction for the return of fugitive slaves lincoln also promised the south that the government will not assail you unless you first assail it lincoln's secretary of state william h seward found the sword too prominent in lincoln's initial draft the upper south not to mention the confederate government was sure to regard any attempt to reclaim forts and other property as coercion he prevailed on lincoln to drop his threat to reclaim federal property so that the final version of the address vowed only to hold occupy and possess such property and to collect duties and imports these phrases were ambiguous how would the duties be collected by naval vessels stationed offshore would this be coercion how could the government hold occupy and possess property that was under the control of confederate forces the only remaining property in union hands by the time lincoln took office in march 1861 were two obscure forts in the florida keys along with fort pickens on an island at the mouth of pensacola bay and fort sumter on an island in charleston harbor fort sumter had become a commanding symbol of national sovereignty in the very cradle of secession a symbol that the confederate government could not tolerate if it wished its own sovereignty to be recognized by the world would lincoln use force to defend sumter the ambiguity was intentional hoping to avoid provocation lincoln and seward did not wish to reveal whether the velvet glove enclosed an iron fist there was no ambiguity in the most famous and compelling part of lincoln's first inaugural address which we have an image from here where he spoke directly to the south saying we are not enemies but friends we must not be enemies though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection the mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land will yet swell the chorus of the union when again touched as surely they will be by the better angels of our nature contemporaries read into the inaugural address what they wished or expected to see republicans were generally satisfied with its firmness and moderation confederates and their sympathizers branded a declaration of war lincoln had hoped to cool passions and buy time with his inaugural address time to organize his administration to prove his peaceful intent to allow the seeds of voluntary reconstruction to sprout but when the new president went to his office for the first time he received a jolt on his desk lay a dispatch from major robert anderson commander of the union garrison at fort sumter who we have a picture of here anderson reported that his supplies would only last a few more weeks time was running out lincoln faced some hard choices he could scrape together every available warship and soldier to shoot their way into the bay with supplies and reinforcements but this would burden him with the onus of starting a war it would divide the north and unite the south including most of the not yet seceded states or he could prolong peace and perhaps keep the upper south in the union by withdrawing the garrison and yielding sumter but this too would divide the north demoralize much of the republican party perhaps fatally wreck his administration constituted an implicit acknowledgement of the confederacy's independence and send a signal to foreign governments whose diplomatic recognition the confederacy was earnestly seeking or lincoln could play for time hoping to come up with some solution to preserve this vital symbol of sovereignty without provoking a war that would divide his friends and unite his enemies the plan he came up with was to have ships and men readied for an attempt to reinforce fort sumter in south carolina not with more men and weapons but with basic food and supplies on april 4 1861 he gave the order for the sumpter expedition to proceed warships and soldiers would stand by for action but if confederate batteries did not fire on the supply boats they would not fire back lincoln would notify the south carolina governor in advance of the government's peaceful intention to send in supplies only if confederates opened fire on the unarmed boats carrying food for hungry men the south would stand convicted of an aggressive act and on its shoulders would rest the blame for starting a war on april 6 1861 lincoln sent a special messenger to charleston to inform the governor of his intention to peacefully resupply fort sumter with provisions this put the ball in jefferson davis's court the confederate president was also under great pressure to quote do something many within the confederate government believed that any initiation of hostilities would force the upper south's hand pushing them to join with the lower south in its desperate bid for independence davis largely shared this mindset the decision about what to do in response to lincoln's resupply effort was made on april 9 at a cabinet meeting in montgomery davis ordered general pierre gustav tutant or pgt beauregard captured in this photograph to reduce fort sumter before any resupply effort could be made if possible when beauregard demanded the surrender of the fort major anderson refused at 4 30 am on the morning of april 12 1861 confederate guns opened fire on fort sumter the event was depicted in this illustration of the time the union fleet meant to protect the fort in the event the resupply effort went awry was scattered by a storm and prevented from intervening after 33 hours of bombardment by 4 000 shot and shells which destroyed part of the fort and set the interior on fire anderson's exhausted garrison surrendered on april 14 1861 the american flag came down and the confederate stars and bars rose over sumter the news of sumter's fall galvanized the north on april 15th lincoln issued a proclamation calling 75 000 militiamen into national service for 90 days to put down an insurrection too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings the response from free states was overwhelming war meetings in every city and village cheered the flag and vowed vengeance on traders from ohio and the west came one great eagle scream for the flag in new york city previously a nursery of pro-southern sentiment a quarter of a million people turned out for a union rally the change in public sentiment here is wonderful almost miraculous wrote a new york merchant on april 18. i look with awe on the national movement here in new york and all through the free states out of the lawyer after our late discords it seemed supernatural the time before sumpter was like another century wrote a new york woman it seems as if we never were alive till now never had a country till now within a month of fort sumter's surrender four of the eight remaining slave states joined the confederacy including virginia arkansas north carolina and tennessee only lincoln's desperate maneuvering both politically and militarily kept the other four delaware maryland missouri and kentucky from seceding the american civil war was underway war fever during the months after sumter overrode sober reflections on the purpose of the fighting most people on both sides took for granted the purpose and justice of their cause yankees believed that they battled for flag and country as a republican newspaper in indianapolis put it the nation has been defied the national government has been assailed if either can be done with impunity we are not a nation and our government is a sham the flag the union the constitution and democracy all were symbols or abstractions but nonetheless powerful enough to evoke a willingness to fight and die for them southerners also fought for abstractions state sovereignty the right of secession the constitution as they interpreted it many people on both sides believed that the war would be short one or two battles and the cowardly yankees or slovenly rebels would give up it would be what many called a 90 days war an alabama soldier wrote in 1861 that the next year would bring peace because we're gonna kill the last yankee before that time if there's any fight in them still i believe that jd walker's brigade can whip 25 000 yankees i think i can whip 25 myself northerners were equally confident with such a faith and quick success thoughts of strategy seemed superfluous responsible leaders on both sides did not share the popular belief in a short war yet even they could not foresee the kind of conflict the civil war would become a total war requiring total mobilization of men and resources destroying these men and resources on a massive scale and ending only with unconditional surrender in the spring of 1861 most northern leaders thought in terms of a limited war their purpose was not to conquer the south but to suppress insurrection and win back the latent loyalty of the southern people by july 1861 about 35 000 troops had gathered in the washington area their commander was general ervin mcdowell who we see here an officer with no previous experience in field command in response to a directive from president lincoln mcdowell drew up a plan for a flank attack on the 20 000 confederates defending manassas junction in virginia an essential part of the plan required the 15 000 federals near harpers ferry under the command of robert patterson a 69 year old veteran of the war of 1812. captured in this sketch to prevent the 11 000 confederates confronting him from reinforcing manassas mcdowell's plan was a good one for veteran troops with experienced officers but mcdowell lacked both at a white house strategy conference on june 29 he pleaded for postponement of the offensive until he could train the new three-year men the president seen here as he looked in 1861 ordered mcdowell to begin his offensive saying you're green it's true but they are green also you're all green alike the southern commander at manassas was pgt beauregard the hero of fort sumter heading the rebel forces in the shenandoah valley was joseph e johnston who we have in this photograph the basic war aim of the confederacy was to defend a new nation from conquest the south could win the war by not losing the north could win only by winning general mcdowell had good reason for his reluctance to march green troops forward to richmond in july 1861. circumstances beyond his control plagued the campaign from its outset scheduled to begin july 8th the movement of mcdowell's 30 000 men was delayed by shortages of supply wagons and by the necessity to organize late arriving regiments into brigades and divisions out in the shenandoah valley general robert patterson likewise feared that the 90-day recruits in his army of 15 000 would not stand fast in a real battle against josephine johnston's 11 000 confederates this was one of several reasons why patterson failed in his task of pinning down johnston in the valley while mcdowell attacked beauregard at manassas on july 18th and 19th johnson's army gave him the slip marched from winchester to the railroad at piedmont and hopped on trains headed for manassas with their arrival the confederate forces at manassas became equal in size to mcdowell's invading army beauregard had been forewarned of mcdowell's advance by his espionage network in washington headed by rose o'neal greenhau a friend of several northern politicians but also a confederate spy here we have an image of her lacking trained cavalry mcdowell personally scouted enemy lines and discovered that rugged terrain and strong defenses on the confederate right ruled out his original plan to turn that flank another day went by as he planned an attack on the left flank and scouted the roads in that direction while this was going on the overworked railroad was bringing johnston's troops to manassas by the time mcdowell launched his assault on the morning of july 21st 1861 three valley brigades had arrived and the fourth was on its way despite all the delays mcdowell's offensive came close to succeeding the union attacking column ten thousand strong it roused itself at 2 am and stumbled through the underbrush and ruts of a cart track on a six mile flanking march while other regiments made a faint at the turnpike bridge the flanking column forted bull run two miles upriver from the bridge where no confederates expected them for two hours four and a half thousand rebels gave ground grudgingly to ten thousand yankees north of the turnpike here we have an illustration from what became known as the first battle of bull run or the battle of first manassas as the confederates called it for never having been under fire the men on both sides fought surprisingly well the weight of numbers finally pushed the confederates across the turnpike and up the slopes of what was known as henry house hill several southern regiments broke and fled to the rear and mcdowell appeared to be on the verge of a smashing success but it was not to be johnston and beauregard had sent additional reinforcements to the confederate left and had arrived personally on the fighting front where they helped rally broken confederate units for several hours during the afternoon fierce but uncoordinated attacks on counter-attacks surged back and forth across henry house hill one of the men whom the war would make famous was in the thick of the fighting and made his legend on the hill thomas j jackson who we have here commanded a brigade of virginians from the shenandoah valley humorless secretive eccentric a stern disciplinarian without tolerance for human weaknesses a devout presbyterian who ascribed confederate successes to the lord and likened yankees to the devil he became a legend in his own time as the confederate regiments who'd fought in the morning retreated across the hill at noon jackson brought his fresh troops into line just behind the crest his brigade stopped the union assault and suffered more casualties than any other southern unit at the first battle of bull run ever after jackson was known as stonewall and his men who had stood fast at manassas became the stonewall brigade by the middle of the afternoon the northern army had lost what little cohesion it had everywhere as regiments continued to fight in a disconnected manner and stragglers began melting to the rear johnston and beauregard by contrast had brought up every unit within reach including the last brigade from the valley just off the train and marching onto the field about 4 pm by that time the rebels had an equal number of men in the battle zone and a decisive superiority and fresh troops most of the union regiments had been marching or fighting for the better part of 14 hours with little food or water on a brutally hot sultry day at this moment sensing his advantage beauregard ordered a counter-attack all along the line discouraged and exhausted yankee soldiers particularly those almost at the end of their three-month terms of service suddenly decided they had fought enough they began to fall back slowly and with scattered resistance at first but with increasing panic as their officers lost control men became separated from their companies and the last shred of discipline disappeared the retreat became a route as soldiers threw away guns packs and anything else that might slow them down in the wild scramble for the crossings of bull run despite the early union army momentum in the battle by the end of the day the confederacy had won a total victory scattering the union forces all the way back to washington in general the south erupted in joy over a victory that seemed to prove that one rebel could indeed lick any number of yankees it was easy to forget that the numbers engaged were equal about 18 000 on each side that confederate troops had fought on the defensive for most of the battle and that the yankees had come close to winning in any case the battle of manassas or bull run as the north named it was one of the most decisive tactical victories of the war although its strategic results came to seem barren to many in the south the battle did postpone for eight months any further union efforts to invade virginia's heartland and the price and casualties was small compared with later battles about 400 confederates were killed and 1600 wounded of whom some 225 would die of their wounds the union forces also lost about 625 killed and mortally wounded 950 non-mortally wounded and more than 1200 captured despite an initial period of panic in the immediate days after bull run in late july 1861 the reaction of the north to the outcome of the battle was not one of defeatism but rather a renewed sense of determination gone was the illusion that this would be a short so-called 90 days war the day after bull run president lincoln signed a bill for the enlistment of 500 000 3-year men three days later he signed a second bill authorizing another five hundred thousand volunteers thronged recruiting offices during the next few weeks offers of new regiments poured in from northern governors and soon the regiments themselves began to crowd into the training camps surrounding washington where they found a dynamic charismatic new general waiting to command them who we see here george b mcclellan from the middle of 1861 to the early months of 1862 mcclellan drilled and organized the massive numbers of troops that continued to pour into washington he was an outstanding organizer and manager he renamed the federal troops under his command the army of the potomac out west another union army general was beginning to make a name for himself not for his drilling and organizing troops but for fighting and winning battles this was ulysses s grant who we see here in this photograph like mcclellan grant was a west point graduate he was also a veteran of the mexican war in february 1862 he won a highly publicized series of victories in tennessee that proved to be of great strategic value the first was fort henry then fort donelson captured in this illustration on february 23rd nashville became the first rebel capital to fall to the union grant joined in his effort now by general william tecumseh sherman pictured here followed up these victories by pursuing the confederate army in the region to a place called shiloh it was there on april 6th and 7th that an extremely bloody battle was fought that resulted in a rebel victory on the first day but a union counter-attack and triumph on the second here we have an illustration of the battle of shiloh shiloh's a hebrew word meaning place of peace over 5 000 were killed and more than 16 000 wounded there at the end of the month on april 24th a union naval fleet under the command of david g farragut who we have in this image ran the guns at two forts on the mississippi river below new orleans the feet was captured in this illustration of the time on the 27th the most populous city in the south and its principal port surrendered farragut did not rest on his laurels he sent seven ships on up the river where baton rouge became the second rebel state capital to fall natchez mississippi also surrendered without resistance but vicksburg with its heavy guns situated high on the bluff refused to yield and farragut dropped back down river still from new orleans to vicksburg the mississippi river had become a 400 mile long union highway by the end of may 1862 not to be outdone another union naval fleet fought its way down to memphis we're on june 6. union ironclads and rams sank or captured seven of the eight boats in the confederate river fleet there while the unhappy citizens of memphis watched from the bluffs the city then surrendered despite the failure to capture vicksburg in 1862 the four months from the fall of fort henry on february 6 to the fall of memphis on june 6 were a period of remarkable union military success in the west toward the end of march 1862 general george b mcclellan who we have again here was finally ready to move by the beginning of april he'd maneuvered his 100 000 man army of the potomac within sight of the revolutionary war battlefield at yorktown virginia where a 17 000 man confederate force opposed him mcclellan's weakness as a commander became apparent immediately despite his superior organizational skills he was not a fighter rather than attack the far inferior force in front of him mcclellan settled in for a siege of yorktown it allowed confederate general josephi johnston time to form a defensive line of 60 000 rebel troops five miles outside of richmond the rebel capital and mcclellan's chief objective when the union general finally did make the decision to assault the lines at yorktown he found that on the morning of his planned assault the rebels had gone they'd retreated in the night toward the defenses outside richmond heavy rains and flooding in may prevented any major action but at the end of the month on the 31st and the next day june 1st 1862 mcclellan and johnston's forces met in a large engagement along the chickahominy river some six thousand rebels and five thousand union troops were killed in the indecisive battle the chief impact was a change in command on the confederate side that proved fateful johnston had been wounded on the first day of the battle along the river and his replacement was robert e lee who we see here lee was an extremely aggressive general who was determined to expel the union army from the soil of his native virginia in a series of battles known as the seven days battles which took place over the course of june and early july 1862 in all of the battles at mechanicsville on june 26 gaines mill on june 27 at savage station on june 29th and at glendale on june 30th and finally at malvern hill on july 1st the union only lost one battle gaines mill and the rebels suffered 20 000 casualties to the yankees 16 and a half thousand after malvern hill the confederates were hurting badly several union generals recommended a counter-attack instead mcclellan horrified at the extent of the bloodshed ordered a retreat to a place called harrison's landing back in washington when lincoln learned the news he was furious for his failure to pursue an attempt to crush the weakened rebel army lincoln passed overall command of the union forces in virginia to a new general who promised the kind of fighting spirit mcclellan clearly lacked john pope who we see in this photograph pope promised to destroy the rebels in short order but he ended up walking into an even bigger disaster than mcclellan at what became known as the second battle of bull run where lee and stonewall jackson inflicted over 16 000 on casualties on pope's forces compared to only 9 000 on the confederate side at the end of august the battle was depicted in this illustration of the period lincoln after second bull run reluctantly placed mcclellan back in charge by the late months of 1862 despite union successes in the west the failures of the army of the potomac in the war's eastern theater had greatly depressed the public mind in the north many began to call for more stringent measure measures to win the war particularly they started arguing for lincoln to act against slavery to issue an emancipation proclamation freeing the slaves as frederick douglass put it at the outside of the conflict to fight against slaveholders without fighting against slavery was what he described as a half-hearted business that paralyzes the hands engaged in it ever since the beginning of the fighting when union armies began to move into portions of the south slaves had fled their plantations believing that if they could reach the union lines they would become free here we have some photographs of the people the army and the government began to refer to as contrabands thousands risked their lives in desperate bids to gain their freedom the men were typically employed as manual laborers and the women is cooks and laundresses and sometimes they were returned to their owners and a life of enslavement at the end of 1861 and in an updated version in july 1862 congress passed what were known as the confiscation acts which made it illegal to return slaves that found the safety of union army lines it was also in july 1862 that lincoln first informed his cabinet that he had in fact decided to issue a proclamation of emancipation this famous painting depicts the moment when the cabinet met to hear the news secretary of state seward counseled the president not to issue the proclamation prematurely especially not while the public mood was so depressed from the recent union defeats in the east under such circumstances it would appear as the last gasp of a desperate government on the verge of defeat he should wait to give it to the country accompanied by a major military victory lincoln accepted this advice but he would have to wait for two long months the next opportunity came in the middle of september when robert e lee who we see again here and his renamed army of northern virginia made the fateful decision to invade maryland this was lee's first attempt to invade the north he hoped to not only win maryland for the confederacy but perhaps when foreign diplomatic recognition from england and france maybe even force the surrender of washington and bring an end to the war mcclellan who we have again here in this image had some 75 000 troops on hand when he caught up with lee's army numbering 45 000 near the town of sharpsburg and along a creek known as the antietam the battle that took place there on september 17 1862 was actually three separate battles in the morning midday and late afternoon as this map shows in the morning union forces attacked across a cornfield on the confederate left where incredibly bloody fighting the most violent and brutal of the war in many soldiers experience failed to result in a breakthrough in the middle of the day the union attacked near the center of lee's lines and inflicted enormous casualties along a position known ever after as bloody lane the confederate center was decimated union generals begged mcclellan to pour in reinforcements to exploit the weakness despite having plenty of men on hand who had not even seen action yet mcclellan refused in the late afternoon a final effort to attack the confederate right flank at a bridge crossing of the antietam led by general ambrose burnside came close to success but again mcclellan's refusal to send in reinforcements thwarted the chance knight finally fell on a battlefield whose horrors defied description two thousand one hundred union soldiers and two thousand seven hundred rebels were dead and another eighteen and a half thousand split almost evenly between the two armies were wounded three thousand of them mortally it was the bloodiest single day not just of the civil war but in all american history here we have some actual photographs of the dead at antietam first in the cornfield where the morning's fighting took place the next two here are of the site known as bloody lane where the midday fighting occurred and finally a photo of the bridge where burnside's attack happened late in the afternoon by comparison on d-day in world war ii american forces suffered 6 000 casualties about one-fourth the number of casualties at antietam more than twice as many americans were killed or mortally wounded in combat in a single day at antietam as in the war of 1812 the mexican war and the spanish-american war combined the sun rose on september 18th to show the battered confederates still in place mcclellan received 13 000 reinforcements during the morning yet mcclellan did not renew the attack and lee escaped across the potomac on the night of september 18th president lincoln quickly traveled to the side of the battlefield to meet with mcclellan and encourage him to pursue and put an end to lee's army while it was severely wounded here we have a couple of photographs of lincoln visiting antietam and meeting with mcclellan the president returned to washington believing that the general was going to do exactly that pursue lee's army immediately but it would be five weeks before the main body of the army of the potomac again crossed into virginia lincoln did cease upon antietam as the victory he'd been waiting for to issue the emancipation proclamation but the president was sorely disappointed by this renewed demonstration of mcclellan's failure to close in on the enemy for the kill five days after the battle of antietam lincoln called his cabinet together to announce his decision to issue the emancipation proclamation the edict dated september 22nd 1862 in which we have the original first page of here was actually a preliminary proclamation for it declared that the slaves and states still in rebellion on january 1st 1863 shall be then dense forward and forever free the proclamation justified emancipation solely on grounds of military necessity this conservative approach was deliberate rather than a radical abolitionist measure lincoln wanted the proclamation to be viewed as a necessary means of winning the war in september 1862 some republicans had been apprehensive about how the union armies especially the army of the potomac with its hierarchy of democratic party officers would react to the emancipation proclamation although there was reason for worry few soldiers threw down their arms or refused to fight for black freedom but mcclellan and some of his fellow officers in the army of the potomac reacted to the proclamation just as their republican critics feared they would mcclellan privately condemned it for in his words inaugurating servile war although the general's democratic politics obviously hurt him with the administration it was his military shortcomings that finally brought about his downfall his failure to follow up antietam vigorously was soon to end his military career telegram after telegram from washing washington urged him to give the rebels a knockout punch while they were still groggy back to washington went as many telegrams full of reasons for delay the enemy outnumbered him he must drill the new recruits and most amazing of all in view of the condition of lee's army he could not march until his men were provided with new clothing and new shoes lincoln's patience finally snapped on november 7th he relieved mcclellan from command of the army of the potomac and appointed a reluctant ambrose c burnside to replace him most important thing other than outlawing slavery if the north won the war that lincoln's emancipation proclamation accomplished was the authorization it provided for the arming of black troops as soldiers during the civil war by early 1863 lincoln had become an enthusiastic proponent of enlisting black soldiers declaring that the colored population is the great available and yet unavailed of force for restoring the union by october 1863 58 black regiments had been organized like the ones we see in these photographs in all 179 000 black soldiers and around 10 000 black sailors fought for the union during the civil war their service was of crucial significance for the future by fighting for the union black men helped to achieve freedom for their race and because they helped the north to win the war to preserve the united states they staked a claim to equal citizenship when the conflict was over okay that does it for today next time we'll finish off our discussion of the civil war by looking at robert e lee's second invasion of the north at gettysburg pennsylvania and the final years of the conflict