Lincoln the War President, Part I

LINCOLN THE WARTIME PRESIDENT, PART I
1861 to 1863

Before all else, Abraham Lincoln was a military leader. Between 1861 and 1862, secession became Civil War as the military confrontations between the Southern Confederate states and the Northern Union states increased in number and severity. Every significant decision that Lincoln made as president was intended to gain advantage in the Civil War and retain federal control over the territorially undivided United States. Each decision tested his ability to quickly learn aspects of warfare—or tested his ability to faithfully interpret the U.S. Constitution. Lincoln’s response to the swiftness, fierceness, and intractableness of the fighting included blocking maritime access to the South, suspending a fundamental legal right of Americans, and drafting citizens into the armed forces. To his frustration, his decisiveness was not matched on the battlefield: initially, the generals leading his armies in Virginia and Maryland were either not willing or unable to aggressively defeat the rebel forces.

"The Union is Dissolved," Charleston Mercury Extra (Charleston, SC), December 20, 1860.

Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union (Charleston [SC]: Evans & Cogswell, 1860).

An Act Recognizing the Existence of War between the United States and the Confederate States ([Montgomery, AL]: n.p., 1861).

The Massacre at Baltimore (Hartford [CT]: Kellogg, ca. 1861).

[Edward A. Pollard], The Seven Days’ Battles in Front of Richmond (Richmond [VA]: West & Johnston, 1862).

[Edward A. Pollard], The Second Battle of Manassas (Richmond [VA]: West & Johnston, 1862).

Lincoln's Blockade of Southern Ports

Abraham Lincoln, William H. Seward [countersigned], By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation. [Blockade of Confederate Ports] ([Washington: Government Printing Office, 1861]).

Conscription Law & Draft Riots

Volunteers Wanted for Nine Months Service ([Philadelphia: n.p., 1862]).

“The Draft,” Journal Extra (Southbridge, MA) May 17, 1864.

The United States Conscription Law or National Militia Act (New York: Fortune, 1863).

David M. Barnes, The Draft Riots in New York (New York: Baker & Godwin, 1863).

The Bloody Week! Riot, Murder & Arson (New York, Coutant & Baker, [1863]).