THE CIVIL WAR
LINCOLN
In the spring of 1861, decades of simmering tensions between the northern and southern United
States over issues including states rights versus federal authority, westward expansion and slavery
exploded into the American Civil War (1861-65). The election of the anti-slavery Republican Abraham
Lincoln as president in 1860 caused seven southern states to secede from the Union to form the
Confederate States of America; four more joined them after the first shots of the Civil War were fired.
Four years of brutal conflict were marked by historic battles at Bull Run (Manassas), Antietam,
Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Vicksburg, among others. The War Between the States, as the Civil
War was also known, pitted neighbor against neighbor and in some cases, brother against brother. By
the time it ended in Confederate surrender in 1865, the Civil War proved to be the costliest war ever
fought on American soil, with some 620,000 of 2.4 million soldiers killed, millions more injured and
the population and territory of the South devastated.
Our commemoration of the 150 anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War should be less about
re-enactments of battles by people dressed in period costumes and more about the principles at the
heart of the conflict: union vs. dis union; freedom against slavery.
No single human being embodies so well those clashes as Abraham Lincoln. A polarizing figure
when he was elected, Lincoln is now venerated, but let’s not canonize him. His shortcomings
make him accessible to us, more familiar, and less remote. He had no shortage of faults and mistakes.
*He might have declared war on slavery in his first inaugural address. He loathed slavery and,
besides, none of his electoral votes came from the slave states.
*Frustrated by the lack of success of his army early in the war, he could have sacked his irresolute army commander, George McClellan.
*He might have pushed earlier for conscription ad forbid karate-age men to purchase “substitutes” to
fight in their place.
*He didn’t abide strictly vie the Constitution when he suspended the writ of habeas corpus.
However, these lapses detract little from Lincoln and make him all the more cherished cause, in
their absence, he might have been turned into a plaster saint and made unapproachable.
Dr. KARL WALLACE D.D.S.
To read more Karl Wallace stories go to: karlwallaceblog.blogspot.com
