Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief

  on Butler’s occupation of Baltimore

  conflict with McClellan

  evacuation of Fort Sumter urged by

  failure to meet expectations

  Lincoln’s assertion of authority over

  Lincoln’s orders to retake forts

  Lincoln’s visit in June 1862

  retirement of

  as Virginian

  secession:

  Baltimore’s enthusiasm for

  Lincoln on latent Unionism of seceded states

  Lincoln’s denial of legitimacy of

  Lincoln’s efforts to keep border states from seceding

  of lower South states of Tennessee of Virginia

  Second Confiscation Act

  Seven Days’ battles

  Seven Pines, Battle of

  Seward, William H.:

  Emancipation Proclamation’s postponement urged by

  evacuation of Fort Sumter urged by

  at Hampton Roads Conference

  Lincoln’s announcement of Emancipation

  Proclamation to

  on Lincoln’s first inaugural address

  and Lincoln snubbed by McClellan

  McClellan on in Powhatan misadventure

  on reinforcements from East to Rosecrans

  Republican attempt to force out

  on Southern Unionism

  Shenandoah Valley:

  in Early’s Washington raid

  in Grant’s coordinated strategy for 1864

  Jackson’s 1862 campaign in

  in Lee’s march into Pennsylvania

  in Lincoln’s strategy of July 1861

  in McDowell’s plan for Bull Run

  Sheridan given command in

  Sheridan’s campaign in

  Sigel defeated at New Market

  Sheridan, Philip H.

  Sherman, William Tecumseh:

  Atlanta taken by

  to Chattanooga

  distance from Washington as advantage for

  East Tennessee invasion called off by

  given command in West by Grant

  in Grant’s coordinated strategy for 1864

  learning to reduce supplies

  Lincoln’s role in giving top command to

  march to the sea

  political sponsorship of

  stalled short of Atlanta

  talking Grant out of resigning

  in Vicksburg campaign of 1862

  in Vicksburg campaign of 1863

  Shields, James

  Shiloh, Battle of

  Sigel, Franzslavery: colonization supported by Lincoln

  Congress’s prohibition on returning slaves to their masters

  in evolution of Lincoln’s policy

  freed slaves in Union army

  freed slaves’ view of Lincoln in Richmond

  Frémont’s liberation of slaves

  Hampton Roads discussion on

  Hunter’s liberation of slaves

  Lincoln’s abolition efforts in border states

  Lincoln’s attitude toward

  in Lincoln’s conditions for peace

  Lincoln’s denials of threat to

  Lincoln’s proposed constitutional amendment to abolish

  McClellan’s attitude toward

  Maryland and Missouri abolition movements

  military strategy affected by

  Northern attitude hardened against

  Northern backlash against emancipation

  Peace Democrats on

  Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction on

  in Second Confiscation Act

  Thirteenth Amendment’s abolition of

  See also Emancipation Proclamation

  Smith, William F.

  South Carolina:

  islands off coast captured

  as only state with secessionist majority

  Port Royalsecession of

  Sherman’s march through

  Unionists on enforcing federal law in

  See also Charleston

  Special Order No. 1 (Lincoln)

  Spencer repeaters

  Stanton, Edwin M.:

  appointed secretary of war

  on Burnside’s proposed move across Rappahannock

  on court-martialing McClellan after Second Bull Run

  Dana sent to check on Grant by

  Hitchcock offered command by

  Hooker’s removal supported by

  Lincoln’s failure to heed advice from

  McClellan’s blaming for defeat on Peninsula

  McClellan’s demand for removal after Antietam

  on McClellan’s Harpers Ferry fiasco

  and McClellan’s refusal to take responsibility for failure on Peninsula

  and McClernand’s in de pen dent command

  Meade favored for army command by

  prisoner exchanges suspended by

  public criticism of after Seven Days

  on reinforcements from East to Rosecrans

  relations with McClellan

  returning McClellan to command opposed by

  on Rosecrans’s Tennessee campaigns

  on Thomas’s delays in attacking Hood

  Stephens, Alexander

  Stones River, Battle of strategy. See military strategy; national strategy Streight, Abel

  Stuart, Jeb

  tactics

  Taney, Roger B.

  Tennessee:

  Battle of Shiloh

  Battle of Stones River

  Buell’s attempt to liberate East

  Chattanooga

  Confederate cavalry raids in 1862

  exemption from Emancipation Proclamation in

  Union

  fall of Forts Henry and Donelson

  Forrest’s raid of March 1864

  Knoxville

  Lincoln’s call for militia refused by

  Lincoln’s continuing concern for in 1864

  in McClellan’s August 1861 plan

  Memphis

  Nashville

  Rosecrans’s campaigns of 1863

  Unionists in East

  Texas

  Thirteenth Amendment

  Thomas, George H.: advance toward East Tennessee

  Battle of Chickamauga

  given army command by Grant

  Hood defeated at Nashville by

  left by Sherman to deal with Hood

  Lincoln’s desire to replace Buell with

  Lincoln’s role in giving top command to

  Thomas, Lorenzo

  Trent affair

  Tullahoma campaign

  Vallandigham, Clement L.

  Van Dorn, Earl

  Vicksburg:

  Banks given responsibility for taking

  black troops in siege of

  Grant’s 1862 campaign against

  Grant’s 1863 campaign against

  holding out in 1862

  McClernand’s plan for campaign against

  Northern morale lifted by capture of

  surrender of

  Virginia:

  Alexandria

  becoming main theater of the war

  Butler’s declaration that slaves were contraband of war in

  Campbell’s proposal that legislature repeal secession ordinance

  exemption from Emancipation Proclamation in federal-occupied

  federal military officials and commanders from

  in Grant’s original strategy for 1864

  Grant’s Overland campaign of 1864

  Harpers Ferry

  initial rejection of secession

  Lincoln’s attempt to prevent secession by

  Lincoln’s call for militia refused by

  in McClellan’s August 1861 plan

  McClellan’s delay in late 1861

  in McClellan’s Urbana plan

  Norfolk

  Occoquan Valley

  Petersburg

  secession of

  U.S. military bases seized in

  See also Manassas; Peninsula campai
gn; Richmond; Shenandoah Valley

  Wade, Benjamin

  Wade-Davis bill

  War Powers of the President (Whiting)

  Washburne, Elihu B.

  Washington, D.C.:

  Early’s raid on outskirts of

  enemy batteries on Potomac below

  Lincoln’s insistence on defense for

  Lincoln’s opposition to arrest of Confederate sympathizers in

  McClellan’s overestimate of threat to

  slavery abolished in

  strengthening defenses of

  Welles, Gideon:

  anger with McClellan after Second Bull Run

  on casualties of 1864

  on Du Pont’s attack on Charleston

  on failure to follow up Antietam victory

  on Lincoln after Lee’s escape from Gettysburg

  Lincoln’s announcement of Emancipation

  Proclamation to

  Lincoln’s complaints about Meade to

  on Lincoln’s doubts about Hooker

  McClellan on

  on mood in Washington in early 1864

  receiving word of Vicksburg’s surrender

  on retaliation for killing black soldiers

  Whiting, William

  Wilder, John T.

  Wilderness, Battle of the

  Wright, Horatio

  Yorktown, siege of

  PHOTOGRAPHIC INSERT

  Abraham Lincoln may have been the most photographed president before the twentieth century. Portraits by Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and other photographers show a president who aged a lifetime over the four stressful years of war; in this photograph from the middle of the war, he appears much older than his age of fifty-four. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

  General-in-chief of the U.S. Army at the outbreak of the Civil War, Winfield Scott was America’s most celebrated soldier since George Washington. He had fought in the War of 1812 and led the army that captured Mexico City in 1847. But by 1861 he was seventy-five years old, weighed more than three hundred pounds, suffered from edema and vertigo, and sometimes fell asleep during conferences. His physical incapacities were matched by the passiveness of his “Anaconda Plan” strategy. On November 1, 1861, he retired from the army. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

  Few Union officers looked less like a general than Benjamin Butler. A prewar Democrat, he had actually supported Jefferson Davis for the party’s presidential nomination in 1860. But the initiative and energy he showed in the occupation of Annapolis and Baltimore with Union militia at the beginning of the war earned Lincoln’s gratitude and Butler’s promotion to major general. His war record thereafter, however, was decidedly mixed. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

  At the age of thirty-four, George B. McClellan was appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac in July 1861 and general-in-chief in November of that year. Newspapers extolled him as “the Young Napoleon,” an image that he tried to convey in this Napoleonic pose for the photographer. Lincoln soon discovered, however, that McClellan’s generalship was anything but Napoleonic. NATIONAL ARCHIVES

  A former Democrat and a close friend of General McClellan in 1861, Edwin M. Stanton shared with McClellan a contemptuous opinion of the Lincoln administration. After Lincoln appointed him secretary of war in January 1862, however, Stanton’s opinions of the president and the general underwent 180-degree reversals. An efficient administrator, Stanton was also a lighting rod for hostility from McClellan and his supporters. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

  The author and translator of books on military history and theory, mining law, and international law, Henry W. Halleck was known as “Old Brains.” On the strength of his administrative ability and the success of armies under his command in the Kentucky-Tennessee theater in 1862, Lincoln appointed him general-in-chief in July of that year. Halleck’s indecisiveness, however, caused Lincoln to lose faith in him. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

  Gen. Ambrose Burnside successfully commanded a small army that won control of key areas and cities on the North Carolina coast in 1862. Disappointed with McClellan after the Seven Days’ battles and Second Bull Run, Lincoln twice offered Burnside command of the Army of the Potomac. Burnside declined and urged second and third chances for McClellan. Lincoln decided not to give that general a fourth chance, however, and appointed a reluctant Burnside to the command in November 1862. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

  This photograph of Lincoln and McClellan in a tent near the Antietam battlefield was taken by Alexander Gardner on October 3, 1862, during Lincoln’s visit to the Army of the Potomac after the battle. Ten days later the president wrote to McClellan, reminding him of their discussion of “what I called your over-cautiousness.” That conversation probably occurred in this tent. McClellan did not take Lincoln’s advice to heart, and a month later the president removed him from command. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

  An obscure colonel of an Illinois regiment in 1861, Ulysses S. Grant disovered that the enemy colonel during a minor confrontation in Missouri “had been as afraid of me as I had been of him. The lesson was valuable.” He demonstrated this lesson in the capture of Fort Donelson, in seizing victory from the jaws of defeat at Shiloh, in the capture of Vicksburg, and in the victory at Chattanooga. Lincoln appointed Grant general-in-chief in 1864, expecting that he would finally infuse this spirit into the officer corps of the Army of the Potomac, which was previously more afraid of Robert E. Lee than Lee was of them. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS