Abraham Lincoln: The President We Needed

Script:

When Abraham Lincoln came to Washington in March of 1861 following his election as the 16th President of the United States, he had no thought that the country would soon be embroiled in a costly and bloody civil war.

The slave states of the South had threatened secession in the past and always pulled back. This time, Lincoln believed, would be no different.

He was open to accommodation if it would avoid armed conflict.

But he was unshakeable on one point.

Lincoln insisted that secession was a Constitutional impossibility and that he was obligated by his presidential oath to defend the integrity of the United States.

So, when the Confederates launched their attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina on April 12, 1861, Lincoln called up federal troops and declared a naval blockade of the Southern coast.

The war was on.

And Lincoln was completely unprepared for it.

Everything went badly at first. A hastily assembled federal army met with a humiliating defeat at the first major battle of the war at Bull Run in Virginia.

More defeats followed.

But Lincoln stood firm. New armies were recruited; fresh funds were raised through taxes and bond sales, and the naval blockade was strengthened.

Gradually, the military tide turned. In the east, Union forces foiled an attempted invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania at the bitter battle of Antietam in September 1862, and a second Confederate invasion the following summer was smashed at the battle of Gettysburg.

In the west, a federal naval flotilla seized the major Confederate port of New Orleans. This was followed by Union