Abraham Lincoln was born to Thomas and Nancy Lincoln on February 12, 1809 (Zall 7). He was born in Hardin County, Kentucky. He has two siblings: Sarah, born in 1807, and Thomas, born in 1812 and died three days after birth (Brookhiser 15). His father was a respectable and prosperous farmer and a carpenter. He did not own any slaves nor did he drink. He was a good father and he trained, taught, and shaped Abraham into the man he would become. We do not know very much about Abraham’s biological mother because in October of 1818 she died from milk-sick disease. After a year of being a widower, he married Sarah Bush Johnston. She was kind and caring home-maker who did not have an average stepmother relationship with Abraham and …show more content…
In New Salem, he met Ann Rutledge. The two became very close and eventually engaged. Not long after their engagement, Ann became sick with typhoid and died. Her death caused Lincoln to go through a depression where he even had suicidal thoughts (Brookhiser 38, 41). Dr. Bennet and Elizabeth Abell were good friends of Lincolns in New Salem and great comfort to him during the loss of Ann. Elizabeth advised her sister, Mary Owens to come visit her in Salem with the desire of arranging a marriage between Abraham and Mary. They began a courtship but they both soon discovered that they were not fit for each other. Mary thought he was “lacking in smaller attentions” (Winkle 152, 153). In 1839, Mary Todd came to New Salem to visit her sister Elizabeth Edwards. The two became very close and their friendship eventually led to a courtship. However, in December of 1840 their courtship ended. During their period of separation Lincoln was sad and depressed. They decided to meet again in September of 1842 and they were married on November 4, 1842 (Brookhiser 71-74). Mary adored her husband and she though he was he was the best husband and father to her and her kids respectively. She said he was loving, caring, joyful, and compassionate (Lincoln 32).
A few months after their wedding Mary and Lincoln found out that they were expecting a baby. On August 1, 1843 Mary gave birth to a baby boy named Robert Todd Lincoln (Oates 64). Two years later in March …show more content…
McClellan’s plan to win the war, called the Peninsula Campaign, was to land on the coast of Virginia and head up the peninsula between the James and York rivers. However at the Seven Days’ Battle, the Confederates were able to stop him before he reached Richmond. John Pope was head of the Army of Virginia who was defeated at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Lincoln soon replaced General McClellan because of the many defeats the Union had experienced, and replaced him with Henry Halleck. However Halleck did not have the organizational skills that McClellan did, and so McClellan made a quick return (Brookhiser 213). In September of 1862, Robert E. Lee crossed the Potomac River and invaded Maryland. They fought at the Antietam Creek, where McClellan had a victory (Oates 316-318). The Emancipation Proclamation was drafted and issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. It stated that any slave in a state that was in rebellion of the U.S. was freed for eternity (Brookhiser 225, 226). On November 19, 1863, President Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address in which he spoke about the war and the brave people that sacrificed their lives (Oates 411, 412). In 1864, ran to be reelected for President. He got over 500,000 more votes than George McClellan (Oates 400,