Abraham Lincoln's Qualities

When Abraham Lincoln comes to mind, people think of a genius tactician and fluent public speaker. One of those statements is correct. While Lincoln learned to be Commander in Chief on the fly, he quickly picked up strategies, and with the help of his colleagues, reunited the entire country. This paper intends to give general knowledge of Lincoln leading up to the split of the nation, while also informing of his ability, or lack thereof, to formally lead an army into battle. In order to know of Abraham Lincoln the commander, you must first know of the man he was. Born in Kentucky, yet raised in Indiana, Lincoln was taught social injustices at a very young age. His mother was the cause of peeking his interest, being one of the few women …show more content…
After Lincoln assumed the position, many, with himself among them, thought he was ill-equipped to contest the Confederate army due to his lack of formal military education (McPherson). The Confederates were led by Jefferson Davis, who at the start of the war possessed a severe advantage over Lincoln, having been trained in military tactics at West Point. Many thought Lincoln’s lack of experience would surely be his undoing. He even said of himself “"Did you know I am a military hero?" he said, “I fought, bled and came away" after "charges upon the wild onions" and "a good many bloody struggles with the Musquetoes.” (McPherson) He mocked his own expertise and experience, perhaps to make his efforts seem fruitless to his opposition which in and of itself proved to be useful. Though Lincoln is mostly to blame for his lack of knowledge on warfare tactics, he was thrust into a bizarre situation that had no precedent set for what was to come. At no point in our brief history have we had to deal with the actions of secession (McPherson). Fighting a war on home soil was new to many Americans, and Lincoln was as shell-shocked as the rest. He constantly came to odds with his generals, and he didn’t know the proper ways to relate to them on a military basis (McPherson). Many thought the Union would lead a quick campaign against the Confederacy with little cost, but this proved wrong on so …show more content…
These loses quickly turned public opinion against Lincoln, whose lack of experience was finally coming to fruition in the form of embarrassing defeats. This forced Lincoln into early action, replacing McClellan with one Ulysses S. Grant. Though Lincoln came into the war with little knowledge of tactics, he quickly surpassed all of his generals in strategy except for Ulysses S. Grant, whom he felt could lead the Union to victory. Defeats at Bull Run and Chancellorsville quickly led to Lincoln questioning his generals. Before Grant was given the title of general-in-chief, McClellan had two successors by the names of Ambrose E. Burnside and Joseph Hooker. Lincoln felt they were competent enough to succeed, but their inability to heed the advice of a president they deemed unworthy of warfare led to their departure and the rise of Grant (With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition). Not only did his inexperience show on the battlefield, but on the sidelines as well. Just as he was inexperienced, he appointed many generals and brigadiers who were mere politicians with little to no background or experience in warfare. This proved problematic in the sense that these “clowns” of the army began outranking officers who graduated from prestigious academies such as West Point, which is where Jefferson Davis received his training. His