He was born in Kentucky, Hardin County in a house with one room. He read all books who could find on the frontier in spite of he went to school just one year .Before to study the law he held many jobs: he was store clerk , postmaster and many others. After he studied the law he became one of the best lawyers in the state.
He made known his views about the slavery to the public when he was elected to the Congress. In 1858 Abe ran for the Senate as a republican but he was defeated by Stephen Douglas. After that in 1860 he narrowly defeated Douglas in the race for president.
When he tacked the office in 1861, many states had left the Union, and made a new county the Confederate States of America. When some soldiers fired on fort Sumter who was held by the Union, that thing signaled the start of the Civil war.
This war it was the biggest challenge that the new nation had faced so far. The most important thing it was that the peoples didn’t know what to do, because a part of northerners considered that the slavery isn’t their problem and some southerners had not slaves on their properties .
At the beginning of war the north had many advantages over the south. They was 22 million in compared with the south who had just 9 million free population .In north it was many banks and money, and very important a more developed industry then the agricultural south, so they could produce a more quantity of weapons. It also they had a larger railroad system and navy.
Despite these advantages the north army suffered many defeats in the first year , because the south was fighting on their own land, they was familiarized with the land and besides they were defeating their own homes. They was expert riders and riflemen, cause they had better officers.
On January 1, 1863 Abe Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. Using this act he freed the 3.5 million slaves in the southern states.
The Union army under general grant took in 1863 an important stronghold of the Confederate army on Mississippi called Vicksburg .
This cut off the supplies and soldiers coming from Virginia to Texas, and after 3 days of fierce fighting at Gettysburg in june 1863 the Confederate army was forced to retreat.
Despite this victory the war and Lincoln’s way to abolition of slavery become very unpopular. Many northerners demanded a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
At the end of 1864 the Union army closed in on the Confederates both from south and the north.
So on April 9, 1865 the general Robert Lee , who was the Confederate commander , was forced to surrender. The Civil war came to an end after 4 years of bitter fighting and 635000 dead, the greatest loss of human lives in American history.
Five days later President and Mrs. Lincoln went to see a play at the Washington Theater. Angry with the tyrant, an actor and a southern supporter, J.W. Booth , shot Lincoln in the back of the head.
Lincoln’s death the next morning stunned the nation. With Lincoln died the hope for a peaceful reconstruction of he South .So in this way USA loss an important political man.
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