FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63  
64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   >>   >|  
tain "Abe" Lincoln and his company (in the Black Hawk War) were without any sort of military knowledge, and both were forced to acquire such knowledge by attempts at drilling. Which was the more awkward, the "squad" or the commander, it would have been difficult to decide. In one of Lincoln's earliest military problems was involved the process of getting his company "endwise" through a gate. Finally he shouted, "This company is dismissed for two minutes, when it will fall in again on the other side of the gate!" Lincoln was one of the first of his company to be arraigned for unmilitary conduct. Contrary to the rules he fired a gun "within the limits," and had his sword taken from him. The next infringement of rules was by some of the men, who stole a quantity of liquor, drank it, and became unfit for duty, straggling out of the ranks the next day, and not getting together again until late at night. For allowing this lawlessness the captain was condemned to wear a wooden sword for two days. These were merely interesting but trivial incidents of the campaign. Lincoln was from the very first popular with his men, although one of them told him to "go to the devil." "ABE" STIRRING THE "BLACK" COALS. Under the caption, "The American Difficulty," "Punch" printed on May 11th, 1861, the cartoon reproduced here. The following text was placed beneath the illustration: PRESIDENT ABE: "What a nice White House this would be, if it were not for the blacks!" It was the idea in England, and, in fact, in all the countries on the European continent, that the War of the Rebellion was fought to secure the freedom of the negro slaves. Such was not the case. The freedom of the slaves was one of the necessary consequences of the Civil War, but not the cause of that bloody four years' conflict. The War was the result of the secession of the states of the South from the Union, and President "Abe's" main aim was to compel the seceding states to resume their places in the Federal Union of states. The blacks did not bother President "Abe" in the least as he knew he would be enabled to give them their freedom when the proper time came. He had the project of freeing them in his mind long before he issued his Emancipation Proclamation, the delay in promulgating that document being due to the fact that he did not wish to estrange the hundreds of thousands of patriots of the border states who were fighting for the preservation of the U
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63  
64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

states

 
Lincoln
 

company

 

freedom

 

President

 

blacks

 

military

 

knowledge

 
slaves
 

fought


consequences

 

secure

 

beneath

 

reproduced

 

cartoon

 
printed
 

illustration

 

PRESIDENT

 
England
 

countries


European

 

continent

 

Rebellion

 

compel

 
Emancipation
 

Proclamation

 

promulgating

 

issued

 

project

 

freeing


document

 

border

 
fighting
 
preservation
 

patriots

 

thousands

 

estrange

 

hundreds

 

Difficulty

 

seceding


secession

 
conflict
 

result

 

resume

 

places

 

enabled

 

proper

 

Federal

 
bother
 
bloody