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Was It A Good Idea For Abraham Lincoln To Wait For The Union Army To Win A Battle

Was it a good idea for Abraham Lincoln to wait for the Union Army to win a battle beforeissuingtheproclamation?

It was strategic. If Lincoln would have issued the Emancipation Proclamation before the north won a battle, it would give the impression that he just wanted blacks to fight only because he was loosing the war.

After the Union won Antietam, he issued the proclamation. This bolstered the Union cause from one of defying states rights, to defending the freedom of men in bondage. Was a great battle cry.

Why did Lincoln choose to wait until the North won a major battle to announce the Emancipation Proclamation?

A. so that the emancipation of slaves would not be viewed as an act of desperation

B. He did not want to risk losing the support of Native Americans who owned slaves

C. He was afraid the announcement would cause the British to support the South

D. so that the Southerners would understand that slavery was morally wrong

Why was President Lincoln unhappy with General McClellan's performance as commander of the Union armies?

All the answers so far are on the mark. McClellan built a fine army and then hesitated to use it. That is pretty much universally agreed. The question is, why?You will find three answers in the literature, to my knowledge: (1) that he allowed himself to be intimidated by false reports and his own imagination as regards the (supposedly huge) size of Confederate forces; (2) that he hoped to win somehow without fighting any big battles because he dreaded massive bloodshed (a reflection of his affection for his troops, which was requited by them); and (3) that he hoped to win somehow without a lot of bloodshed because, while he was committed to restoring the Union, he had an underlying sympathy for the concerns of the secessionists.(Yet, there is also evidence that he rejected Winfield Scott's Anaconda Plan, for gradual strangulation of southern trade, which ultimately was carried out in practice and won the war, on the grounds that he wanted to crush Lee in a great Napoleonic-style battle. Go figure.)I don't know if anyone has ever done a credible, detailed analysis of sources to pin down the relative importance of these and other factors. It is interesting that someone asked Grant to evaluate McClellan after the war was over, and Grant replied, "McClellan is to me one of the mysteries of the war."Whatever the motives, McClellan's "slows" drove Lincoln to distraction. His  frustration was clearly expressed in one pithy remark to other generals: "If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time."

Why did President Lincoln wait until early in 1864 to appoint Ulysses Grant to be Lt. General, Commander of the Union Army? Was he not made aware of Grant's military genius?

I noticed that the other 10 answers dealt with Grants drinking. But no one mentioned the source of all those rumors. No one mentioned that in the background another General was stabbing Grant in the back. In fact when the casualty lists came back from Shiloh this General was “Johnny on the spot” leaking it to the press, and of course the President.After Shiloh the rumors about Grant’s drinking caused him to NOT be recognized but instead demoted in a practical sense. The source of all those nasty rumors?Henry Wager Halleck.Good ole “Old Brains” Halleck was a bureaucrat of the highest order. He grasped that success in the Army, and the Government can be defined by being better than everyone else (As in Grant) or tearing down everyone around you so you don’t look bad. That was Halleck’s expertise. His weapon of choice “Rumors” fed to him by lessor people wanting to be recognized and promoted.So every time Grants name came up, Halleck would report numerous rumors that Grant was off the wagon, drinking like a fish.Halleck was the master of behind the scenes intrigue. Another tactic was to never make a decision. If you don’t make a decision, you can’t be held responsible for the mistake.Many people asked Halleck for advice because he was seen as “The smartest guy in the room.” In true breaucratic form Halleck could cite all the mistakes made by the person asking for help. When that same person asked for advice?“I don’t know what you need to do.”With guys like this on your side, who needs R.E. Lee?Well the good news is Lincoln saw through Halleck’s gamesmanships and promoted Grant anyway. He eventually came to recognize the Jackal of a person Halleck was. He considered Halleck “"little more than a first rate clerk."Why Grant kept Halleck? Well Grant disliked the staff duties and Halleck knew how to dot the I’s and cross the T’s. Personally I would have seen to it that Halleck was transferred to the Arizona territory and kept there in Summer.Kind of a preview of comming attractions.Well after the war he was eventually exiled to California.There were also reports that Halleck drank excessively. However I couldn’t put my finger on it.

After President Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation, did he contact each and every confederate state to phase out slavery over a period of time and they all rejected his offer?

Of course not! After signing the EP, there was no such “diplomatic contact” made. It may look that way, however:The Emancipation Proclamation was a military order. It gave to the military governors (commanding Union generals) in each occupied state a command to confiscate all slaves in that state, assuming such state was still in rebelloin as of January 1, 1863.The upshot was that it looked like kind of an “offer”… although, it wasn’t really…In a way, with this Procloamation, Lincoln was effectively saying to the South: Come back into the Union before January 1, 1863, and you will salvage your last chance to keep your slaves…Oherwise, if you still are in rebellion, and IF we continue to occupy southern states, you will have your slaves confiscated. And they will never be returned.A brilliant move on many levels. For one thing, assuming the Union armies could continue to win battles (and it was starting to), it pulled the rug out from under the Confederacy, because with slavery dead and dying, there was less motivation for them to fight on.It was not a “deal” held out to the Confederate States, but in a weird sort of way it was. It said to the South, If you want to keep your slaves, then this is your last chance to come back into the Union. Otherwise, with each new state we occupy, your slaves will be freed forever.But how many Confederate states took that “deal” — to come back peacefuly into the Union?? None of them did, not one. Lincoln knew that the South would probably not capitulate, but in Signing the Proclamation, he would gain the indisputably higher moral ground.

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