Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. (Donald 22; Neely 347) Abe liked to work outdoors, and was raised to do farm work. (Sandburg 14; Neely 347) When Abe was seven, his family moved to Indiana. (Donald 23) "Partly on account of slavery," Abraham recalled, " but chiefly on account of difficulty in land titles in Kentucky." (Neely 347) His formal education he received in an Indiana "Blab" School, using only the spelling book. (Angle 23) He loved to read, especially the Bible, Aesop's Fables, and Robinson Crusoe, to name a few. (Angle 23-24) In 1817, his grandparents Tom and Betsey Sparrow died of "milk sick". Abe

's mother also died from this on October 15, 1818. (Sandburg 11)

The first major battle of the Civil War was Bull Run, in Virginia, on July 21, 1861. Unfortunately, the North lost. (Miers 102-103) Lincoln was in command of the armies, but he was looking for a general. He appointed George B. McClellan. McClellan was a good organizer and disciplinarian, but was hesitant to fight in the field. (Miers 107-108) After the defeat at Bull Run, support for the President lessened, because the nation realized it face a long and costly war. (Donald 313)

Sandburg, Carl. Abraham Lincoln The Prairie Years and The War Years. New York:

On April 14, 1865, seven days after Lee's surrender, Lincoln attended Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington. (Baritt 326) While attending this play, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, who was using a one-shot brass derringer pistol. Lincoln was shot in the left side of the head, and died on April 15,1865 at 7:21 A.M. (Sandburg 709, 717) The country greatly mourned his death, and some couldn't accept the fact their beloved president was dead. Broadway ran the sentence, "The great person, the great man, is the miracle of history." (Sandburg 728) Booth, who fled to Virginia, had killed Lincoln to give the Confederacy one last chance to win the war, and he was killed by Union soldiers on April 26, 1865. (Sandburg 326; Donald 596) Lincoln was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois. (Baritt 326)

Angle, Paul M. The Lincoln Reader. New York: Rutgers University Press, 1947.

Baritt, Gabor S. "Lincoln, Abraham." The World Book Encyclopedia. 1999 ed.

In February 1861, representatives of six states of the South met in Montgomery, Alabama and drew up a constitution for the New Confederate States of America. (Neely 349; Donald 267) Jefferson Davis was the leader of the South. The Confederate ground ran from the Potamac River to the Gulf Coast and Rio Grande. (Sandburg 239) Lincoln decided to send provisions to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, a Union base in Confederate territory, to keep their hold, just in case something were to happen. On April 12, 1861, South Carolina fired on the fort, and the Civil War began. (Neely 349) On April 15, Lincoln called for his first deployment of 200,000 men. (Sandburg 231) At the outbreak of war, many Northerners were confident that their superiority would prevail. Lincoln however, said, " Man for man, the soldier from the South will be a marten for the soldier from the North, and vice versa." (Donald 313)

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)