¶ … Civil War
Born in 1826, George B. McClellan served as an officer in the U.S. Army. He was also a politician who became a major general at the time of the Civil War from 1861-1865 as well as a railroad president. In 1861, he was in command of the Army of Potomac, which he organized. McClellan also served the Union Army as the general-in-chief for a short time. He was very popular among his men, but was reluctant to make strong attacks on the Confederacy, despite having an advantage due to the number of men in his army. This brought differences between him and President Abraham Lincoln[footnoteRef:1]. When the Seven Days Battle came to an end in 1862, McClellan's Peninsula Campaign fell apart. He was unable to defeat the Confederate Army of Robert E at the Battle of Antietam at a later time of the same year. His extremely cautious battle tactics got Lincoln frustrated, who in turn, decided to remove him from commanding the Army of the Potomac later in the year 1862. In 1864, he went ahead to launch a presidential campaign against Lincoln, but it failed. McClellan later served in New Jersey as the governor from 1878 t 1881. [1: George Mcclellan]
Robert E. Lee was born in 1807 and died in 1870. He was in the U.S. Army as a military officer. He also served the West Point as a commandant and the Confederate Army as a legendary general during the American Civil War (1861-65). He commanded the Army of Northern Virginia from June 1861 and led it to the end of the war. The army became very successful under his command at Second Bull Run (Mansassas), Fredericksburg and at the time of the Peninsula Campaign. The Battle of Chancellorsville was, however, where he achieved the greatest victory. He proceeded to invade the north during spring in 1863 and fought the Battle of Gettysburg, but he was defeated[footnoteRef:2]. Being almost assured of defeat at Confederate, Lee pressed on and was involved in continuous clashes in Virginia against Union General Ulysses S. Grant in 1864-1865. Finally, he surrendered his army's remains in April...
Lee has received a lot of praise for displaying tactical brilliance and is still admired and respected in the South of
America. [2: Robert E. Lee]
2) The Kansas-Nebraska Act was forced in 1854 by Sen. Stephen Douglas through
Congress. The bill revoked the Missouri Compromise made in 1820 and created a possibility of
slavery expansion in a significant part of the Midwest. Abraham Lincoln, the political rival of Douglas and former Congressman of Illinois, was not pleased by the bill. In response, he arranged three speeches to address the
public during the fall in 1854[footnoteRef:3]. The Peoria Speech was the longest speech, taking a period of three hours. It contained Lincoln's complains about Douglas' bill, stating his economic, legal, political and moral stand against slavery. [3: Tracing President Lincoln's Thoughts On Slavery]
Like numerous Americans, Lincoln did not know what to do once slavery was over. During the civil war, Lincoln said that he had always considered slavery unjust. He could not even remember any time he did not hold that opinion. Eric Foner, a historian, said there is no reason why anyone would
doubt that. The problem came from the question of what would be done with slavery considering that it was unjust. Lincoln spent a large amount of time trying to decide what steps he would take3. Foner followed the development of the thoughts Lincoln had regarding slavery in The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and
American Slavery. He describes how the change on these thoughts and the role played by freed slaves reflects the transformation of America. Foner points out that Lincoln stated that slavery is not right in the Peoria speech, but later admitted that he did not have a ready solution to end slavery. He even considered the idea…
