Abraham Lincoln The Legend

VOICE ONE:

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President Abraham Lincoln asked the states of the Union for seventy-five thousand soldiers to help end the southern rebellion. Northern states quickly formed military groups and sent them to Washington. But border states -- those between the north and south -- refused to send any. Some prepared to leave the Union and join the Confederacy.

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The first state to secede after the start of the Civil War was Virginia. It was an important state because of its location. It was just across the Potomac River from Washington.

Lee said he could not accept the job. He said he opposed secession and loved the Union. But, he said, he could not make war on his home state. Lee resigned from the army. He did not really want to fight at all. But soon after his resignation, he agreed to command the forces of Virginia.

Virginia's forces moved quickly after the state seceded. A group of one thousand soldiers went to Harpers Ferry, Virginia where the Union army had a gun factory and arsenal. It was the same town where Abolitionist John Brown had tried to start a slave rebellion a few years before.

The fire did not destroy all the equipment at the gun factory. When the Virginians captured the town, they sent the equipment south, where it was used to make guns for Confederate soldiers.

Virginia's forces also moved against the United States' biggest navy base, which was at Norfolk, Virginia. Once again, the Union force withdrew. Before leaving, it burned every building and sank every ship.

Washington was not strongly defended. It did not have enough soldiers to stop any real attempt by Confederate forces to seize the city. It was extremely important to get more soldiers to Washington as quickly as possible.

Thousands of men were on their way to Washington. But they could not get there quickly.

The first troop train from the north passed through Baltimore, Maryland, without incident. The second train was not so lucky.

State and city officials met to discuss the trouble. They agreed that there would be even more violence in the future. So they ordered railroad bridges outside Baltimore destroyed. No more trains from the north could reach Washington that way.

President Lincoln told the officials of the great need to get more soldiers to the capital. He agreed that they did not have to pass through Baltimore. But he wanted them to be able to land safely at Annapolis, a city on the Chesapeake Bay.

Still, with all these difficulties, ten-thousand troops made it to Washington in the first few weeks of the Civil War. The city and government were safe.

President Lincoln worried about the presence of Confederate supporters in Maryland. He knew they would continue to be a threat to the movement of Union troops and supplies.

This order suspended two of the basic rights under the Constitution. One was the right to go free until officially charged. And the other was the right to a speedy trial.

VOICE TWO:

President Lincoln treated Kentucky carefully. He did not want the state to secede. Nor did he want it to remain neutral. Kentucky reached from the mountains of Virginia to the Mississippi River. As a neutral state, Kentucky could block northern troops from much of the south. Lincoln wanted it firmly on the side of the Union.

Lincoln hoped that, in time, these efforts would win Kentucky's support for his war effort.

VOICE ONE:

The governor organized state soldiers. The Lincoln administration organized home guard forces. The two sides clashed several times. Some civilians were killed.

VOICE TWO:

Two days before Confederate President Jefferson Davis left for Richmond, Union troops invaded Virginia. They left Washington, crossed the Potomac River, and seized the towns of Arlington and Alexandria.

That will be our story next week.

VOICE ONE: