Original subtitles

- You think anyone will know mom's in there?

(men grunting)

Abraham Lincoln, I'm running for state assembly.

It's not certain I will succeed.

- You planin' on pourin' that?

- I would like to dance with you in the worst way.

- I'm not like other ladies, Mr. Lincoln.

- I'm afraid this might be my one and only term.

- A nation guilty of practices more shocking and bloody.

- Gonna be a big argument in this country.

I intend to be ready for it.

Let us have faith that right makes might.

- Yes, Lincoln!

- The government will not assail you.

How long can Sumter to hold out for?

- Wait for cooler heads. - You must send more ships.

- [Advisor] I say we withdraw.

- Fire!

(cannons booming)

- [Man] Ladies and gentlemen,

some of you may have heard of him.

- [Doris] His story has been passed down

from one generation to the next.

- Four score and seven years ago.

- He felt that democracy in its purest form

is for all people.

- All persons held as slaves shall be thence forward

and forever free.

- But there's something deeper than what he did.

It's about who he was.

- Lincoln grew up in the poverty.

- Haven't done anything

to make anyone remember that I ever lived.

- He's living proof

that Americans can rise from obscurity to power.

- With that wit and that charm and that intellect.

- It's better to stay silent and be thought a fool

than to speak up and remove all doubt.

- He has this deep sense of empathy.

- [Christy] He takes the Declaration of Independence.

- All men are created equal.

- [Christy] And turns it into a nation's moral compass.

(glass shattering)

(mob shouting)

- As the country is breaking apart

there's a turning point

where he's gonna have to take a stand.

- Charge! (gun shots)

- Blood will be on your hands!

- Blood is already on my hands!

- He had to learn how to be a Commander in Chief.

- I can't have a war on two fronts.

- He was willing to admit he was wrong and to change.

- We can attack immediately.

- [Doris] He was the right person at the right time.

- If we let this stand for one minute longer,

(gun shot)

We might as well say goodbye to the whole thing.

Union, democracy, all of it.

(dramatic music)

Whoa!

- Pa, I'm stopping the rebels!

- Well that's good, tadpole,

we can't let 'em get Washington, can we?

- Pow!

(children laughing)

- You mustn't look like a bumpkin for the cabinet.

I've seen two soldiers camped in the east room.

Oh, they're so young.

- Don't mistake me, I'm grateful they're here,

with the rebels at our very doorstep.

Is there any word on reinforcements?

- They're due to arrive in Baltimore any moment.

Mary, I'll be late.

- There.

- The cabinet's waiting, this just came in.

(Lincoln sighs)

(mob shouting) (dramatic music)

- Got nowhere to run. - Ain't lookin' good for you.

(mob shouting)

(blows thudding)

(crowd yelling)

- After Fort Sumpter,

Washington DC is basically defenseless.

There aren't a lot of troops in Washington DC,

and for the volunteers that Lincoln has called up,

they must get to Washington.

As the 6th Massachusets is marching through Baltimore,

a mob arrives and there's a massive riot.

- Baltimore was a very pro Southern city.

It's the largest city in the slaveholding south

and proud of that.

- Soldiers opened fire.

People are killed, soldiers are killed.

It's a shocking moment.

Here at the moment of national peril

when the president calls out troops to suppress a rebellion

rioters in the streets attempt to prevent them.

- You talk about coming in the office with full plate.

Lincoln's immediately tasked

with trying to preserve a union together

that is already falling apart.

- By the time Lincoln comes into office,

seven states have seceded.

The United States doesn't even have

a sizeable military force.

There's only about 15,000 total troops

in the United States army.

- So the day after the firing on Fort Sumpter,

Lincoln will call for 75,000 troops.

- And with that four other Southern states will secede.

Problem for Washington DC is just to the south is Virginia.

They've just seceded.

It's surrounded by Maryland, a border state,

that has secessionist tendencies

and we don't quite know what direction they're gonna go yet.

- So Lincoln had to wonder,

is the Capitol in Washington now an isolated island?

A federal jurisdiction in a sea

of insurrection and rebellion.

(dramatic music)

- You severely underestimate rebel sympathies.

Southerners are resigning from my Navy every day.

- The army is losing too many of its best officers too.

- We lost Virginia we lost Robert Lee.

We need a commander.

- First we need soldiers for him to command.

- And how do you propose to pay for all these men?

- You're the one holding the purse strings.

- I cannot imagine the pressure that he was under.

Nobody's sure that this country

is actually even gonna last through his term.

- [Ted] He was in a very weak position.

The Republican party is only six years old.

It has never had a president.

- He lands in the White House

and he has to construct a cabinet

that includes people who were previously his political foes

and who are absolutely confident

that they should be president instead of him.

- [Ted] Salmon Chase still was upset

about losing the Republican nomination.

Edward Bates of Missouri, basically the same thing.

William Henry Seward is a very famous

Republican Senator from New York and a former governor.

- He's the favorite child of the Republican party.

Seward is kind of angling to try and be the,

the puppeteer, if you will.

- The first thing we should do

is blockade the southern ports.

- Don't let supplies in or come out.

- A blockade will be seen as an act of war by Europe.

- We are at war.

What's stopping us, we have a Navy and ships.

- Ships?

Right now I don't have any at my disposal.

Oh, and please tell me, Mr. Seward,

what can we do with ships if I don't have crews to man them?

(mob shouting)

- Gentlemen, a secessionist mob

has attacked the 6th Massachusetts in Baltimore.

Some dead.

And we don't know when troops will make it to Washington.

- So what do you propose, Mr. President?

You find every rebel sympathizer we can and you hold 'em,

without charge if you have to.

- Sir, that would be illegal.

- We don't know who's loyal, Mr. Bates.

We have to keep control.

This is no time to be timid.

And where are the troops from Rhode Island and New York?

Now I reckon we should have a full blockade.

- What about Congress?

- I'll call a special session of Congress in due course.

But we have to act now.

Is there another choice?

A third of our country is in rebellion

because they don't like the laws we all agreed on.

If we let this stand for one minute longer

we might as well say goodbye to the whole thing.

Union, democracy,

all of it.

(dramatic music)

- Lincoln is not allowing the south

to just go its merry old way without challenging it,

because the democracy that America had created,

was unique in the world.

- It's important to remember,

Lincoln's just one generation removed

from Washington and Adams and Jefferson.

He feels his generation has the responsibility

to keep that experiment going.

- Lincoln believed deeply in the sanctity

and the spirit of what this country was

and what it represented.

And so the idea that states would secede was infuriating

because he was like, well, we can't just

let them hold out the threat of secession

anytime they don't get what they want,

'cause they'll just do this forever.

- So the war was a war to preserve the union,

first and foremost.

They're going off to protect this great experiment

that was incredibly fragile.

- So Lincoln assumed a new presidential power,

which he called the war power.

- Lincoln declares the suspension of habeas corpus

in Maryland, in Pennsylvania.

The military can now arrest people at will

and imprison them without the necessity of a court hearing.

- And he also declares a blockade

to prevent the south from exporting things like cotton

and importing all of the things they need such as weaponry.

The north has the advantage in terms of population,

in terms of industrial capacity.

- But the south had an almost invisible army

and that was the army of slaves.

These were the people who did the drudge work of the army.

These were the people who performed all the camp duties.

This would benefit the Confederate army a great deal.

- Now, wherever there was a substantial Union army presence

enslaved people were pretty much doing

what they had done even before the Civil War,

which was to seek freedom.

And it creates a logistical problem.

What is the status of these people?

- In Virginia, enslaved African-Americans

began taking boats in the dead of the night

to the federal installation at Fort Monroe

commanded by General Benjamin Butler,

a New England politician.

- These are the Negroes.

They came across Union lines, general.

- These runaways are mine.

My bosses that is, I'm here to bring 'em back.

- That true?

Y'all runaways?

- You have to hand them over, its the law.

- I'm aware of the law.

- Sir, if me and these boys is gonna dig holes,

we'd rather dig 'em for Yankees.

- Your employer hire these men out to dig entrenchments?

Were they secession?

- He's got every right.

There his property.

- Consider them confiscated.

If they're gonna contribute to the war effort,

it'll be on the side of the Union.

- You're gonna hear about this.

- [Soldier] Sir, what do I do with them?

- Put 'em to work.

- Well, come on. - Come on, boys, come on!

- According to the fugitive slave law,

which is still on the books,

we're supposed to return these people.

Butler said, I declare you contraband of war.

You're here in camp, you may stay in camp.

And Lincoln did nothing to countermand the decision,

which led to the self emancipation

of tens of thousands of African-Americans.

- Right to the start, enslaved people view the union army,

Lincoln, as their liberators

before they viewed themselves in that role.

'Cause Lincoln is very nervous at the start of the war

to keep the border slave states within the union.

Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, and Kentucky.

He said, we can't afford to lose the states.

- He kind of stakes the future of the Union

on his ability to keep those slave states.

Because as long as those border states are still there,

this is not a war about slavery.

Because there are still slave states

who are part of the union.

- [Manisha] But the people who clearly see this

as a war about slavery

are abolitionists, are African-Americans.

- Frederick Douglass was a few years ahead of everybody,

including Lincoln.

He had moved the family to Rochester, New York

to publish the North Star newspaper,

which became the leading abolitionist voice.

Douglass believed that the Civil War

was about ending slavery,

ridding the country of this horrific institution.

- More eggs, please, mama.

- Now that's it, I can't go to the office this morning.

- But the issue's coming out tomorrow, love?

- Yes, but before it does,

I have to write a response to that.

- Lincoln's speech to Congress?

- Mm-hmm.

- He calls the war a people's contest.

- Keep reading, son.

He doesn't mention our people once.

Lincoln's for the Union, I'm for the Union too.

But this war is about slavery

and he's trying to pretend it isn't.

- But you supported him.

- The man needs to be pushed.

The whole country does.

The only way he wins this war

is by using the strength of our people against those rebels.

And I got three warriors right here to help him do it.

- Up in the north,

in order to not lose support, particularly from Democrats,

it's important to frame the war

as being essentially only about saving the Union.

- The most important thing to recognize

is it's not just the north against the south.

It's the north itself that is divided by different factions.

There are peace Democrats

who want to stop the war immediately.

Those are the Copperheads.

On the other hand, you have war Democrats.

The war Democrats are willing to fight,

but only to restore the union, not for emancipation.

- There are radical Republicans, someone like Seward

who believed in emancipation from the get-go

thought that the war should be about that.

And then you have more moderate Republicans

who simply want to preserve the Union.

- And so all of those different interests

are trying to push Lincoln in their particular thing.

But let's not forget, he's a very shrewd politician.

- And so even though Lincoln thought slavery was wrong,

he wasn't even thinking about the idea that

freeing black people would be necessary

in the project of preserving the Union.

- The loss of Fort Sumter was in April.

Now we find ourselves in June.

There is a growing public belief in the north

that we need to do something, we need to act.

- And so by June, the largest field army

the United States has ever seen with about 35,000 men

under the command of Irvin McDowell

is stationed in Washington.

- So Lincoln meets with McDowell and general Winfield Scott,

the Commanding General of the Union army.

He had been a hero in the Mexican War,

but Scott was over 70 and he was ill.

- Now, Lincoln's not trained in military science.

He will check out books from the Library of Congress,

but he's really trying to figure out

what it means to be Commander in Chief.

- He had to learn how to be a Commander in Chief,

just like he had to learn to be a president.

And he had to develop experience,

'cause the president has to make some decisions

to fight the war,

as opposed to the general fighting the battle.

(Scott snoring)

- Richmond is the key, Mr. President.

Isn't that right, General Scott?

- Indeed.

They've claimed it as their capitol.

We take it, they're so called Confederacy, will fall.

- I see the merit.

Can you move now?

- Let's not be too eager, sir.

- But I am eager.

Our enlistment period is almost over.

We have got to end this thing before it begins.

- The troops who are young and barely in uniform.

We need time to train them.

- Well, if we are green then so are the rebels.

We'll move on Richmond.

(tense music)

Immediately.

- To everything, there's a season,

a time to love and a time to hate.

A time of war and a time

of peace.

- In July, 1861, only a few months after Fort Sumter,

Union forces under McDowell marched south

into Northern Virginia for the first encounter of the war,

very close to Washington.

It happens around the town of Manassas.

The battle is alternatively called Bull Run

because that was a creek on the battlefield.

- Lincoln's expectation

going into the first battle of Bull Run is that

the war will be settled in this one battle.

The south will win its independence

or the north will put down the rebellion.

Both armies are green, not a lot of experience.

When Abraham Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers

to put down the rebellion,

they are limited to a three month enlistment.

The militia act of 1795, by which he calls them forward,

says it's only three months.

- That's the way we've always done it.

You know, the crisis comes along

and we call in all the farmers

to get your musket over the fireplace.

And when the war's over,

we send 'em home to be farmers again.

- [Doug] Lincoln recognizes

that his men are not well-trained,

but politically it would have been an abject sin

to send all those soldiers back home

if they hadn't been used in the first place.

- The reality is the overwhelming

sentiment on both sides

was let's get an army out there and get it done.

And so Lincoln and other leaders

were pressuring the Union army under Irvin McDowell

to get up there and let's fight.

- Even though it seems so foreign to us,

there was a great deal of excitement.

There was a great deal of war enthusiasm.

Keep in mind, the technology of the time.

We had no way to see a battlefield.

People had seen paintings and sketches.

And the notion was that these men are in formations

and firing at each other, but it must be relatively safe.

- There are people who literally showing up there

with picnic baskets on their wagons

to look at the armies fight down on the hill.

- Congressmen and senators

and the social elite of Washington

had come out to view the battle.

This is a major spectacle, this is major entertainment.

- [Caroline] And people really thought

this would be their only chance to see one battle.

The Union army cross creek.

(horses neighing)

They wage an attack

against this very formidable force of Confederates.

(dramatic music)

- [Preacher] Even during these difficult times,

these trying times of war,

we must remain strong and keep our faith in Him.

- Sir, news from the field.

(people murmuring)

What does it say?

- [Doug] Lincoln is waiting to hear how it's going.

- [Church Attendee] Seems like good news.

- And it starts as a union advantage early in the morning.

After church, Lincoln spends the rest of the day

in the telegraph office.

This will be his source of information.

- The arrival of the telegraph,

what Lincoln used to call lightning messages,

changed the nature of information.

Suddenly what was known in one place

could be known in other places almost instantaneously.

- Before you'd get up,

a dispatch would come in every few weeks or something.

And so you really had to give almost complete autonomy

to military leaders in the field.

Now he's connected by a wire.

- The day began very well for the Union.

They routed Confederate forces and pushed them back

and not until the late afternoon

did the Confederate forces counter attack.

- General McDowell has a pretty good plan.

The problem was he had a very green army.

And so on the battlefield,

they had a difficult time maneuvering.

The south had many of the same problems,

but then the south was fortunate because during the battle,

the railroad allowed the south to move reinforcements up,

which reached the battlefield at a critical moment.

- Federal troops hear the terrifying rebel yell.

This high pitched yelping.

Union troops described it as otherworldly.

It had enormous results, let's put it that way.

- The Confederates start pushing back

and the federals cross back across the creek in a mad dash.

They have been completely routed.

- Citizens of Washington

who had gone down in their carriages

and set up picnic baskets

on the bluffs overlooking the battlefield,

they were having a high old time for lunch.

And then when the battle turned,

their picnic baskets were upended, they fled in disarray.

And the union troops had to march back

in this searing, July heat, humiliated.

- For Lincoln now the defeat is not something that happens

hundreds of miles away that you read about,

you see wounded soldiers, defeated soldiers,

soldiers who've thrown away their arms,

come streaming right back into the Capitol.

So the idea of a disaster became tangible.

You could see it, you could smell it.

- What does McDowell say?

- That the day is lost.

(somber music)

- It was probably his first military error.

And on that day, Lincoln realized

that this was not going to be a brief war.

It was gonna be a long war.

- The uncertainty in Washington is palpable.

It's not clear that the remaining defenses

around Washington

can handle a Confederate army breaching the Capitol city.

What if they do manage to capture the White House?

(dramatic music)

- McDowell's to blame.

- I'm responsible, I gave the orders.

- What kind of soldier runs from the field?

- One who's barely trained.

- Mr. President, I must offer my resignation.

I should have insisted- - No.

This is my fault.

You warned me and I didn't listen.

Now, how soon can we reinforce the city?

The rebels are bound to move quickly now that-

(door clicks)

- I thought you might need coffee.

There are rumors circulating

of an attack here in Washington.

Is that possible?

- My dear, you must take the children north at once.

Washington is not safe for you.

- Will you come with me?

- You know I can't leave.

- Then I won't either.

(dramatic music)

- In the summer of 1861,

after the Union loses the Battle of Bull Run,

the volunteers are really depressed,

their morale is low

because they've lost the first encounter of the war,

which they were not only expected to win,

but to end the rebellion in a single day.

- The Confederates could have followed up

and might have made their way into Washington DC.

They don't.

- The problem is the victorious Confederate army

is just as shot up as the defeated Union army.

- The only way you grow

is by being able to acknowledge the mistakes you've made.

So Lincoln gets out of the White House

and he goes and sees the soldiers.

- He's trying to teach himself

what he's gonna need to know

as Commander in Chief of the United States Army,

quickly, on the fly.

And after the Battle of Bull Run,

he talks to William Tecumseh Sherman.

- My men fought well enough.

But we did not expect the strength of the counter attack.

There was a lot of bragging before the fighting started,

but what we need now are cool-headed

serious minded, hard fighting soldiers.

And we need them for more than 90 days.

Most of these boys, their enlistment are up already.

So if you don't mind, sir,

I prefer you don't do too much hoorahing.

- Yes.

- Boys, we've got a special visitor.

At ease.

- Hi, hello, how are you, sir?

Good to see you.

Thank you, thank you.

(soldiers clapping)

No, no, no, no, no, don't cheer, boys.

I like it myself, but a Colonel Sherman here,

he tells me that it's not military.

(men laugh)

So I'll just say this.

We fought a tough battle and we came in second,

but brighter days are coming.

If you need anything, please just feel free to speak up.

- Mr. President.

Mr. President, can I really ask you anything?

- Yes, go ahead.

- Well, my 90 days are up and I gotta get home.

I spoke to the Colonel sir, but he said-

- What did the colonel say?

- Well, he said, he'd shoot me.

- Shoot you?

Well, if Colonel Sherman threatened to shoot,

I'd trust his word, cause I believe he might just do it.

(soldiers laughing)

No, if your 90 days are up of course you're free to go.

But just know this, this isn't over.

Your country still needs you, and I need you.

I hope you boys all re-enlist.

- [Soldiers] Yeah!

- 'Cause I need every single one of you,

every single one of you.

(soldiers clapping)

- The soldiers felt a bond with this man, Lincoln.

When he came on reviews, he's not distant from them,

he's not some monarch on a throne.

Now, he is common, Abraham Lincoln,

and he comes from places that they have come from.

This surprised soldiers.

And they loved him for it.

- At the beginning of the war,

you have the professional United States Army.

Many of the men had all gone to West Point.

But the army that Lincoln creates is a volunteer army.

Individual companies tended to come from towns or counties.

- There was such an incredible war spirit

that really people of all grades of life

were volunteering for the military.

Lawyers, teachers, politicians.

- Even Lincoln's friend, Edward Baker,

who's a sitting Senator, volunteers.

And Baker like a lot of people,

wanted to uphold the principles of what America meant.

- And after the debacle at First Bull Run,

Lincoln will call for 500,000 troops.

So we've gone from a pre-war time army of 15,000 men

to a call for 500,000 men.

- When Lincoln first goes to visit the troops

through talking to them he realizes

they're going to need better leadership.

- So in 1861, George B. McClellan is a 34 year old,

very successful railroad manager.

He had gone to West Point.

He had a distinguished career in the Mexican American War.

- Lincoln wanted an aggressive general

and George B. McClellan is phenomenal on paper.

- The last time we met,

you were stomping for our late friend, Stephen Douglas.

- I am a Democrat, after all.

- What had reached my ears was a,

a certain railroad executive chose to

reroute a train full of citizens

bent on casting their votes for me.

That's all in the past, General McClellan.

What I need now is someone

to grab the army of the Potomac by the shoulders

and give it a shake.

- Mr. President, if you'll let me,

I'm going to take those boys and make them into soldiers.

They will have the best uniforms, the best rifles,

the best artillery, and when they have the best

they will become the most magnificent

and the largest army the world has ever seen.

And then I'm going to march

this magnificent army into Virginia

and those so-called rebels will know

what power has struck them.

(Lincoln sighs)

- Lincoln is no soldier.

He was elected captain in the Blackhawk War,

but he hasn't seen real action.

And he's very cognizant of that

as he's suddenly the president during a Civil War.

- By late October, Winfield Scott decides to retire.

And so Lincoln will tap McClellan as the

general and chief.

Lincoln says to him,

you are in charge of all the United States forces,

including those out west.

You need to come up with the strategic plan for that,

but you are also in charge

of the principal field army in the east

and McClellan and his ever confident way says,

I can do it all.

(dramatic music)

- By the fall, the war is all around Washington.

There was a huge infusion of soldiers

camping in its public spaces,

ringing the city to protect it from Confederate attack.

And the war comes home to the White House

in a deeply personal way.

- Six months into the war

at the Battle of Ball's Bluff,

Lincoln's good friend, Edward Baker dies,

which is crushing to Abraham Lincoln.

- Lincoln's second son was named Edward Baker Lincoln.

They were that close.

- Lincoln and Baker had known each other

since those days in the back room in Speed's store,

a quarter of a century earlier.

It was said by a reporter that his chest heaved with emotion

when he got the telegram in the office

and that he just stumbled out onto the street

with tears streaming down his face.

- The death of someone so close to you,

that responds to your call

by offering their life and their service

has to leave an indelible mark on you.

And you wonder, does Lincoln blame himself?

- [Doris] The day before Edward Baker would lose his life,

He came to the White House to see Lincoln,

and it was a beautiful autumn day

and Willie was playing in the leaves.

-Thank you.

And as Edward Baker got up to leave,

he put his arms around him and kissed Willie.

Willie loved him.

- Willie spent a whole day working on a poem.

About Edward.

- Is that so?

I would dearly love to hear it.

It might do us all a world of good.

Would you read it for us?

(soft music)

- There was no patriot like Baker.

So noble and so true.

He fell as a soldier on the field,

his face to the sky, blue.

- Come here.

(Willie sobbing)

- Well, it's been 20 minutes.

- He works for you, doesn't he?

- Sitting here all day is of no concern to me.

I'd hold McClellan's horse to get a victory.

- Apologies, I am quite busy.

Rebuilding several new roads

and we have over 50,000 men to equip and to train.

It's endless.

- How are the new boys shaping up?

- Splendidly.

- Hmm, I'm glad to hear that.

You know, General, I only served a few months.

Never saw any fighting,

but I did have a good many bloody struggles

with those mosquitoes though, ha! (laughs)

- I'm sure you're not here to talk about mosquitoes.

What can I do for you?

- Well, it's about that army of yours.

Came by to find out when you were intending to use it again.

- When it's ready.

As you know, I'm planning a major offensive,

and these things take time to prepare

if you know how to do them properly.

And I do.

Respectfully, Mr. President,

why don't you leave military matters to military men?

- Very well, General.

I have complete confidence in you.

Look forward to a successful campaign.

- At first, McClellan does a stellar job.

He was great when it came to organization.

He had the army of the Potomac drilled,

their camps were clean,

and McClellan's men are very dedicated to him.

There's lots of support from the northern press

and all of this adulation goes to his head.

- Lincoln turned to McClellan

because Lincoln is a man who can look at somebody and say,

you know things I don't,

and I'm willing to lean on your expertise.

But McClellan sees Lincoln as this frontier,

backwater, uneducated ruffian.

- He would write letters to his wife

and describe how he was selected to be the savior.

And he would describe President Lincoln

as the baboon or the gorilla.

And he would pretty openly tell people

that this guy doesn't understand.

He needs to get out of my way and let me handle this.

- The Confederates are still about 30 miles away

from Washington DC in the Fall of 61.

McClellan has decided that he's gonna wait until the Spring

to launch a campaign,

but he doesn't bother telling Lincoln this.

At this point, there is a committee

called the Joint Committee on the Conduct of War,

and it is filled with radical Republicans.

Men who want to move fast,

who are certainly pushing for emancipation,

and they're becoming increasingly frustrated

with McClellan as well.

- Lincoln is again, navigating those difficult waters.

He knows he sent a very green army to Manassas

and they were defeated.

McClellan's asking for more time to train his army.

And Lincoln says, okay, I will protect you

from the political pressures

of people saying that you should get into action.

However, at the same time he recognizes

the political pressure to act can't be ignored.

- I mean, the strain is clear.

He was feeling pressure from many sides.

- [Barton] At the same time,

the Confederates were actively pursuing

formal recognition on the international stage.

And in 1861, they're in the process

of sending their emissaries to England and to France.

And they are on the British ship, Trent,

which is stopped by a US naval vessel.

They're taken off of that ship and detained.

- You have to keep in mind

that the British Navy was supreme.

And part of the tradition and maritime law says,

if you board a ship illegally,

you are invading the country who owns the ship

and the British demanded they be released

or else this is an act of war, they said.

- Lincoln is in a classic dilemma situation.

Republican northerners who had voted for him

want trial for treason for these men.

But he also had to keep England on the sideline.

So he's ultimately gotta release these diplomats

and let them go about their business.

- However, President Lincoln

had to build up public support to do that.

Because the public perception is everything.

For a president, your ability to maintain morale

becomes the essential thing.

If you can't do that,

whatever you're doing with the army becomes irrelevant.

- And so the courting of newspapers really

helped his cause.

And I should make the point,

newspapers were not just independent journals of the day.

They were part of the political machine.

John Wayne Forney was a Washington editor,

very influential politically,

and Forney became a frequent visitor to the White House.

- John, we're in a tight spot.

So was the Queen of England.

Both of us are clamoring for a fight

that neither of us wants.

- British wouldn't dare go to war over this.

- You might think so.

You know it reminds me, there was a,

there was a bulldog back home.

He used to growl all the time.

My neighbors were convinced that there was nothing to fear.

And so was I.

And this fellow got me to think twice, he tells me,

I know that bulldog won't bite

and you know that bulldog bite,

but does the bulldog know it won't bite?

- I'm listening.

- Tomorrow I want you to write an article about how,

how it would be good for the country to,

to give those two rebels over to England.

- My readers would rather see those two hanged.

- I trust you to change their minds.

I can't have a war on two fronts.

I know, I know, it's, it's a lot to ask.

But as a friend, I'm asking you.

- [Narrator] By the end of December,

editorials written by people like John Forney

reflected the opinion that the Confederate diplomats

should be released

and started to mollify the public reaction,

should that happen.

- One of Lincoln's great talents

is to keep focus in the midst of crisis.

This focus is what members of his cabinet like Seward

came to really respect.

- In early 1861, 1862 Winter,

very little is happening in terms of fighting,

particularly in Virginia,

where McClellan is continually training the troops.

- All these soldiers are gathering together.

This costs money, this takes time,

there's no action taking place.

- At this point, Lincoln is feeling like

the war isn't being pressed hard enough.

And so he's going to take more direct control.

- Lincoln has to manage the war sittin' there day-to-day

trying to plot where supply is going and who's doing what,

what maneuvers are being run.

These days a modern president would be frowned upon

to be micromanaging like that.

It's bad management practice,

but he didn't have an option.

- [Doug] Eventually Lincoln gives

one of his first general orders.

- The famous General Orders Number 1,

which requires all of his commanders to

go on the offensive

and to attack actually by Washington's birthday,

on February the 22nd.

McClellan just ignores this, makes no movement whatsoever.

And the only one actually to move

is Ulysses S. Grant out west.

- Ulysses S. Grant had gone to West Point,

not performed especially well.

When the war begins he is clerking

in the small town of Galena, Illinois.

- When the Civil War starts he volunteers

to help train troops

and pretty quickly he shows that he's got competence,

not just in training, but in leading in battle.

- Ulysses S. Grant will take Fort Henry and Donaldson

in the beginning of February.

So there's the Western theater,

which is largely the theater

between the Appalachian Mountains in the

Mississippi River,

where the Union is actually starting to make progress.

With this Grant becomes a national hero.

It's the first great Union victory of the war.

- It's a little bit ironic though,

with the jubilation of the capture

of Forts Henry and Donaldson,

because the Lincoln is in major crisis mode

because it's this same time period

that his little boy, Willie catches typhoid.

- I hear cannons.

- It's a salute, Grant took Fort Donaldson.

He's a western man like your Pa.

Seems like he can fight.

Just like you.

All right.

Back to sleep now, okay?

(soft music)

- How is he?

- He's gonna be fine.

(soft music)

- In February of 1862, Willie had fallen ill.

He probably contracted typhoid fever

from bad water pumped into the White House.

At first, they think that he'll be fine,

but on February 20th, 1862, he dies.

When Willie died, Lincoln put his head in his hands

and simply began to sob and then said,

my boy is gone, my boy is gone.

- [Allen] After the death of Willie,

Abraham Lincoln put a silk ribbon on his hat

so that he would always remember the loss of his son.

- When I lost a son,

it was Mrs. Lincoln who wrote me a letter

full of comforting words.

Look around, sir.

In her time of grief, ain't no friend

no lady or Washington society by her side.

She a outsider.

- I am very grateful for you, Mrs. Keckly.

- Thank you, sir.

(Mary sobbing)

(somber music)

- Mary was of course distraught.

Took to her bed and never really recovered,

I think, from the loss of her beloved son.

- They had a private funeral

because Mrs. Lincoln couldn't tolerate a public reception.

Her grief was volcanic.

She could not stop wailing.

She locked herself in her room.

We also know that Mr. Lincoln was completely devastated.

He had been, many thought, his father's favorite.

He'd been a boy with great talent and promise,

and therefore his passing was a matter of deep sadness.

- He wrote poetry, he loved reading.

He had those qualities of empathy,

sensitivity, intelligence, that Lincoln had.

So he was like a miniature Lincoln,

I think there's something to that.

- When you look at all the people who died

that were close to him, his mother, then he lost his sister.

His beloved son Eddie,

his very, very close friend, Edward Baker,

the death of Willie then compounds the misery.

But the fact is, is that Lincoln had a country to run.

- Now, as of March,

McClellan still hasn't moved this massive army.

So Lincoln is going to issue another war order

telling him to move.

And by March 17th, McClellan has finally ordered his army

to the tip of the Virginia peninsula.

- McClellan's plan is one

that Lincoln initially objected to.

An amphibious operation,

moving down the coast of Virginia,

landing on the peninsula,

and threatening Richmond from the south.

- This is about 120,000 men on 400 boats.

- It was well-executed to move this huge force down there,

but they get to Fort Monroe

and then they start moving too slowly, like molasses.

And they're essentially bottled up.

- Even though things hadn't been going well in the east,

Lincoln has heard about Grant

with the two surrenders at Forts Henry and Donaldson.

And after that, the western armies

were continuing to make progress.

The Battle of Shiloh ends up being an amazing,

if incredibly bloody victory.

- Actually the reaction to Grant at Shiloh

was largely negative.

All of a sudden he loses 13,000 troops.

There are unfounded rumors of Grant being drunk

and people are calling for his ouster.

- But Lincoln says, I cannot spare this man, he fights.

- And that was the beginning of Grant's ascendancy.

And Lincoln's recognition in Grant,

someone who would not go back, who would not wait,

who would not delay.

- Now, in previous months,

Lincoln discovered that his secretary of war,

Simon Cameron is hopelessly inadequate to the task.

And so then he's place Lincoln nominates Edwin Stanton.

Stanton was a Democrat.

Stanton would get along nicely

with other Democrats in the army,

especially George McClellan.

- McClellan's got plenty of troops,

but still he sits outside Yorktown.

He's got to attack.

- I'm sure he's as skittish as a long tailed cat

in a room full of rocking chairs,

but he's the best we have.

You said so yourself.

- I've sung his praises,

but he makes new enemies each day he doesn't fight.

- What's your advice?

- Fire him, at once.

- If McClellan can just capture-

- He won't capture anything at this rate.

- Well, he's got his orders, he'll move.

He has to.

- Right after George McClellan,

the army of Potomac land on the peninsula,

they will start to work their way up.

About the same time that they're advancing,

Abraham Lincoln arrives.

- Lincoln will meet with McClellan

more than any other Union general

over the course of the war.

Between July of '61 and April 1st, 1862,

he met with him at least 57 times.

So very much a hands-on. There's a lot of communication.

But we see him increasingly frustrated

that McClellan isn't doing the things

that he's asking him to do.

- This time when Lincoln arrives down at Fort Monroe

McClellan's not there and it's one more insult to Lincoln

and his responsibilities.

And so Lincoln's now looking around going,

okay, well, I can't meet with McClellan,

what else is going on down there?

Hey, isn't that Norfolk?

What he's gonna realize is

that Norfolk is still occupied by the Confederates.

Norfolk, which is a major naval base,

and currently it's also the home

of the Confederate Ironclad, the CSS Virginia.

This is a threat to the Union army,

as well as to the blockade.

It's also a threat to McClellan's effort

to get up the river.

- General Wool, would I be wrong in saying

that since the rebels have left Yorktown,

that Norfolk is vulnerable?

- No, sir, you would not be wrong.

- Then why haven't we taken it?

- Well, there's the small matter

of the Virginia being stationed there.

It's just destroyed two of our best ships.

- What if we don't attack it directly?

We'll take the Fort below Norfolk, by water landing.

And bombard the rebel batteries here at Sybil's Point.

And bring our boys ashore somewhere near this area.

- You don't know these waters, sir.

- It's feasible except for the Virginia coming out

and destroying our landing craft.

- We have a Navy too, don't we?

- Yeah, but we need solid ground to land our troops.

- Let's find some.

- Right here, along the south bank of the James.

- I'll go scout it myself.

- Mr. President, that is enemy territory.

- This is the thing about Lincoln.

All the experiences that he had in his life,

they become part of who he is.

And he's got a real physical sense

of how to operate on a river.

I mean, he has a physical sense of knowing

the way rivers wind, knowing geography.

- [Commodore] Be careful.

- Commodore, I saw some canal boats back at the Wharf.

What if we furnished some of our boys on them

and land in the shallows here,

they can float in only a foot of water.

- That could work.

The bigger boats need some place deeper.

- What about there?

That looks like it

could be at least eight feet come high tide.

- What you're saying, if we get back now-

- We can attack immediately.

(tense music)

- There's the Virginia.

- Lincoln when he arrives down at Norfolk,

it's a massive overreach.

President of United States, the Commander in Chief

should not be in tactical operations.

- Was I too rash?

Perhaps we should've waited to attack.

- He has basically undercut his entire chain of command,

almost as if to say even a non-professional,

all it takes is a little bit of initiative.

All it takes is a little bit of activity.

All it takes is a little bit of a watchful eye

to see where those opportunities exist

and we can start making progress

at a faster pace than we currently are.

- Troops have been on shore for hours.

- We should have news by now.

- A dispatch from Norfolk.

The rebels are evacuating and they've scuttled the Virginia.

- Are you sure?

- The city is ours.

- Oh, easy, Stanton, you'll crush him.

Well,

we've done it.

- No, sir, no no.

You have done it.

(dramatic music)

- After some preliminary bombardment by the Navy,

they will land Union troops over on the Confederate side.

When the Confederates see the Union troops,

they're gonna leave Norfolk.

They'll destroy as much of the equipment as they can,

including sinking the CSS Virginia, their ironclad.

And effectively Abraham Lincoln has taken the initiative.

He's literally leading from the front.

- There was a certain method to his madness.

He was impatient.

He was trying to send a message to General McClellan,

get moving.

- So McClellan will move very slowly.

He'll move forward up the peninsula,

fighting small battles like big Bethel and Williamsburg.

- But the entire movement up the peninsula is

slower than it should have been,

less aggressive than it should have been.

The uncertainty of the battlefield,

the idea that you're rolling the dice on the battlefield

every time was very upsetting to him.

And so it would cause him to hesitate.

- It isn't so much in my view that he's indecisive,

he is choosing to do what one might call light sparring.

He doesn't want to have a high body count.

He just kind of wants to sneak in,

slap somebody around a little bit,

step on back and keep on moving.

You know, he's sending advance scouts

to the plantations and farms along the way to say,

Hey, I'm coming through,

but I'm not gonna mess with your slaves

and I'm not gonna burn anything.

We're just gonna be moving my army through.

- [Doug] Eventually the Confederate forces retreat back

all the way till within earshot

of the churchbells of Richmond.

- And then at the end of May at the Battle of Seven Pines,

Joseph E. Johnston,

who was in command of the Confederate army,

is grievously wounded.

Jefferson Davis turns to his formal military advisor,

Robert Edward Lee of Virginia,

and Lee is rushed out to the field to take command.

- Robert E. Lee is probably the most

iconic soldier in American history.

He had had tremendous service during the Mexican War.

And so on the eve of secession,

president Lincoln sought to have Robert E. Lee

take command of the United States forces.

Robert E. Lee makes the decision instead

to go with Virginia.

- So Lee takes command of what he christens

the Army of Northern Virginia on June 1st.

And for the next three weeks,

it's going to be incredibly rainy.

And McClellan's not able to do much.

If you can imagine moving an army of 120,000 men

with all of their mules and horses and wagons.

But Lincoln believes that this capital can be taken.

McClellan has more men

than has ever been fielded in North America.

This could all be ended right now.

- The weight of this war fell on Lincoln

from almost the first day.

And that sense, that wearying, nagging, never ending,

always draining sense of responsibility, haunts him.

(door knocking)

- Put your light out soon, you're too weary.

- He asked for you.

- I'm with him when I can be.

I'm busy at the hospitals,

those boys so appreciate when I read to them

and write their letters.

I need to be useful.

- Well, you can sit with him now.

- Is it McClellan?

- As if Robert E. Lee didn't have to march through mud too.

(sighs) He could end this.

- Replace him.

Everyone says you should.

- With who?

Leave me with it.

(soft music)

- I think what kept Lincoln up at night sometimes

was just knowing how many soldiers had died that day.

And that he was the leader

that was in charge of this decision to keep the war going.

And that these people had died,

their families were suffering under the terrible loss.

- But Lincoln understands the idea

that it was gonna cost a lot of lives to win the war.

And I think President Lincoln hit the point

where he had just lost patience with General McClellan.

It just felt like he wasn't aggressive enough,

he wouldn't fight.

- So despite all of the men that McClellan has had,

he's able to make his way outside of the

gates of Richmond, but not into Richmond.

Meanwhile, Lee is reorganizing his new army.

- And ultimately at the end of June,

Robert E. Lee will launch a series of battles

known as the Seven Days.

Throughout these fights Robert E. Lee

will only win one of those battles.

But what he does is drive McClellan

back from the gates of Richmond

and pins him against the James River.

McClellan will write vicious telegraphs

to say that if I lose, this is not my fault.

It's your fault.

You haven't given me the men I need.

You haven't given me the supplies I need.

And this is grating on Lincoln.

- So by July 1st,

this peninsula campaign has essentially come to an end.

Lincoln will come down to visit him

at a place called Harrison's Landing.

It's there that McClellan will hand him a letter.

- It talks about civil military policy

for the fighting of this war.

What he says is that it should be executed

with the highest Christian principles.

That they should take no Southern property,

that they should not try and subdue the South

and that whatever we do,

let's not talk about the issue of slavery.

And perhaps if he had written it months earlier,

Lincoln may have agreed with him,

but Lincoln doesn't agree with him now.

The war has already turned more resolute.

The war has already turned more violent.

He's already now even considering other ways

that they might be able to put more pressure

on the Confederacy that they might win the war.

- In the last weeks of June,

McClellan's army has suffered a crushing defeat.

They were only like four miles from Richmond

when Lee attacked them and they were forced to retreat.

So the mood of the North was really at its lowest point,

lower even than after Bull Run.

Enlistments were going down,

desertions were gonna happen.

And Lincoln felt that something had to change.

- Now every summer from 1862 on,

Lincoln would find some measure of escape

from the White House

in the high cooler grounds of the Soldiers' Home.

This was a rambling series of cottages

built by the Old Soldiers' retirement complex in the 1850s,

but always, always there was the war.

- There were so many times

when it looked like the war would be lost.

After Bull Run it certainly looked that way.

After the peninsula campaign,

it looked like the war could easily be lost.

But he was the one who kept the spirit of the army,

keeps the spirit of the people going.

He absorbed those losses and it just makes him think,

what can I do differently, how can I change what's going on?

- The rebels still control the Mississippi up near Vicksburg

and, well, we're back where we started in Virginia.

- My Pa could've made this chair.

He could make most furniture with his hands.

- Abe.

We've got to make decisions.

We know McClellan's not the answer,

but do you think General Hallock

can turn things around for us?

- This war has nothing to do with generals.

They alone can't win it for us.

We have more men, more supplies, more money.

Yet it seems we're always tugging at the end of the rope.

- The rebels fight on their own land.

- Well, that can make a man fight harder.

They also have something else too.

- Yes.

Slavery.

- If slavery's not wrong, nothing is.

I must have everyone on board.

The military, public,

the cabinet.

- Over the summer,

Lincoln is talking to people about

what will become the Emancipation Proclamation.

He's talking to his War Department,

he's talking to State Department.

- Abolitionist, were clamoring for Lincoln to do something.

They were saying, the Confederacy has these black men

impressed into military laborers.

Free these people, you know,

we can use them to help us win the war.

Black men had been saying it all along,

white men and women started saying it as well.

Lincoln still believed that the Constitution

made it impossible for the government

to emancipate the slaves

because Constitution protected property

and property was slaves.

- For political figures who have a moral compass,

there is a constant warring inside you

of when do I just blurt out what I think

versus when do I bite my tongue

and see if I can work something out.

Am I betraying the ideals that I care about?

Or am I playing a long game to advance them?

- There's a clear learning curve

as he learns the strategy of what will be necessary

to win a war of this magnitude and this complexity.

He exercised war powers like few presidents

have ever in our history.

And they were pretty upsetting to people,

but he understood that he wasn't just the president,

he was the Commander in Chief as well.

- So that's when he begins to think about the fact that

I don't have the constitutional power

to emancipate the slaves in the Union as president,

but maybe as Commander in Chief,

I can emancipate the slaves in the south

as a military necessity.

But Lincoln would have to persuade the cabinet, the army,

and the people that the Emancipation Proclamation

was the right thing to do.

- That on the first day of January

in the year of our Lord, 1863,

all persons held as slaves within any state

or designated part of the state,

shall be then thence forward and forever free.

Now, I have made up my mind about this,

but I want to hear your opinions.

- Now is not the time for something so rash.

- Where does your authority come from to do this?

- I think it's exactly the right time.

Doesn't the rebellion give me authority?

I am no general, but I am Commander in Chief.

Aren't I allowed to lick the enemy anywhere I can?

- Make this a war for abolition

and we'll drive Kentucky to the rebels.

- I've left it alone in the border states.

This is a military order.

- Shift the manpower of slaves from them to us.

If that's true, I'm all for it.

- Well, good for you, Stanton, but the people won't be.

- Black and white can't live together.

But if we push colonization, people might swallow that.

- Well, it's overdue but wrong headed.

You say there's a way out for the rebels,

but this is an ultimatum they'll never submit to,

unless that's what you intended.

- Everyone will see you gave them a chance to act sensibly.

- They have their chance.

- This, this is madness.

I demand to be put on record in opposition.

If this gets out, we'll lose every election.

Congress will be lost.

It'll lead to insurrection in the north,

massacre in the streets,

and the rebels will only fight harder.

Blood will be on your hands!

- Blood is already on our hands!

We have played every other card.

It is time to change our tactics or lose the game.

Now, I need your support.

- I think this proclamation is what the country needs.

But don't release it now, when we're beaten down,

the public will see it as an act of desperation.

Wait for a victory, however small.

Then the public will see your proclamation for what it is,

a noble act.

- Well, if it's noble,

I'd rather it be noble now than later.

But the governor is right, public sentiment's everything.

We'll wait, we'll wait for a Union victory.

(printing press whirring)

- Have you included my last changes?

- Yes, sir.

I hear Lincoln's meeting with the Negro leaders.

- I hear the same.

It's a great opportunity.

After all his foot draggin',

to have a Negro delegation come see him.

It's never happened before.

- Why' don't you go?

- I wasn't invited.

- I guess old Abe might not wanna hear what you have to say.

- That's true enough.

But I sure would like to know what he has to say.

- What I want is a way out for everybody.

To that end, I've had Congress secure some land

in Central America.

You and I, are of opposite races,

physically speaking, we couldn't be more different.

I fear it might take a hundred years for you

to find equality in this country.

Agree to my proposal

and my people will stop killing each other.

And your people will be free.

That's my proposition.

Take your time to consider it.

As long as you'd like.

- Well, Mr. President-

- We'd be happy to consider it, sir.

- Lincoln's favorite politician, Henry Clay,

was a very prominent member and president

of the American Colonization Society that was formed in 1817

for the purpose of sending free black men and women

outside of the country.

- Lincoln thought slavery was wrong.

But he's also someone who believed in

what he imagined as nuance.

And Lincoln frames this like, he's like,

even if I wanted black people to stay,

there is no way that the average white person

would ever allow black people to exist

without the threat of violence

hanging over them at all times.

They we don't want to live next door to you.

They don't want you to vote.

They don't want you on their juries.

They don't want you to go to school with their kids.

They don't want you anywhere near them.

And Lincoln said the way to make people

feel less physically threatened and socially threatened

is to say, after we get rid of slavery,

this is gonna again be a white man's country

and black people are gonna go somewhere else

so we won't have to worry about it.

- Keep in mind, the free north is 99% white.

And so there is a palpable fear

among white northerners of slavery being ended.

- Especially those who felt

that they were going to have to compete with black men

for the same jobs, for the same housing.

Now there were black men and women as well,

who believed that the two races could not co-exist.

They're just thinking, I am tired of dealing with this,

I want out of this country.

But the majority of African-Americans

were not at all interested.

We sometimes think that by the time of the Civil War,

the people who are enslaved

are people who were captured in Africa

and brought to America.

These are Americans, they're not citizens,

but they are native born Americans.

And their ancestors had been here in some instances

before the Mayflower.

- Then in August, 1862, Horace Greeley's New York Tribune

publishes an editorial called the Prayer of 20 millions.

It basically says, why, Mr. Lincoln,

are you delaying on issuing a proclamation of freedom?

So Lincoln did write,

I think the most famous letter to the editor,

in American history.

He said, I want to remind you,

my paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union.

If I could save the Union by freeing all the slaves,

I would do it.

If I could save the union by freeing none of the slaves,

I would do that.

If I could save the union by freeing some

and leaving others alone, I would do that.

Lincoln is by this time determined to be a liberator,

but congressional elections were coming up.

So first he has set the stage

among an exclusively white electorate

for emancipation to be accepted.

But his cabinet had said, you've gotta wait

for a Union battlefield victory or people will think

that this is what William Seward called,

a last shriek on the retreat.

- Meanwhile, Robert E. Lee will take the initiative.

From the time he takes command,

he will drive Union soldiers

back from the gates of Richmond.

By the end of August he'll win

the Second battle of Bull Run.

And now Lee is looking at the spires of Washington DC.

And then what he will write back to Jefferson Davis is,

now seems to be the most propitious time

since the beginning of this war

for this army to enter into Maryland,

a change of policy for the Confederacy

to now invade the north.

- We're a little over a year into the war,

and you're starting to get into

the effects of public sentiment

and what people are thinking and morale.

- So the idea is Lee would put pressure

on President Lincoln politically,

and it might lure the Union army out into a battle

in which it could be destroyed.

So he was able to maneuver his force

to force a battle at a place called Antietam.

- The Battle of Antietam will unfold on September 17th, 1862

on beautiful rolling farmland of Western Maryland.

The morning fighting will happen

on the right flank of the Union.

- [Doug] The union army will go to the north,

they will attack across famous places like the cornfield.

- [Caroline] The fighting that occurred

in Miller's cornfield was so severe

that the cornstalks were cut all the way down

to their bottom.

- Then the battle shifts to the middle of Lee's line,

a sunken road.

This is a farm lane that connects the Hagerstown turnpike

and the Boonsboro turnpike.

And after wagons going across it had eroded

to become a trench line.

Two under strength Confederate brigades

will defend that sunken road

and two divisions of the Union army

will attack that sunken road repeatedly.

(guns fire) (soldiers shouting)

- Sir, we should fall back.

- No, sergeant, we're gonna end this now.

On your feet, men!

Charge!

(soldiers shouting) (guns firing)

Come on, boys, go go go!

- After two and a half hours of fighting,

that Confederate line will finally break.

But McClellan will commit no more forces to it.

- By the time all is said and done here,

the road is simply littered with bodies.

It is more or less a graveyard.

And that's why it's called Bloody Lane.

- Antietam was horrible.

The thing about Antietam, though, that becomes important

is that Lincoln needed a win.

He's not doing really well

in the Spring and the Summer of '62.

Antietam gives him permission to issue

the Emancipation Proclamation to the south

and change the course of the war.

(soft music)

- Antietam's the first battle that will be photographed.

The scenes of the sunken road are absolutely heartrending.

People can't believe the carnage that has happened

from this one battle.

Once these images are produced,

the reality of war sets in fully.

(door knocking)

- McClellan had 12,000 fresh troops in reserve.

He could have used them to destroy Lee.

Instead he let him escape over the river to Virginia.

Papers want his head.

- Well, McClellan has never been one to embrace opportunity,

but we chased him out of Maryland, still a victory.

- It is.

- Now I can release the proclamation.

John, I want the cabinet here as soon as possible,

for final remarks on the draft

in time for the afternoon additions.

- Yes, sir.

- What kind of villain you think the papers will make of me?

- It won't be pretty.

- I expect abuse from the Democrat papers,

but the friendly ones, they'll see the wisdom.

- I'd worry about enlistment.

They'll say it's a war against slavery, not for the Union.

- My word is going out to the people.

I won't take it back.

- Lincoln's the master of this.

At taking battles and being able to spin them

for his needs politically.

So that was enough for Lincoln

to be able to issue the Emancipation Proclamation

from a position of strength, as opposed to weakness.

- So Antietam was on September 17th,

by September 22nd, Lincoln was issuing the proclamation.

That preliminary proclamation said you have 100 days

to either come back into the Union

or I'm going to free your enslaved laborers.

- Many in the world, particularly in Britain,

saw it as just another political move

to undermine the Confederacy

and he wasn't genuinely committed to it.

But on the other hand, for many in Britain,

that becomes the moment when Lincoln emerges

as the Great Emancipator.

- You have countries like France and Britain

who had abolished slavery in the years and decades prior,

who were thinking about the idea

of supporting the Confederacy.

But they also believe themselves to be

very strictly abolitionist nations.

And so when Lincoln issues this Emancipation Proclamation,

Britain and France largely back off.

And they said, well, we're not gonna support this nation

that is founded and predicated upon

the institution of human bondage,

which runs counter to our very political ethos.

- Meanwhile, on October 1st, Lincoln travels out to Antietam

and he has a conference with McClellan.

McClellan has asked him to go out

and look at the battlefield.

And Lincoln is really disgusted that he's showing him

all of these wonderful things that happened

on the battlefield,

and yet this hadn't been a decisive victory.

- McClellan had so many troops in reserve

that are never put into action and Lee had so few troops

that had all fought throughout the day,

that had McClellan pushed a little harder

there is reason to believe

that he could have destroyed Lee's army that day

and perhaps ended the war.

- I did the absolute best with what you gave me.

- And I gave you all I could.

- Do you want me to go over strategy with you?

- Don't trouble yourself general.

I will need to know the strength and location

of all of our troops,

and the condition if you know it, of the Confederate forces.

- That's all?

- Yes, that's all.

- There are elections coming up.

McClellan is very popular, not only among his troops,

but among Democrats in the north

so Lincoln doesn't want to fire him yet.

But the day after the midterm elections,

Lincoln will fire McClellan.

- So Lincoln had waited until the Battle of Antietam

to announce that he was going to issue

on the Emancipation Proclamation in January.

And between September and January

the blowback was so great

that many people thought he might not sign it.

The Republicans lost lots of seats in the midterm elections,

the conservative Democrats

who were against emancipation doubled in number,

leaving the Republicans with a thin majority.

What people in the north feared

is that now the south would never

come to the bargaining table.

This would mean the war would be prolonged forever.

- Lincoln's aware of all of these things.

He's being political about it,

but he's also being thoughtful about it.

- On New Year's Eve people are gathered

in black communities throughout the north.

People are just waiting on tenterhooks.

- There was what we call Watch Night

where Douglass was with a group of abolitionist friends

waiting to see if Lincoln would keep his word.

- Well, no telegram yet.

- He said he'd sign it today,

And I believe he's a man of his word.

I can wait a few minutes longer.

(tense music)

- I don't hope folks will think I doubted this.

My whole soul is in it.

- The morning that Lincoln signed

the Emancipation Proclamation,

there'd been a big New Year's reception at the White House

and he had shaken hundreds of hands.

So when he went finally

to sign the Emancipation Proclamation

his own hand was numb and shaking.

He put the pen down, he said,

if ever my soul were in an act, it is in this act.

But if I sign with a shaking hand,

posterity will say he hesitated.

So he waited and waited until he could sign

with an unusually bold and clear hand.

- It cannot be overstated

how consequential this document was.

With the stroke of a pen

Lincoln through the authority he has in that moment,

frees millions of enslaved people

in these Confederate states.

(suspenseful music)

- It's coming over the wire now!

(crowd cheers and applauds)

- It was a great celebration that broke out.

Douglass was said to have a great baritone singing voice

and I'm sure he was out there

singing at the top of his lungs

in celebration that this document was finally signed,

which would change the balance of the war.

- Emancipation creates a new ethos for why people fight.

Yeah, to keep the Union together.

But now it's a freedom fight

that goes back to the founding of our nation,

was about freedom and justice.

- Later on, Lincoln says that emancipation

was the central act of his administration.

He doesn't say saving the Union.

He says, emancipation.

- Not too many weeks later,

Joshua Speed comes to the White House

and he reminds his old friend

of that conversation they had had

a quarter of a century before

when he said that he would just as soon die,

but he had not yet done anything

to make any human being remember that he had lived.

And then he said to Speed, perhaps in this proclamation

my fondest wish will be realized.

- I had the Emancipation Proclamation,

one of the handfuls of original documents

in the Oval Office.

When you stand there and you read it,

it is very much a military document.

It is full of caveats.

You're thinkin', oh, you know, this is gonna be

a clarion call for freedom and justice.

That's not what it is.

And yet Lincoln was willing to stake

everything that he's done,

everything he's fought for, to decide once and for all,

this will be a free house and not a slave house.

- African-Americans were ecstatic.

Even those who took issue with the idea

that not everybody got their freedom, they understood

that this was the beginning of the end for slavery.

Douglass says, if Virginia is free

Maryland can't be enslaved for much longer.

You're going to have to end slavery in Kentucky,

gonna have to end it in Delaware and Missouri.

Also, the proclamation gave authority

to bring black men into the Army and Navy.

- This is because Frederick Douglass,

had been advocating to allow free men

and these contraband enslaved men to join the Army.

And Lincoln agrees,

so it is the Emancipation Proclamation

that actually establishes the United States colored troops.

- That was believed that especially after

the proclamation,

if you deserved freedom, you needed to fight for freedom.

- I don't see before me property.

I see men.

I don't see slaves, I see people.

So what better defense against the hand of the slave holder

than the hand of the slave?

What better way to prove our humanity?

What's your question, sir.

- Will we get uniforms, like the whites?

- You want to prove you're a man, don't you?

- Yes.

- You deserve to be treated like one.

You're gonna get a uniform, and a gun.

-Yes sir.

And when you got those brass buttons on your chest

and a musket on your shoulder and bullets in your pockets,

there's no one on earth can tell you

you're not a citizen and a man.

Can you see it?

- Oh, yes, sir.

- Go see these gents behind me and sign your name.

How about you, sir?

You want to do it?

- When you think about his own sons, Louis and Charles,

who he recruited into the Massachusetts 54th regiment,

that's really putting his money where his mouth is.

They were free, but yet they would risk their own freedom

and their own lives to go and fight in the Civil War

because that's how important that cause was to them.

That's how important the cause was to Frederick Douglas.

- Many people in the south were furious.

You know, this is what they feared during the 1860 election

and they thought that it would create slave rebellions

across the south.

They thought it would create insurrections.

They thought that he not only

was taking away their property,

but putting their lives in danger in a profound way.

- So once emancipation is one of the twin goals of the war,

it must embolden the south to know

that we have to win this war unconditionally.

- So Robert E. Lee once again steals the initiative.

He marches for a second time on a raid into the north.

Through northern Virginia,

across Maryland, into Pennsylvania,

and the Union army of the Potomac is on its heels.

- As Lee's army moved through south central Pennsylvania,

they had no compunction about rounding up

any black people they could find in Pennsylvania,

shackling them together, and shipping them south

to be sold in the slave marts of Richmond.

(tense music)

(men marching) (horses neighing)

- Meade is positioned here.

You can either defend Washington

or go after Lee in Pennsylvania.

- Where's Lee? - We're not sure.

Somewhere here.

We think he was trying to keep this mountain pass

between him and any troops Meade may send his way.

- What's the nearest town?

- Gettysburg.

- What if we catch Lee in the field here,

or in Pennsylvania?

That may be the best chance to destroy his army.

- One big battle.

- What if Lee's thinking the exact same thing?

- Then we're both looking at the end of this war,

one way or the other.

- When Robert E. Lee decides to advance into Pennsylvania,

another invasion of the north,

we are roughly two years into the war.

There's hundreds of thousands of dead,

and there's really no end in sight.

- Lee wants to put pressure on the north,

so we want to go north again

and force the north to defend themselves.

Second, Lee wants to get the war

out of Virginia for a while again,

he wants to give Virginia a chance

to grow crops and harvest.

And because his army had defined a decisive battle.

- And so what he's trying to do

is provide the ultimate evidence to that northern population

that the magnitude of sacrifice for this war

is no longer worth it.

We see this growing war weariness in the north.

That's how Lee refers to it, this growing war weariness.

It shows up in the mid-term elections

where the Republicans lose seats

in the House of Representatives.

How much longer?

How much more is this gonna cost in lives and dollars?

- Lincoln is starting to come into his own

as Commander in Chief.

He's trying to find someone who will chase after Lee

and destroy the army in northern Virginia.

He turns to George Gordon Meade.

George Gordon Meade lived in Pennsylvania.

He was a battle-hardened veteran of the army of the Potomac.

- And the reason Meade is chosen is in large part

because Lincoln's running out of generals elsewhere.

He started with Irwin McDowell, got rid of him,

and then McClellan, got rid of him.

Then John Pope and then Burnside, Booker,

and Meade is just simply the next in line,

and he only has command just a short while

before he has to fight

really what is the climactic battle of the eastern theater.

- Union calvary will ride in to Gettysburg on the 30th

and they'll accomplish the first orders

that Lincoln gives Meade,

which is find. Robert E. Lee, and they do.

They find two thirds of the Confederate army

are down to the west, one third are off to the north.

The next morning on July 1st

Confederates'll march down the road from the west.

Lieutenant Marcellus Jones

borrows Sergeant Levi Shaffer's carbine

rested on a fence rail and it's 7:30 in the morning.

Squeeze off the first shot of the battle of Gettysburg.

This is a meeting engagement.

Both sides will send in reinforcements

and what starts off as a spark will throw like a wildfire.

- The Union army of the Potomac is holding a position

just north of the city with a couple of brigades of cavalry.

The Union puts up one heck of a fight

and is able to delay the Confederate army

for several hours

to allow for the Union to bring up infantry support.

Robert E. Lee is going to bring every soldier

he possibly can, overwhelm the Union army of the Potomac,

and push them back through the city of Gettysburg.

- The rest of the day for the Yankees

seems like a dramatic defeat.

Yankees are running through the center of Gettysburg.

Some of 'em are breaking off

and hidin' in addicts and in cellars.

(tense music)

(soldiers shouting)

(dog barking)

(guns firing)

- By the end of the day,

it seemed as though Lee had in fact won,

exactly the kind of fight

he thought he was going to have to fight.

A Union force blunders into his hands,

is defeated, is thrown back.

The only hitch of course was

that they hadn't been thrown completely back.

They were still holding Cemetery Hill

(soldier groaning) - Come on.

(tense music)

Lincoln is in Washington and he is anxious

for what is happening.

He knows that fighting is going on,

but both of these armies are out beyond the immediate reach

of telegraph and railroad.

So the only news is fragmentary,

bits and pieces that are floating through the newspapers,

through couriers.

There are wild rumors,

complete defeat of the Confederate forces,

followed by complete defeat of the Union forces.

But nothing entirely clear, nothing entirely certain.

He's going to have to wait, he has no choice.

(suspenseful music)

- Our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation.

- We might not stand a chance.

- Go after Lee's army now.

- We'll hold off for now.

- General- - I said we'll hold off!

- He can't let Lee get away.

- Tell me again why Robert isn't fighting?

- Because I won't let him.

- Come on. - What, are you?

- Douglass?

- When we're doing waiting, what will be left of us?

- If I turn my back on the black soldiers now

I will be damned in time and eternity.

(soldiers shouting)

I'd like to start with a campaign-

- Mr. President.

I have my own plan.

- The plain truth is that I'm likely to lose this election.

Everything I've done will be undone.

- We don't have to go to the theater, do we?

- [Lincoln] I'd much rather stay.