February 18, 2014 * Abraham Lincoln * Self-made * Elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1834 and served 4 consecutive terms * Won election 1860 * Issues the Emancipation Proclamation * Changes the very nature of war, giving it a completely new objective * Conciliation was no longer an option * Represented a move toward total war * Challenged by the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War * The Federal Home Front * Challenges: * North don’t want to fight * No real cause * Diverse population * Resources to win; find the will to win * Potentially more dangerous secret pro-southern knights of the Golden Circle * Resources: * 20 million people * 110000 manufacturing * 22000 miles of railroad * Politics: * Increasingly polarized with the radical republicans * Particularly challenging to Lincoln – election of 1862 * George McClellan, challenged Lincoln is 1864 election * Social Life * Farming during the war * 1862 – authorized a transcontinental railroad * Westward expansion * Women and children assumed responsibilities * Build organizations to help soldiers’ suffering * Disease can be prevented by basic sanitation * Wartime Life * North’s industrial and economic might became centralized during the war * Established conscription in 1863 * Draft proven to be an inefficient system for raising troops because of exemptions, substitutions, commutations, and expenses * Resentment at draft inequities combined with hostilities toward blacks to create the New York Draft riot of 1863 * Men’s names were published – draft * Blacks