From his inauguration in March of 1861 until his assassination in April of 1865, Abraham Lincoln effectively, if not miraculously, commanded the armed forces of the United States. The Constitution had stated the military duties of the president as Commander-In-Chief of the Army and Navy, but did not give specifics. Through trial and error, President Lincoln took control of the military and won the Civil War through astute leadership.
Abraham Lincoln Takes Office as Commander-in-Chief
As written in Tried By War: Abraham Lincoln As Commander In Chief, by James M. McPherson, "In essence, Lincoln invented the idea of commander in chief, as neither the Constitution nor existing legislation specified how the president ought to declare war or dictate strategy." Holding this fact in retrospect, the Sixteenth President of the United States laid the groundwork for the modern day Commander-in-Chief by tackling military responsibilities thrown his way.
By the time Lincoln took office in 1861, seven states had already seceded from the Union. The President had to make a decision either to appease the rebelling states through a policy of placating "Unionists" among their ranks or to fully oppose the secession with force. Lincoln chose to supply Federal troops at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, drawing Confederate fire and overtaking of the fort, and leaving Lincoln with "no other choice" but to have war declared on the South. This move enabled the President to please Radical Republicans and to silence Democrats as to the intentions of the "Rebels", an adroit political move on the part of the so-called "gorilla" from Illinois.
President Lincoln Appoints George McClellan as General-in-Chief
As General Winfield Scott was elderly, ailing, and not up to the task of running the demanding responsibilities of military command, he retired in November of 1861 as General-in-Chief of the U.S. Army. Abraham Lincoln had no choice but to replace him with a shining candidate in George B. McClellan, a popular and strikingly handsome soldier in full military dress style and exuberance. The President determined McClellan to be the natural choice for the job. As the new leader of Union forces and his "Army of the Potomac", he pledged his utmost loyalty to the President. It turned out that the appointment was one of Lincoln's worst blunders of the war.
McClellan was a Democrat, and secretly despised Lincoln. With every request made by the President to pursue and destroy the enemy, McClellan balked, dallied, procrastinated, and sometimes deliberately disobeyed orders to profess his own military genius and capabilities over whom he considered to be an unintelligent, simple minded buffoon at the helm in Washington. McClellan made Richmond the ultimate target of his siege mentality, and refused to take on an aggressive pose, constantly complaining to the President that he was hopelessly outnumbered by enemy forces and needed reinforcements, which was false.
President Lincoln Replaces McClellan but Still has Problems
The Commander-in-Chief replaced McClellan as General-in-Chief with Henry W. Halleck in July of 1862 and as leader of the Army of the Potomac with Ambrose Burnside in November of the same year. Both later proved to be as inadequate as McClellan. Halleck was indecisive and Burnside mismanaged the army and delayed attacks, which led to his misguided and uncoordinated execution of forces, resulting in enormous losses of manpower and defeat at the hands of Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia.
The President replaced Burnside with Joseph Hooker, who had the reputation of being a fighting General. This assessment also proved to be erroneous; Hooker did not fight, and was like his predecessors in hesitating and haphazard leadership. Lincoln replaced Hooker with George G. Meade, who won a rousing and decisive, if not costly, victory at Gettysburg. But Meade let General Lee escape, and did not aggressively pursue and destroy his army when Lincoln ordered him to do so. William S. Rosecrans and Nathaniel P. Banks also proved to be disappointments in the western theaters of the war campaigns.
President Lincoln Appoints Ulysses S. Grant as General-in-Chief and Wins the Civil War
Ulysses S. Grant, winner of the battles for Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga gained the recognition and acclaim of a weary and forlorn President Abraham Lincoln. In 1864, the Commander-in-Chief appointed Lieutenant General, a rank only once held by George Washington, Grant to be General-in-Chief of the Army, finally replacing Halleck. Meade was also content to take orders from Grant, which meant that Grant commanded the Army of the Potomac as well. Lincoln could finally relax a bit and let Grant take the reins to relentlessly pursue and destroy, which he did, General Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia.
General Lee surrendered his emaciated, ragged, and exhausted Army of Northern Virginia to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in April of 1865 after almost a year of Grant's relentless and unmerciful tactical and logistical onslaught. Lee finally realized that Grant was no McClellan, Burnside, or Hooker, and surrendered what was left of his army to save their lives. In an act of military decorum and deep respect, Grant refused to accept the gallant and beloved Lee's sword when offered in surrender. The Civil War had ended.
President Lincoln Enacts the Emancipation Proclamation and Other Decisive Measures
As Commander-in-Chief, Lincoln took unprecedented measures to break the economic and military back of the Confederacy. After working on an edict from the middle of 1862 with his cabinet, President Lincoln enacted the Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863, totally abolishing the Institution of Slavery from the southern states forever. With diplomatic finesse, Lincoln left the adoption of slavery up to the individual "border states" until the year 1900, knowing that once the Union was intact, the issue would be regarded as passe and unworkable by those states. The President also suspended the writ of habeas corpus and instituted the first draft in American History. Although met with blistering opposition to these measures from many levels and disciplines, Lincoln held firm to his beliefs.
All of these undertakings led to the enlisting of thousands of freed black men to serve the Union in war. The Confederacy soon well realized the merit and fighting spirit of the black race, as countless acts of heroism punished the rebel army. Many people died in mob violence protesting the draft, but Lincoln continued his unending pursuit to conscript thousands of Irish and German immigrants in order to swell the ranks of the army, enabling the Union forces to crush the enemy with overwhelming manpower. Suspending the writ of habeas corpus enabled Lincoln to round up hundreds of Confederate spies and saboteurs thus weakening the rebellion.
Civil War Commander-in-Chief: President Abraham Lincoln, an Astute Student and Provisioner
The President was a renaissance man. He studied military history industriously, enabling him to outmaneuver and request action from his generals in the field. He believed in quick movement and abhorred the ponderous, Eighteenth Century tactics of his subordinates. He recognized that modern technology, such as weaponry, the telegraph, and the railroad, would bring victory to the Union, a fact that the Confederacy had difficulty understanding for some reason. At the beginning of the war, he determined that the saving of the Union at all costs was the primary cause for the conflict, but later realized that the abolition of slavery was tantamount to the success of the endeavor. He provided the Union with everything possible in order to survive, including his life.
President Abraham Lincoln is considered by some to be the greatest president in American History, competing with George Washington for that honor. As Civil War Commander-in-Chief he proved without a doubt that the armed forces of the United States would grow into an entity to be admired by the world. However, as spoken in his 1865 inaugural speech, "With malice toward none..." and, "...to bind up the nation's wounds...", he also displayed his deep love and devotion to the entire United States of America.
Source:
McPherson, James M. Tried By War: Abraham Lincoln As Commander In Chief. NY: The Penguin Press, 2008
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