Civil War Historian Reacts - OVERSIMPLIFIED's Civil War - Part 1

welcome back everybody time for another reaction video first of all thank you uh set out a goal about a week ago that i wanted to hit a thousand subscribers before the end of the year we did it today december 27th so thank you to every one of you uh who subscribed especially in the last couple of days to help us push over that goal please continue to do that if you're new to the channel look around see if you like what you see please hit that subscribe button and that notification bell as well and as always please watch all the videos all the way to the end leave a comment drop a like all of those things help support this channel and help get it recommended to more people today we're going to be taking a look at oversimplified part one of the american civil war now uh with my history background i've been studying history since i was eight years old studied in college probably more than any other area that i would say is an area of expertise for me would be the american civil war it's something i've been studying for over 30 years and i feel like it's the most comfortable area of history for me to talk about so i'm going to try not to pause too much because this is a long video but i will try to keep the volume down and just comment over top of things when possible let's dive in okay mrs lincoln this is it one last push and interesting place to start by the way nine months and four days ago my father brought forth upon my mother himself and gave to her okay a child conceived in a shack in kentucky and dedicated to the he was never very close to his father and his mother died when he was fairly young now what is it babies do again oh yeah they moved to indiana and then they moved to illinois after that i am not touching that [Music] so interesting that both lincoln and jefferson davis were born in kentucky poor family in kentucky eventually moving to indiana and finally illinois he read a lot of books worked a lot of jobs wrote some questionable poetry and finally entered the law profession hold on let's talk about something else here for a second because abraham lincoln is in the wrestling hall of fame he was a fantastic wrestler something record of like something like 301 he he lost one time and even that one was questionable but he was a phenomenal wrestler and was known in everywhere that he lived as a great wrestler despite being self-taught he turned out to be a pretty clever and astute lawyer in one case a guy claimed he witnessed a murder at night and lincoln was like how could you batman it was a bright full moon a what a bright full moon can you say that again please there was a bright full moon a dim half moon no a bright full moon that's funny because according to this almanac there was a dim half moon that night which makes you a liar i don't know if that's true or not but i would guess i got a bright full moon for you all right here not that part now that's what i call a rebuttal oh boy lincoln and his cheekbones weren't only interested in law however he also dabbled in the world of politics serving as a legislator in both local and national assemblies and water time yeah so he certainly spends one term in the us house of representatives politicians right around the time of the mexican war yeah but what does that mean exactly it means all men yeah but what does that mean and he makes a good point here because the roots of the civil war versus the federal happened in the revolutionary executive powers of the president is cereal a soup the founding fathers left some of these questions perhaps a little too kicked it down the can to kick the can down the road once too many times was slavery an ugly mark on what should have been a revolutionary new nation based on liberty and democracy but denying liberty to others in the declaration of independence but out of fear so you know it's it's one of those things that it's really easy to look back now from a 21st century perspective and condemn people for their lifestyle and their choices and their beliefs but the bottom line is there's definitely we have to acknowledge a a major hypocrisy in a group of men fighting for their liberty and their freedom and and talking about inalienable rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness while systematically denying it to an entire race of people of losing southern states support it was removed hey guys do you think leaving this a little vague will create any unforeseen problem no not at all cannonball that's about it those unforeseen problems were now beginning to rear their ugly heads as the nation developed the north and the south developed along two very different lines and two very different cultural identities emerged northern cities began rapidly industrializing while the southern climate allowed for large plantations of labor-intensive crops as a result one half of the country didn't rely on slaves while the other half had become economically dependent on them in 1793 eli whitney's cotton gin caused the slave trade in the south to explode and we can't underestimate that because without the invention of the cotton gin slavery probably dies a natural death over the decades that would follow but the cotton gin made slavery slavery profitable again and then it became even more profitable when the slave trade was ended they had actually written into the constitution that a certain number of years had to go by before they could outlaw the slave trade and so they did that the first chance they got and so that suddenly meant that all of the slaves existing in the united states already became that much more valuable because you couldn't import new ones while in the north a growing abolitionist movement was taking root a general mistrust began to develop between the north and the south as northerners felt the south were hell-bent on expanding slavery and fear spread throughout the south that the north wanted to take their slaves away in 1819 there were 11 free states and 11 slave states a perfect balance a happy medium a harmonious relationship hey guys nice to meet you i'm missouri and i would like to become the 23rd state hey buddy welcome to the nation we'll be happy to accept you as a free state oh no you don't you're trying to get one over on us and this is basically the first half of the 19th century this is this issue it's just especially fighting over the balance of free enslaved states well then maine allow me to introduce to you the newest freshest state on the scene maine hey you can't do that and you can't have any more slave slates above this line what the issue of slavery is solved and it will never come up again a few years later it came up again you see as america expanded westward each new state or territory that was added threatened to upend the delicate balance between the slave and free states if one faction managed to outnumber the other it could gain an easy majority and force its own ideals on the opposing side the tyranny leaving a huge portion of the population of the majority in that case and oppressed for a while compromises kicked the can down the road and kept the volatile balance in check as new free and slave states were roughly added in pairs but then one lad mass state just had to barge in california as usual all texas and then california addition of texas saw the united states enter into a war with mexico which they won gaining a huge amount of land out west and creating even more problems hey guys nice to meet you there's california california and i would like to become the 31st state hey buddy welcome to the nation we'll be happy to accept you as a southern slave state oh no you don't don't there we go again one over on us california is going to be a free state okay listen why don't we just ask california what it wants to be and we can free state self-determination then uh allow me to introduce to you the territories of new mexico and utah able to freely vote for slavery themselves hey you can't do that and we can enter northern territory anytime we want to recapture escaped slaves what the issue of slavery is solved and it will never come up again a few years later it came up again in 1854 a democratic senator from illinois wanted to build a really cool choo-choo train here and propose that the territories of kansas and nebraska be created open to slavery even though they were clearly above the missouri compromise line obviously the northern states were like hell no but the southern democrats who controlled congress at the time were like well if you love liberty and democracy so much then you should let them vote on whether slavery should be legal or not and so here comes bleeding kansas pro and anti-slavery settlers rushed to kansas to sway the vote in their favor this was really kind of a test run for the civil war each other one of those settlers was a man john brown brown a former businessman who failed at just about everything he tried and went arguably insane he was a radical abolitionist and dedicated much of his life to the underground railroad and freeing slaves one night and his family actually for a time was neighbors of the grant family and they knew each other the number of pro-slavery settlers in the territory helping to kick-start years of violence back in ohio bleeding kansas kansas and nebraska both eventually voted in favor of outlawing slavery but from here the tension began to grow at a rapid pace in 1852 author harriet beecher stowe penned uncle tom's cabinet at best selling these are all like really important steps to the world oh how awful how much lead up to war must be to allow such things to happen your majesty what should we do about all the starving children working in the coal mines nothing in 1854 the republican party was formed and abraham lincoln emerged as a leading figure southern democrats viewed the new republican party with mistrust believing it to be radical and abolitionist in 1856 a politician named charles sumner gave a speech in congress calling out imagine this happening today fiery language if slavery was a woman she'd be an ugly one and the senator from south carolina would like to boinker representative brooks do you have a rebuttal oh i have a rebuttal all right with my cane here's a rebuttal for you oh come on surely this isn't allowed i don't know i'll have to consult the rule book hmm i can't find anything about gaining a political opponent but it says here i'm not allowed to wear women's underwear news of the violence on the senate floor took the nation by storm southern slave owners sent representative brooks new canes to replace his name at this point it's getting more and more violent more and more dangerous more and more hateful good sign in 1857 the supreme court ruled in the dred scott case that all people of african descent slave or free could not be citizens and therefore could not sue for their own freedom under any circumstances undoing years of progress with the strike of a gavel now within all this bitter debate over slavery there were many nuances north versus south republican versus democrat states versus the federal government but let's strip all of that away for four million individuals living in america this wasn't about political intrigue or party alignment it was about the basic human right to be free men women and children were stolen from their homelands and brought to the american continent where for generations they were considered to be property forced to live in poverty and work from sunrise to sunset plantation overseers did whatever they felt was necessary to get the most out of their slaves punishments were often barbaric families were regularly separated and parents could often only watch as their children were auctioned off never to be seen again and you know some people will argue well you know the majority of slave owners were kind to their slaves and that's that's probably true but the fact is they still owned them and they still controlled everything about their lives so you could be incredibly kind to your slaves dress them well let them live in your house but you still just by the very nature of the relationship are not being kind to them thousands of slaves took the treacherous risk of running away and abolitionists in the north helped many escape by the underground railroad as bounty hunters and to this day all over like the north places like northeast ohio here you can find underground railroads any significant uh stations that you can go to note that for many of the anti-slavery white individuals in the north opposition to slavery was often an economic issue not immoral yeah they'll take our jobs large plantations would take their lands and livelihoods away abraham lincoln knew that slavery was a moral evil and he regularly spoke out against it in powerful speeches that helped him rise through the ranks of the new republican party he lamented at the hypocrisy of a great american nation meant to stand as a shining beacon of freedom while also enslaving four million men women and children he most famously declared in 1858 that a house divided against itself cannot which he was quoting jesus from the bible when he said america would end however even lincoln was cautious in his opposition he didn't want to outlaw it he gave a famous speech at a place called the cooper union in new york which is really what put him on the national stage thankfully history would force his hand in october 1859 one abolitionist decided he tried to single-handedly take down slavery by force who would be crazy enough to change such a thing it's our good friend john brown he planted seize arms from an armory in the town of harpers ferry free the slaves there and continue south inciting a major slave uprising along the way and noble cause a bad plan and terrible execution brown's men took the armory and some hostages but were quickly surrounded by one robert e lee and his u.s marines brown was captured and a couple of months later he was executed for trees two of his sons were killed in the raid on harper's ferry as well you see this they're coming for us soon there will be a colonel sanders a million john browns what on earth are you thinking about a john brown farm yeah me too to make matters worse new northern free states meant now the southern states really were outnumbered and they were beginning to feel bitterly spiteful and oppressed you can't overestimate that uh the fact that for the first time in the history of the nation the balance of power between north and south had decidedly shifted north was a big part of why the south seemingly overreacted to lincoln's election because they already see that they've lost power in the legislature so now their last hope is the executive branch and this brand new party had never been in power the republican party they ran in 1856 john c fremont was the nominee but he lost in 1860 there's kind of a divide and there are elections where this has happened 1992 this happened where ross perot siphons votes off of george h.w bush and allows for um for bill clinton to win it happened in 1912 when william howard taft and teddy roosevelt divided the vote and allowed for woodrow wilson to come in and break decades of republican power and it happened in 1860 where the democrats kind of split the vote in the south and allowed a northern power to win and so for them now they've lost all power not just the legislature but the executive as well they don't know what this new republican party is going to do even though lincoln said he wasn't going to abolish slavery they had had enough and they decided it was time further fear began to spread in the south when news broke that a relatively unknown figure had just secured the right yeah and people didn't know a lot about lincoln he was a president another figure like he said mostly well-liked among anti-slavery northerners had made some of the most powerfully worded speeches against slavery of any politician at the time and now there was a chance that he and his cheekbones could become president for the south that would be too much in the 1860 election lincoln's name didn't even appear on the ballot in 10 southern states but much to their horror when the final results came in breckenridge was the sitting vice president at the time lincoln himself tried to calm their fear how many times do i have to tell you i'm not gonna take away your slaves yeah right honest abe we've had enough of you northerners we're gonna go form our own country you can't do that why not well if if you had won the election would it be okay for us to leave of course not well why not because that's not how victim mentality works many states felt that when they joined the union they always withheld the right to leave it whenever they pleased many people living in 19th century america often felt more loyalty to their stuff than to the nation and now their state was their country they lost its voice in the federal government they that was true in the north and the south south but especially in the first to go and over a period of six months one by one and notice it's only now here's this is important to talk about here it's only the deep south that secedes early december january and then into february with texas you notice that virginia north carolina tennessee arkansas they don't secede until after fort sumter because for them the the election of lincoln wasn't a make or break issue for them what pushed them over the edge was when lincoln got into office he called for 75 000 volunteers to put down the rebellion and to them that was tyranny and it was going too far i'm not saying it's right or wrong i'm saying for those states it was more than just slavery that was required to push them over the edge the union with just four contested border states opting to and he held maryland number four justifying their secession south carolina proclaimed that it was northern states hostility to slavery that rendered the federal government illegitimate mississippi declared that their position was thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery and in a speech the confederate vice president stated that the new confederate government rested upon what he called the great truth of racial inequality revered american generals such as robert e lee opted to side with their states over the union now he wasn't a general yet he was a colonel at the time in fact i think he was a lieutenant colonel at the beginning of 1861 but he was offered a command he had a meeting with francis blair on behalf of president lincoln where he was offered command of the union army with the rank of major general and he lived right across the river from from washington dc his wife was the granddaughter of martha washington his father-in-law george washington park custis was the adopted son of george washington uh and it was actually a grandson i think of martha washington so i guess lee would have been the great grandson-in-law with all the chaos one new york lawyer wrote that rather than a bold eagle america's national bird should be a debilitated chicken and hey i kind of like that one man watching the crisis unfold knew it would be his job to solve it lincoln was just about to hop on a train and become the president of the united states of america hey man you're hella ugly grow up beard or gray spidel yes hmm good idea hmm still ugly mm-hmm with assassination cuts already washington dc under heavy disguise and protection all along the way you wore collars up and like pulled over may the hand of the devil strike you down you are destroying this country damn you every breath you take love from grandma at his inauguration speech lincoln once again reiterated that no i do not want to take away anyone's slaves but for lincoln he did want to preserve the union he declared secession to be nothing but an illegitimate rebellion in your hands and not in mine he said is the momentous issue of civil war you can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors we are not enemies and he wanted that he wanted the south to fire the first shot ready and willing to get freaky and open up a can of scat man john if he had to whether he had the support of the people however was in question in the end it was the confederates that fired the first shot as they seceded the confederate states began seizing federal u.s property throughout the south off the coast of charleston south carolina was one such federal property fort sumter held by a measly under-supplied u.s force the second in command was abner double death demanded the fort smith at request who did not invent baseball and any remaining hope for a peaceful commander the confederates was pg2 beauregard probably then died when the confederates did this the battle of fort sumter is considered to be the beginning of the american civil war many of the confederates there also considered it to be the end of the american civil war would just sigh and say okay you win unfortunately for them lincoln actually said you're about to get a roundhouse to the face lincoln probably 75 000 light the beacons hopeful for some adventure and good old-fashioned f u n in the new confederate capital at richmond virginia confederate president jefferson davis and his cheekbones had also sent out the call for 100 jefferson davis had one time had been the son-in-law of zachary taylor who was president his first wife was zachary taylor's daughter no how about now if you asked that one davis had been secretary of war he had been the commandant of westeros at one time and he was a senator when the war broke out but in particular the south knew the conflict would pose a bit of a challenge how can we expect to win with a population of only 5 million against 22 million in the north if you count us 4 million slaves you'd have 9 million great idea hand these rifles out to all them [Music] you almost had me there the problem for lincoln was that many of his top generals were getting old and were being a bit too cautious the commanding general was a man named winfield scott a veteran of the mexican-american war and by now he was too fat to even mount a horse okay chad was also old come up with a plan hit me anaconda could wait for the confederates to come and apologize maybe we should all sit in a circle and discuss our feelings crossing the delaware into new jersey worked for me those are all terrible ideas and you wrong video hey i'm the greatest president in the history of this nation yeah we'll see about that eventually lincoln's generals the anaconda plan and prong strategy first a blockade would cut off and starve the south of supplies by sea secondly taking control of the great mississippi river would sever the south's economic artery while splitting it in two and finally a main union force in the east would move south and take the confederate capital ending the war skirmish um a lot of people would ask the question well why is it that the mississippi is the economic artery of the south when so much of the south is to the east of that well uh because a lot of the shipping came in by way of new orleans new orleans is by far the largest city in the south i mean it dwarfed any other city by comparison in the south and so a lot of shipping would come in through new orleans and then it would be unloaded and be taken via train to the rest of the south and so it really was the the hub new orleans in their port and then the mississippi river the hub of their trade the east would move south and take the confederate capital ending the war skirmishes began to break out across the nation and the union army in the east began to move south towards richmond everything seemed to be going well until they reached manassas where they came upon a large confederate force it's almost like they were waiting for us a spy as it turned out rose o'neil greenhouse message to the confederates warning of the invasion secession fat man and the union invasion into virginia the two sides encountered each other at manassas and both geared up for the first major battle of the civil war the first battle of bull run the confederates rapidly brought in support by a rail and the two sites were about equal in numbers however they were also equally inexperienced a large number of civilians also rode out by characters it was sunday they came out for a picnic to watch and watch the excitement unfold nobody seemed to quite understand how destructive this war was going to be the union forces pulled a flanking maneuver to hit the confederates on their left and the two sides fired on each other in rows farm families living in the area were forced to flee the fighting including a man named wilmer mclean yep hurry up martha there's a war out here the more you tell me to hurry up the slower i will go okay union force saw initial success pushing the confederates back to henry hill but one as of yet fairly unknown general thomas jackson had arrived and he took a defensive position standing firm like a stone wall holding the union army off and finally sending them running back to washington dc with heavy casualties the sobering reality of war hit both sides hard and the north having just lost the first major battle had to face the serious prospect that they may not actually win this war president lincoln general jackson whipped us so hard the confederates are calling him stonewall jackson wait that's why they're calling him that not because he looks like he ran face first into a stone wall apparently not worse yet the north had also lost the first major battle out west giving away control of southwest missouri yep all of this was terrible news for abraham lincoln especially since many of his generals and cabinet already didn't have much respect for him they felt he was incapable of running a war so that's true so let's keep in mind that most of lincoln's cabinet had been his opponents in the republican primary and thought that it was their uh primary to win uh guys like seward even stanton who well stanton wasn't in the in the cabinet yet but when he came in he was actually a democrat uh you have salmon chase of ohio uh you have simon cameron from pennsylvania these are all people who were established republicans uh who thought that it was their nomination and that this back country bumpkin had no business running a country but lincoln in his wisdom uh put them all in his cabinet number one where he could keep an eye on him but number two because he recognized that they did have a lot of wisdom and a lot of influence and he needed them and slowly one by one he wins these people over but at this point it hadn't happened yet seemed a bit like your friendly old grandpa he famously loved a long-winded story and a good pun i've been so busy my wife is missing me but her aim is starting to improve but deep down if you realized he could also be incredibly shrewd best politician that's ever been president bar none funny like i'm a clown uh abe i was just no no funny how yeah during the war lincoln committed acts that were viewed by some as impeachable his administration suppressed the free media from printing articles sympathetic towards the south some southern sympathizers were even arrested without a trial lincoln's criticizers began accusing him of being a tyrant but it kinda was himself hey it's war baby what are you going to do by the end of 1861 but he felt his lincoln felt that his oath to defend the constitution trumped all of that and that whatever he needed to do if it meant defending the constitution that he was going to do it now you can argue whether that was true or not or whether he was actually doing the opposite but that's how he viewed it north abolitionists such as frederick douglass couldn't believe that the union army weren't enlisting black men he continued to put pressure on lincoln to make the war about emancipation mr president it's time to make the war about emancipation hmm i don't want to ruffle any feathers the feathers are already ruffled but lincoln hanging on to hope for a quick end to the conflict continued to fight only for the preservation of the union it was decided however that escaped slaves from the confederacy could be held as enemy contraband and many of these men were put to work bolstering the union's infrastructure and supply lines and that was a catch-22 because if you're calling them contraband so that you can free them you're also acknowledging that their property and it was a really slippery slope that lincoln understood was difficult to get around moving lincoln made young general george mcclellan the new commanding general and mcclellan began to treat arrogant jerk and like many others he didn't approve of the president's handling of the war on one occasion lincoln went to mcclellan's house to meet with him but mcclellan was late returning home he kept the president waiting and when he finally got there he went upstairs straight up went to bed now that's what i call disrespectful mcclellan talked the talk but could he walk the walk no like lincoln's other generals mcclellan was maddeningly cautious hey man could you move south and attack the enemy what are you crazy what if they have a big scary army down there they probably pretty much what oh my gosh mcclellan worried that he did not have the numbers he needed to fight effectively what if they have like 10 000 men okay no problem we'll get you twenty thousand men well what if they have thirty thousand men i'll need forty okay you can have forty well what if they have fifty i'll need sixty lincoln that's about it but it was all in vain mcclellan would not make a move for the rest could have taken richmond in 62. if he had gotten over there fighting in kentucky and tennessee general ulysses s grant cool collected methodical and a big fan of whiskey his chief of staff took it upon himself to keep john rollins one officer said that grant habitually wore an expression as though he were determined to drive his head through a brick wall and was about to do it and that determination led him to score a number of key victories when others around him were failing at the battle of fort donaldson grant was like why does stonewall jackson get a cool nickname and i don't us grant sir the confederates say they're ready to surrender and want to know your terms no terms just unconditional surrender hey unconditional surrender grant yep that's a pretty cool nickname right guys right later in april 1862 the confederates launched a sudden attack on grant's army at shiloh but the determined unconditional surrender grant threw his lines at the rebels and sent them running the battle resulted in the heaviest casualties in u.s history so far by far despite his victory grant found himself under fire you have to get rid of grant why didn't he win yes but he just threw his man at the enemy isn't that the point also he's a loony drunk well what does he like to drink i believe whiskey sir then send him more pretty much his cabinet did nothing but bicker and his generals did nothing but then worst of all personal tragedy struck willie lincoln's young son willie very much loved by the president died of typhoid fever at the age of 11. lincoln was a sensitive man and was heavily affected by the loss his wife was inconsolable but one of lincoln's greatest traits what made him such a great leader was in the darkest of times with composure and determination he kept moving forward so this is his second of his four sons that die during his lifetime his son eddie had died in the 1850s and so they move into the white house willie dies tad gets very sick as well but he survives and at this point lincoln's wife she wasn't just inconsolable she was borderline insane and had long fits of insanity and so you can imagine this guy's trying to run the country he's dealing with the worst crisis our country's ever seen and right there in his home he's lost a son and he's got a wife that he just can't even deal with and you can just imagine the strain and you can see how it took a toll on him over those four years he knew it was his responsibility to hold himself and his family together and by doing so he hoped to hold the nation together and he had had it with mcclellan's inaction lincoln decided he was gonna take control in march 1862 lincoln firmly ordered mcclellan to once again move south towards richmond mcclellan insisted instead they move by seat to the virginia peninsula and attack richmond from the southeast yes great chance to end the war okay anything lincoln held on to some of mcclellan's men to defend dc from a nearby stonewall jackson wreaking havoc in the shenandoah valley and he sent mcclellan south mcclellan landed on the peninsula and he began to move inland he came up against a smaller army that it dug in at yorktown mcclellan vastly outnumbered the force but it's said that confederate general magruder deceived mcclellan by cleverly maneuvering his smaller force and making mcclellan believe he faced a huge army no you have way more men than them move forward no mcclellan settled in for a month giving time for johnston to move south for manassas and magruder time to retreat when he finally entered the city and found it deserted he declared it a victory calling his success brilliant then after meeting some resistance at williamsburg mcclellan moved to within just 20 miles of richmond his army is able to hear the church bells ringing in the enemy capital you still outnumber them go give him hell no and if he had gone right then he could have taken richmond and shortened the whole time was split in two the confederates saw an opportunity to strike back mcclellan's advance was halted and now the confederates pulled an ace out of their sleeve robert lee you're up do you think johnston was wounded no mr president it's seven pines general robert e lee one of the most brilliant military commanders of the time was now in charge one of his biggest strengths was his ability to read the mind of his enemy and he knew mcclellan was cautious and weak after moving stonewall jackson south to join him and even though he had a smaller army and jackson actually did terribly during the seven days battles it was some of the worst performances that he had during the war not his best days and again escaping the peninsula and returning to dc lee had defeated mcclellan and the campaign had failed well that was a major success a success tell me exactly what was successful about that well we successfully retreated you lost i didn't lose i merely failed to win that's literally what he said for the north at least their navy had seen some success capturing a number of key port cities notably when they steamrolled past confederate forts to take that was huge and speaking of the largest city in the south using ironclads so that's pretty cool but in the east they still weren't having any luck after mcclellan's disastrous camera and let's say something about the ironclads too there's a common misconception that these were the very first ironclads ever built no this was the first battle between ironclads but a couple of european countries i think france in particular had built ironclads in the 1850s so these were not the first ones lincoln briefly sent out one general john pope to attack northern virginia hey man just checking in how's it going well the confederates kicked my butt at cedar mountain then they raided my campaign so pope and lincoln knew each other before the war i appear to have been wedgied lee defeated pope at yet another battle at bull run and pope actually shows up with this really arrogant attitude like he's just gonna walk in and completely own robert e lee and somebody even mentioned to lee about the kind of person that pope was and he said you know i've known all the popes and they were mostly braggarts but i have no reason to think that a braggart couldn't also be a good general well in pope's case he wasn't at all in which nearby farm families once again got caught up in the fighting hurry up martha there's another war out here i'm waiting for my hair to dry wilmer mclean sick of war moving moved to apomas where he knew the war would definitely absolutely never touch him again but lincoln had called foreshadowing european powers in particular the uk were looking increasingly like they may intervene diplomatically on the side of the confederates they were missing their precious supply of southern cotton because of the union blockade and they wanted to see a swift conclusion to the war the tension between america and great britain had been increasing especially after confederate diplomats were discovered on a british ship now after mcclellan's failure to take richmond the uk declared it impossible for the north to win lincoln needed something to prevent europe from getting involved and after more petitioning from abolitionists he decided maybe the time was finally right to make the war about ending the institution make it about something greater than union if the north had a noble cause to fight for europe would be less likely to intervene but lincoln and his cabinet knew before they could declare something as radical as emancipation they needed a victim it was actually lincoln's cabinet who suggested that he wanted to go on the attack aware that he had a limited number of men in supplies lee now hoped that if he could just threaten washington dc militarily he would gain europe's recognition and crush northern morale in time for the midterm elections forcing the north to negotiate with confidence at an all-time high for the first time robert e lee invaded the north but on september 13th the north finally had some luck oh boy it's my lucky garner field hey what's this there's actually three cigars that's right the north had discovered general lee's battle plans wrapped around some cigars and in them they saw that lee had split up his forces mcclellan headed out from dc and the two sides met in the battle of antietam a crucial battle that would decide the course of the mcclelland's got him out numbered almost two to one lee had like 38 000 men with that battle in american history but for once the north came out victorious and lee was forced he could have crushed on the run chase him down and finish him off no no i'm good you know what old buddy old pal you're fired the north had won their crucial victory lincoln breathed a huge sigh of relief and with that win he was prepared to take a huge step on september 22nd the emancipation proclamation was issued in january all slaves held in the confederate states would be as far as the us government was concerned officially free throughout the north course of lincoln had no legal authority to do that at all their brothers and sisters would no longer be held in bondage the proclamation and it probably would have been overruled by the courts when the war was over a pledge to end slavery an outraged confederacy knew that lincoln had given the war a new meaning it was no longer just about the preservation of the union now it was about creating a new union washed clean of its original sin a union without slavery well that's partially true because again remember the emancipation proclamation only frees slaves that are in areas that are in rebellion against the united states so he wasn't trying to argue for freedom for slaves in kentucky missouri maryland delaware places that were still in the union because he knew were he to do that he might lose those states over the confederacy so this was simply a war measure and he knew that as soon as the war was over it probably would have been thrown out by the courts and they cover a lot of that in the movie lincoln uh about why they had to pass the 13th amendment to uh to deal with that issue because the emancipation proclamation was not gonna stand up in court uh but we're gonna wrap it up right there let me know your thoughts not only about what's been covered but what i've added to it as well i would love to hear what you have to say and we'll come back in a couple of days with part two thanks for watching

Channel: Vlogging Through History

Views: 457,168

Rating: 4.8917294 out of 5

Keywords: american civil war, oversimplified reaction, reaction video, history reaction, civil war, oversimplified civil war, oversimplified the american civil war reaction, oversimplified civil war reaction, oversimplified the american civil war, the american civil war oversimplified, oversimplified reaction history teacher, history reaction videos, abraham lincoln, american history, oversimplified reaction civil, fort sumter, the american civil war

Id: r4DMHX8ukwY

Length: 38min 17sec (2297 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 27 2020