A dead Confederate soldier in the trenches of Fort Mahone, also known as “Fort Damnation,” Virginia, 1865

Photograph, Confederate soldier killed at Petersburg, Virginia, 1864.

Union soldiers killed while charging a Confederate artillery battery at Antietam, Maryland, 1862.

In this memo, probably composed to impress his fiancée, Mary Todd, Lincoln compiled a record of his increasing vote tallies in his first three political campaigns. No doubt he was heartened to see his six-year record rise from 657 to 1,716 votes. To forestall any skepticism from Mary or her family, Lincoln had the document […]

In the midst of the 1860 presidential campaign, Lincoln paused to write a letter of consolation to a friend of his son Robert, George C. Latham, who had been denied admission to Harvard. Lincoln wrote this letter of encouragement declaring, “It is a certain truth that you can enter and graduate in Harvard University; and […]

The Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery, was the only ratified constitutional amendment signed by a president. The Constitution does not require a president’s signature; an amendment needs to be approved only by two thirds of both houses of Congress and ratified by three fourths of the states. With his signature, Lincoln emphatically signaled to the world […]

During the Civil War, the British philosopher and economist J. S. Mill wrote extensively in support of the North. In “The Contest in America” (1862), Mill argued: “The world knows what the question between the North and South has been for many years, and still is. Slavery alone was thought of, alone talked of. Slavery […]

The devastating losses of the Civil War made the composition of condolence letters one of Lincoln’s regular, dismal duties. He wrote this deeply felt letter to the twenty-two-year-old Fanny McCullough only ten months after the death of his son Willie. Lincoln offers words of solace on the death of McCullough’s father, telling her that “In […]

In Lincoln’s time, Americans were familiar with Lincoln’s opinions primarily through his printed speeches. As this vitriolic letter demonstrates, Lincoln’s words sometimes provoked raging anger among those who disagreed with his principles.

In this terse memo to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Lincoln makes it clear he wants Stanton to help William Dole organize what would be the first regiment of African-American soldiers formed in Washington, DC. Coincidentally, in Boston, the Massachusetts 54th Infantry was mustered on the following day, 13 May 1863, and officially became the […]