The Life of Abraham Lincoln for Young People, Told in Words of One Syllable — John Shaqi
The Life of Abraham Lincoln for Young People, Told in Words of One SyllablePutnam, Harriet
History
The Life of Abraham Lincoln for Young People, Told in Words of One Syllable
Putnam, Harriet
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Juvenile literature
The fine fall days were go-ing by and Mc-Clel-lan, though he seemed to
be get-ting read-y for work, did not bring a-bout what folks thought
he would. They be-gan to ask why the ar-my did not move. Word was sent
North each night that it was “All qui-et a-long the Po-to-mac!”
Ere the end of Sep-tem-ber came it was clear-ly made known to the
Pres-i-dent that the friends of the Un-ion cause felt that some of the
lead-ers were at fault. The Pres-i-dent, as a boy, had made him-self
mas-ter of gram-mar, law, sur-vey-ing, and oth-er things, and now he
made a close stud-y of war and how to fight great bat-tles. While he
was a help to Mc-Clel-lan, yet he saw, at last, that his own plans were
best, and so, in time, it was proved to all that Mc-Clel-lan was wrong
and Lin-coln was right.
Not a-lone in war schemes but in oth-ers the hand and head of Lin-coln
oft-en proved bet-ter than those of men who had been brought up to such
work. Lin-coln’s way with for-eign lands, some of whose ru-lers were
friend-ly to the South and want-ed it to win, was thought to be just
right. Then the way Lin-coln got vast sums to car-ry on the war, and
the part he thought it wise for the na-vy to take in the great strife,
won praise for him. These things were all un-der Lin-coln’s eye and had
his close care.
As time went on the whole North learned to look to Lin-coln, and
de-pend up-on him for help in dark days and wise work in bright times.
When the North felt they could not win, Lin-coln said, “We shall win!”
While a large force of men was in arms not much had been done by
Un-ion Gen-er-als. Mc-Clel-lan’s great ar-my grew less and less. Hordes
of men were ill. Mc-Clel-lan had no plan for his troops to move.
Hal-leck was in charge in Mis-sou-ri and Gen. Bu-ell in Ken-tuc-ky.
Pres-i-dent Lin-coln saw that a un-ion must be brought a-bout be-tween
the moves of these three lead-ers. He wrote to them, but they did not
care to do what he thought best.
U-lys-ses S. Grant, though a West Point man who had fought in the war
with Mex-i-co in 1843, had left the ar-my and gone to a small farm near
St. Lou-is. He was poor, but he built a small house of hewn logs for
his fam-i-ly, did his own work on the land, and lived a life of peace.
A chance came to go to Ga-le-na, in the State of Il-li-nois. There
Grant was a clerk in a store where they sold hides. There he was when
the war broke out, and the South and the North, which had been as one,
were now two, and full of hate.
Four days af-ter Lin-coln’s call for troops went through the land, U.
S. Grant be-gan to drill some of the men in his place in the use of the
gun. In a few days he set off with them for Spring-field, Ill. From
there he wrote to a man who held a high post at Wash-ing-ton and told
him that he would like to be of use and help save the land from its foe.
No word came back. But Grant kept on, staid in the same cit-y, and gave
his time to the drill of all the troops he could find.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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