The Pres-i-dent told those to whom he had read his “draft” that he had not called them to ask their ad-vice but to place the mat-ter be-fore them. The wise Se-cret-a-ry Sew-ard said that though he was in fa-vor of such a draft, he thought the time was not ripe for it. He thought it would be best to wait un-til the troops had won more fights. It was then de-cid-ed that at least some months should go by ere this “draft” should be made known. CHAPTER XI. ANTIETAM, VICKSBURG, GETTYSBURG. It is true that while good strokes were made in the West, the East did not do her part to put down the foe as soon as she might have done, and this was laid to lead-ers, for the troops were brave and read-y to fight when they had a chance. What was called “The Pen-in-su-lar Cam-paign” made a start ’twixt the York Riv-er and the James Riv-er, on land which forms a pen-in-su-la. Here through the spring and sum-mer of 1862, Mc-Clel-lan held large for-ces. There was much fight-ing, and at one time the Un-ion for-ces were with-in eight miles of Rich-mond, but in the end they had to fall back and with-draw from the Pen-in-su-la. Pres-i-dent Lin-coln at length felt that Mc-Clel-lan was no match for the Con-fed-er-ate Gen-er-als, Lee and “Stone-wall” Jack-son. So he had to put a new man at the head of the ar-my in the East. This man was Gen. Pope who had done well in the West. Then came the sec-ond Bull Run fight, Au-gust 29 and 30, 1862. The foe won. Lin-coln found Pope “not up to the mark,” as a lead-er, and so put Mc-Clel-lan back once more. It was on the 16th and 17th of Sept. 1862, that Mc-Clel-lan and Lee fought at An-tie-tam Creek, near Sharps-burg, in Ma-ry-land. This was one of the most se-vere bat-tles of the war. On Sept. 18, Lee with-drew a-cross the Po-to-mac, and Mc-Clel-lan slow-ly went af-ter him. The Pres-i-dent had wait-ed in hopes that a “vic-to-ry” would come to the ar-my of the East, ere he made known his plan of free-ing slaves in some of the states. His own words are, “I had made a sol-emn vow to God that if Lee were driv-en back from Ma-ry-land I would crown the re-sult by a dec-la-ra-tion of free-dom to the slaves.” So when the An-tie-tam fight came, and Lee and troops were driv-en back from Ma-ry-land, it gave so much hope to the Un-ion cause that Lin-coln felt it was the time to send forth the “draft” he made two months be-fore. This pa-per said that on the first day of Jan-u-a-ry, 1863, all slaves in those states which had left the Un-ion should be free. The slaves in those states which had _not_ gone off, such as Mis-sou-ri and Ken-tuc-ky, were not _then_ to be free. It had been thought by some that harm would come from this pa-per, but it did not. It was a wise move, and a bold one, and brought much good. Great joy was felt at the North, and fresh hope came with the thought that the war might soon be at an end. But there were two more years of sad, sad work, loss, and death on both sides.