Free Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman

them? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest motive—even the promise of freedom. And the promise being made, must be kept."
    Republicans charged that the Peace Democrats were poisonous "Copperheads." They branded them disloyal, accused them of aiding the rebels and undermining the war effort. Lincoln took a firm stand. He authorized army officers to jail anyone who obstructed the draft or otherwise helped the rebellion. By the summer of 1863, more then thirteen thousand opponents of the war had beencrowded into Northern prisons. When Lincoln was criticized for jailing a prominent Ohio Democrat who had denounced the draft, he snapped back, "Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts while I must not touch a hair of the wily agitator who induces him to desert?"

    Black infantrymen photographed at Fort Lincoln by Mathew Brady.

    Pvt. Abraham Brown, 54th Massachusetts Regiment, 1863.
    That summer, violent draft riots flared up in several Northern cities. In New York, a rampaging mob burned down the draft office, attacked the mayor's house, and surged into the city's Negro district, clubbing and whipping blacks to death, and killing policemen and other whites who tried to interfere. More than five hundred people had died before federal troops could restore order.
    The governor of New York demanded that Lincoln suspend the draft and revoke the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln replied that he would never abandon emancipation. And the draft would continue, because the Union needed men to see the war through to victory. His secretary, John Hay was impressed by how tough the president had become. "He will not be bullied," said Hay, "even by his friends."
    Yet victory was nowhere in sight. For months the fighting had continued with a mounting death toll. Lincoln was still having bad luck with his generals. At Antietam, McClellan had stopped Lee's advance into Maryland, but he hadn't gone after the rebels. Instead, he dug in at Antietam, complaining about his lack of supplies and his footsore horses while the president tried to prod him into action. "McClellan has got the slows," Lincoln muttered. By the time McClellan finally started in pursuit of Lee, the rebels had crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains and reached safety in central Virginia. Lincoln's patience was exhausted. In November, 1862, he dismissed McClellan from his command, ending the cautious general's troubled military career.
    McClellan was replaced by General Ambrose E. Burnside, whopromptly marched south into Virginia and lost twelve thousand men at Fredericksburg. Burnside was so humiliated, he asked to be relieved of his command.

    Lincoln confers with General George McClellan at Antietam, October 3,
1862.
    His replacement was General "Fighting Joe" Hooker, who began to plan a new campaign against the rebel forces in Virginia. "My plans are perfect," Hooker announced, "and when I start to carry them out, may God have mercy on General Lee, for I shall have none." But Hooker, like Burnside, lasted for just one battle. Early in May, 1863, he went down to defeat at Chancellorsville, losing seventeen thousand men as Lee routed the demoralized Union troops.
    Lee was determined to carry the war into the North. In June, his troops pushed northwards from Virginia, marched across Maryland, and invaded Pennsylvania, throwing the North into a panic. Lincoln had replaced Hooker with a new commander, General George Gordon Meade, who rushed his forces to Pennsylvania to stop the rebels. The two armies met on July 1 at the little country town of Gettysburg, where 170,000 troops clashed in the most spectacular battle of the war.
    On July 4, after three days of fierce fighting, with more than fifty thousand casualties on both sides, Lee's broken and defeated army started back to Virginia. When news of the victory reached Lincoln, he ordered Meade to go after Lee and destroy his army once and for all. "Do not let the enemy escape," Lincoln