Captain “Abe” Lincoln and his company (in the Black Hawk War) were
without any sort of military knowledge, and both were forced to acquire
such knowledge by attempts at drilling. Which was the more awkward, the
“squad” or the commander, it would have been difficult to decide.
In one of Lincoln’s earliest military problems was involved the process
of getting his company “endwise” through a gate. Finally he shouted,
“This company is dismissed for two minutes, when it will fall in again
on the other side of the gate!”
Lincoln was one of the first of his company to be arraigned for
unmilitary conduct. Contrary to the rules he fired a gun “within the
limits,” and had his sword taken from him. The next infringement of
rules was by some of the men, who stole a quantity of liquor, drank it,
and became unfit for duty, straggling out of the ranks the next day, and
not getting together again until late at night.
For allowing this lawlessness the captain was condemned to wear a wooden
sword for two days. These were merely interesting but trivial incidents
of the campaign. Lincoln was from the very first popular with his men,
although one of them told him to “go to the devil.”
“ABE” STIRRING THE “BLACK” COALS.
Under the caption, “The American Difficulty,” “Punch” printed on May
11th, 1861, the cartoon reproduced here. The following text was placed
beneath the illustration: PRESIDENT ABE: “What a nice White House this
would be, if it were not for the blacks!” It was the idea in England,
and, in fact, in all the countries on the European continent, that
the War of the Rebellion was fought to secure the freedom of the negro
slaves. Such was not the case. The freedom of the slaves was one of
the necessary consequences of the Civil War, but not the cause of that
bloody four years’ conflict. The War was the result of the secession of
the states of the South from the Union, and President “Abe’s” main aim
was to compel the seceding states to resume their places in the Federal
Union of states.
The blacks did not bother President “Abe” in the least as he knew he
would be enabled to give them their freedom when the proper time came.
He had the project of freeing them in his mind long before he issued his
Emancipation Proclamation, the delay in promulgating that document
being due to the fact that he did not wish to estrange the hundreds of
thousands of patriots of the border states who were fighting for the
preservation of the Union, and not for the freedom of the negro slaves.
President “Abe” had patience, and everything came out all right in the
end.