Lincoln’s Gamble: The Tumultuous Six Months That Gave America the Emancipation Proclamation and Changed the Course of the Civil War by Todd Brewster (review)

A year punctuated by frequent Union military failures, formulation of a policy of emancipation, and widespread public disaffection, 1862 proved to be one of the most trying years of the American Civil War for Abraham Lincoln. In Lincoln’s Gamble, Todd Brewster explores the transformative period between July 1862 and January 1863, the month in which President Lincoln issued his final Emancipation Proclamation. It is during this time, Brewster argues, that one might find the “real Lincoln”—one who came to embrace emancipation while the focus of the Civil War shifted from reunion toward the destruction of slavery (8). Written in engaging prose and mindful of the many complexities and ambiguities of Union war policy and Lincoln’s thinking on race and slavery, Brewster’s narrative offers an immersive look into the processes by which Lincoln ultimately changed the nature of Union war policy to include emancipation along with reunion.

Beginning with the funeral of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton’s son on July 13, 1862, when Lincoln first revealed his plans for emancipation to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles and Secretary of State William H. Seward, Brewster’s narrative marches forward chronologically, with each chapter focusing on major events or themes between July 1862 and January 1863. Largely based on standard primary sources regarding Lincoln and emancipation, the book also contains a helpful appendix that includes the texts of all three drafts of the Emancipation Proclamation, as well as Lincoln’s famous letter to Albert G. Hodges of April 4, 1864, justifying military emancipation. Throughout the book, Brewster carefully traces the development of emancipation policy in Lincoln’s mind, revealing the extent to which Lincoln’s thinking on emancipation evolved between the September 22 Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and its final version, one hundred days later, on January 1, 1863. Brewster maintains that Lincoln’s initial position on slavery during the war was largely hands-off, as he encouraged military officials to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, for instance. Moreover, Lincoln’s fear of the social consequences of immediate abolition—reflected in part by his enduring embrace of colonizing free blacks outside of the United States—“made him uncomfortable with any plan that did not take gradualism as its philosophy and popular consensus as its partner” (46). As political and military events unfolded throughout 1862, though, Lincoln came to embrace a policy of military emancipation, however limited in scope. Still, for all of its moral grandeur and mythical status to modern Americans, the myriad political and military uncertainties surrounding the Union war effort ensured that the fate of emancipated slaves remained far from clear on January 1, 1863. Indeed, as Brewster aptly writes, for Lincoln the final Emancipation Proclamation was “a roll of the dice” (243).

While Brewster ultimately emphasizes Lincoln’s evolving policy of emancipation, he also devotes some attention to other major developments in the Union during the latter half of 1862. Here, one will find a general discussion of military events through the end of the year, as well as the growing dissent of a northern public that knew little of military victory and much of war-weariness and sacrifice. Although important for establishing the political and military context of the Union war effort in 1862, these subjects are treated better elsewhere. Yet even on such crucially interdependent topics as slavery, emancipation, and colonization, Brewster’s book does not engage the larger historiographical literature and debates, which may disappoint specialists in these areas. Instead, Brewster devotes considerable space to detailed biographical sketches of Lincoln’s political influences, cabinet members, military subordinates, and family members that, at times, are an unnecessary digression from his larger narrative. The same may be said for particular topics that are given disproportionate treatment here, such as his discussion of...