1863: Lincoln's Pivotal Year

Introduction: The Remembrance of a Dream

1 Introduction: The Remembrance of a Dream Harold Holzer They have been called the most decisive, certainly the most revolutionary , twelve months of the entire Civil War. Indeed, only hours into the new year of 1863, Abraham Lincoln guaranteed their reputation as such by signing the first executive act ever aimed at destroying the stubbornly intractable institution of American slavery. It was a dramatic moment oddly shielded from public view. Lincoln spent the better part of that eagerly anticipated holiday mingling with hundreds of people at the annual White House New Year’s reception. But, as far as we know, emancipation was not mentioned to the large crowd of visitors. Only when the president retreated to his second-floor office later in the afternoon did he finally affix his name to the document—with but a handful of associates on hand. Lincoln well understood that the moment was epochal—perhaps the most important not just of the war but of the entire nineteenth century—yet he was so worried about adverse public reaction that he never considered turning it into the major public event it deserved to be. Only later did he proudly point to it as the start of “a great revolution in public sentiment.”1 Other unforgettable moments did follow. The year 1863 also brought the so-called Confederate High Water Mark in summer, an event that climaxed nothing less than the most titanic battle that ever shook the Western Hemisphere. And, in late autumn, that battle inspired the most famous presidential speech in America’s entire history. Earlier in the year, lest we forget, Lincoln also established the uniform gauge for the 2 Harold Holzer new Union Pacific Railroad, promising at last to connect the eastern and western shores of the vast continent. And that same month, the president cheered the admission of the new state of West Virginia to the Union, even though it had seceded from another state—one in active rebellion— in order to create itself. Once opposed to the exercise of vast presidential powers—that is, when a Democrat wielded them—Lincoln in 1863 became arguably the most powerful president in American history.2 “Lincoln,” complained Richmond’s Southern Illustrated News, “is made Dictator of all the North, and vested with full power of the purse and the sword.”3 All this said, when this momentous year ended, it nonetheless probably seemed, to many living in the North at the time, something of a disappointment . For 1863 brought not the end of the rebellion, as some hoped, but at most the end of the beginning. By the time the carnage ended at Gettysburg on July 3, the Civil War was only half over. Historical perspective gives us the precious opportunity to view these crucial twelve months with more understanding and appreciation. But readers should never forget that even when the year began with Lincoln’s thunderbolt decree against slavery, ending four score years of governmental tolerance of human bondage, the news was received with odd calm in most of white America. For all the upheaval it promised—or, to some, threatened—no parades, celebrations, or mass demonstrations ushered in this first, and biggest, event of 1863. Writing from New Orleans, the special correspondent for the New York Times at least acknowledged the significance of the presidential order: “The first of January, 1863, is past, and the President’s Proclamation, declaring Slavery abolished in the United States of America, has been given to the world;—it is an accomplished fact; it is history, and what is most, it is an irrevocable decree against human bondage ever again existing under the flag of the Union.” Then the reporter admitted, “It is astonishing to me, when I think of the vast consequences to follow to my own country and to the world, that a document so wonderful in its character could be issued without some attending miracle—some strange yet cheering natural phenomenon. So important, indeed, do I deem this proclamation of Mr. Lincoln, that I consider it surpassed in the magnitude of its humanity only by the inspiration of the Sermon on the Mount.”4 Not until November would Lincoln provide, at the Gettysburg Soldiers’ Cemetery, the “sermon” to accompany the “miracle”—and even then, the indelible greatness of his words was initially overlooked by many Americans . True, the year 1863 has achieved a legendary place in American memory. We tend to forget, however, that it was far more difficult and confusing to endure at...