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    I Wish I Had Never Been Born: Rediscovering Abraham Lincoln
    I Wish I Had Never Been Born: Rediscovering Abraham Lincoln
    I Wish I Had Never Been Born: Rediscovering Abraham Lincoln
    Ebook105 pages1 hour

    I Wish I Had Never Been Born: Rediscovering Abraham Lincoln

    By Nicholas L. Vulich

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    About this ebook

    It was a fine day for a battle. Hundreds of spectators from Washington took the day off to tag after the army. They came in buggies and on horseback, riding seven long hours in the hot Virginia sun. Mostly men, a few women, a host of politicians – among them Ohio Senator Ben Wade, New York Congressman Alfred Ely, and Illinois Congressman Elihu Washburne.

    English war correspondent William Howard Russell reported, "The spectators were all excited, and a lady with an opera glass who was quite beside herself when an unusually heavy discharge roused the current of her blood…'that is splendid, oh my, is not that first rate? I guess we will be in Richmond to-morrow,' she exclaimed." An officer told them, "We are whipping them good!" and a cheer went through the crowd.

    Later that afternoon many of the spectators were caught in the wild frenzy of Union troops stampeding their way back to Washington in a disorganized unruly retreat.

    For Abraham Lincoln the defeat at Bull Run meant only one thing. It was going to be a long war, with no quick end in sight. He told A. G. Riddle, "I am the President of one part of this divided country at least, but look at me! I wish I had never been born! I've a white elephant on my hands, one hard to manage. With a fire in my front and rear, having to contend with the jealousies of military commanders and not receiving that cordial cooperation and support from Congress that could reasonably be expected, with an active and formidable enemy in the field threatening the very life blood of the Government, my position is anything but a bed of roses."

    I Wish I Had Never Born is a quick easy read following the life of Abraham Lincoln. You'll learn about his early days, his loves, his disappointments, his rise to power, and his assassination. And, yes, we will talk about that annoying rumor of Lincoln being gay. Say it isn't so Abe?

    Read the book. Learn all you need to know about Abraham Lincoln in short, illustrated bites.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNick Vulich
    Release dateJan 15, 2015
    ISBN9781507049075
    I Wish I Had Never Been Born: Rediscovering Abraham Lincoln

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      Book preview

      I Wish I Had Never Been Born - Nicholas L. Vulich

      Abraham Lincoln

      A Pictorial History

      ––––––––

      Copyright © 2014 by Nicholas L. Vulich

      Want to know about Nick’s new book releases? Join our mailing list.

      Interested in being notified when Nick releases his next book? Click here to join our mailing list. We promise not to send any spam, or unwanted emails.  The only thing you will receive is news about Nick’s new book releases, and occasional specials we are offering.

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Meet Abraham Lincoln

      Lincoln as a storyteller

      Early Life

      Life in New Salem

      Lincoln and the Black Hawk War

      Life in New Salem

      Congressman Abraham Lincoln

      Lincoln the Lawyer

      Lincoln and women

      United States Congressman

      Formation of the Republican Party

      Lincoln Douglas Debates

      Presidential election of 1860

      Baltimore Plot to Assassinate Lincoln

      Inauguration and Beginning of the War

      Battle of Bull Run

      Emancipation Proclamation

      Battles of Gettysburg & Vicksburg

      Presidential Election of 1864

      Lincoln on the Battlefield

      1865

      Fall of Richmond

      Assassination of Lincoln

      Further reading

      Introduction

      Abraham Lincoln (from an early 1900’s postcard)

      ––––––––

      Abraham Lincoln is one of those Presidents you either love or hate.

      The first three years of his Presidency he was hated as much by Northerners as by Southerners. It was only after the tide of the war changed in his fourth year as President American’s started taking a shine towards Lincoln.

      Let’s take a look at the man himself.

      Lincoln grew up in a log cabin in the backwoods of Kentucky. His family was dirt poor. At the most he had a year and a half of classroom schooling.

      His early story is all over the place. He was a rail splitter, farmer, store keeper, a captain in the Black Hawk War, and self-trained as a frontier lawyer.

      Meet Abraham Lincoln

      Abraham Lincoln was a cartoonist’s dream, tall, disheveled, and clumsy acting.

      According to Abram J. Dittenhoefer in his book, How We Elected Lincoln, published in 1916, Lincoln ...was a homely man...His tall gaunt body was like a huge clothed skeleton. So large were his feet and so clumsy were his hands that they looked out of proportion to the rest of his figure.

      This cartoon from Vanity Fair, published on March 16, 1861 comments on Lincoln’s new found whiskers.

      His face was gaunt and wraith-like. In 1860 Lincoln received a letter from eleven year old Grace Bedell of Westfield, New York. She told him a beard would improve his gangly appearance. He took her advice and since then most people can only remember Lincoln with a beard.

      Take a moment to picture the man. He stood 6 feet, 4 inches tall, weighed only 180 pounds; had big ears that were too large for his head, a tall forehead, large hands, and according to those who knew him, he had a strange walk, slightly hunched forward because of his great height.

      Perhaps the best description of Lincoln’s odd looks was given by his long-time friend, Ward Lamon:

      His head was long, and tall from the base of the brain and the eyebrow, but inclining backward as it rose. The diameter of his head from ear to ear was six and a half inches, and front to back eight inches. The size of his hat was seven and an eighth. His ears were large, standing out almost at right-angles from his head; his cheek-bones high and prominent; his eyebrows heavy, and jutting forward over small, sunken blue eyes, his nose long, large, and blunt, the tip of it rather ruddy, and slightly awry toward the right-hand side, his chin, projecting far and sharp, curved upward to meet a thick, material, lower lip, which hung downward; his cheeks were flabby, and the loose skin fell in wrinkles or folds; there was a large mole on his right cheek, and an uncommonly prominent Adam’s apple on his throat; his hair was dark brown in color, stiff, unkempt, and as yet showing little or no sign of advancing age or trouble; his complexion was very dark, his skin yellow, shriveled, and leathery.

      William Howard Russell, an Englishman traveling through America in the early 1860’s, gave this account of Lincoln – The cold shoulder is given to Mr. Lincoln, and all kinds of stories and jokes are circulated at his expense...People take particular pleasure in telling how he came towards the seat of his Government disguised in a Scotch cap and a cloak, whatever that may mean... The last part is an erroneous reference to the Baltimore Plot, when cartoonists lampooned Lincoln for sneaking into Washington City, saying he was a coward who crept into the city in disguise.

      Lincoln as a storyteller

      From a cartoon (originally published in Harper’s Weekly Magazine September 17th, 1864)

      ––––––––

      Abraham Lincoln is idealized as this tall, stoic, bearded giant who wore a black stove pipe hat and never smiled. The real Abraham Lincoln was nothing like that. He was a jokester. He enjoyed entertaining people with his stories and making them laugh. William Howard Russell noted in his diary, Mr. Lincoln raises a laugh by some bold west-country anecdote, and moves off in the cloud of merriment produced by his joke.

      His friend, Joshua Speed said humor was an integral part of the way in which Mr. Lincoln created and cemented friendships.

      From all accounts Lincoln was folksy in the way he talked. His law partner in Springfield, William Herndon, described his voice as somewhat squeaky, maybe even high pitched and shrill. It may have even occasionally cracked as he was speaking.

      George Alfred Townsend in his book, The Real Life of Abraham Lincoln, says:

      "No man ever told so many stories, and he was seldom known either to repeat one twice or tell one that was hackneyed. His long, variable and extensive experience with common native people made him acquainted with a thousand oddities, and he had a familiar way of relating them that was as piquant as his

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