Existing comment:
April 1862:
A Fighting General:
April 1862 brought unexpected good news to the Lincoln White House. After being surprised by attacking Confederates at Shiloh Church, on the banks of the Tennessee River, Ulysses Grant waged a fierce counter-attack that drove the Southern army from the fields and opened the door to Mississippi.
At sea, Union fleets captured Fort Pulaski, guarding Savannah, Georgia; Apalachicola, Florida; and Biloxi, Mississippi. Before the end of the month, Admiral David Farragut's flotilla ran the gauntlet of Confederate defenses below New Orleans. Soon a Union army of 18,000 occupied the South's greatest ports.
Thank God for Grant:
Lincoln issued a proclamation calling on his countrymen to thank Almighty God for their victories. Then rumors began to circulate charging Grant with drunkenness at Shiloh. Urged to remove Grant from command, Lincoln was adamant. "I can't spare this man. He fights!"
May 20, 1862:
Homesteads, Railroads -- and Taxes:
Not all of Lincoln's presidency was taken up with the war: On May 20, 1862, he signed the Homestead Act, which gave any citizen 160 acres of land in return for a $10 registration fee and a promise to stay on the land five years. "Uncle Sam" was giving away farms -- that was the message that drew countless immigrants and other Americans to new lives west of the Mississippi.
The Pacific Railway Bill:
Six week later, on the first day of July, Lincoln gave final approval to the Pacific Railway Bill, authorizing the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads to build a transcontinental line linking Iowa to California. The government would provide vast tracts of land, along with generous loans, to each company.
Paper Dollars:
Under Lincoln, a strengthened central government also issued the first greenbacks, or paper money, and assessed the first income tax in U.S. history to help pay for a war costing $2 million a day. |