Question of the Week: When would you interview Lincoln?
If you could conduct a 1-hour interview of Abraham Lincoln, when would you want to go back to do the interview? Early 1861? April 1865 just before his assasination, 1862 right before he announced the Emancipation Proclamation? Some other time?
Immediately after he made the decision to reinforce Fort Sumter. I’d love to know if he had the slightest idea by that point that there was no turning back.
Abraham Lincoln tried to resupply Fort Sumter with provisions, but not troops, a move the Confederacy viewed as an act of aggression, leading to the bombardment that started the Civil War. He notified South Carolina’s governor of the plan to send unarmed supply ships, hoping to feed the garrison without forcing a fight, but {Jefferson Davis and the Confederates demanded surrender and fired on the fort when the relief fleet arrived}, making the South the aggressor in the conflict’s opening battle.
January 1, 1863 when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, changing the Vivil War from a fight to preserve the Union to a fight to free slaves.
In the immediate aftermath of Cold Harbor. Grant was fighting the Confederates hard but the Confederates were fighting him back hard. Casualties among the Union were absolutely dreadful at times during the Overland Campaign. Getting Lincoln’s take on that and other things would be interesting.
When he arrives at Ford’s Theatre. Hopefully I could join him in the box and thwart Booth then get his take on the assassination attempt.
Just before his assassination. He had such foreboding of his death.
After Chancellorsville but beforfe Gettysburg, perhaps his most depressing time. Find out what kept him going