Slavery

[Rob Wick]

I can't agree that the men who fought the war weren't fighting to free the slaves, within the parameters I mentioned in my previous post. Once the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, the war became not only a struggle for preservation of the Union, but the "new birth of freedom" that Lincoln talked of was for the bondsman and for the larger society in which he lived. Unless I'm not reading something correctly, it seems to me that Ambrose is subjugating the role of slavery in the conflict after 1863 to that of Lincoln's stated goals in the opening days up to 1862. At that point (after 1863) Lincoln was ready to make the war about something equally great to his concept of Union, i.e., recognizing the rights of man extended to ALL men and that for democracy to be taken seriously in the rest of the world, it had to extend to every one regardless of color.

If I'm reading Ambrose wrong, someone please tell me.

Best
Rob