during what war did abraham lincoln serve as president?
American Civil War
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 With the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln , the first president from the largely anti @-@ slavery Republican Party , conventions in thirteen slave states ultimately declared secession and formed the Confederate States of America , while the U.S. government maintained that secession was illegal . The ensuing war was at first for Union , then after 1863 as casualties mounted and Lincoln delivered his Emancipation Proclamation , a second war aim became abolition of slavery . The war remains the deadliest military conflict in American history , resulting in the deaths of approximately 618 @,@ 000 soldiers as well as many civilians . 

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 Lincoln initially concentrated on the military and political dimensions of the war . His primary goal was to reunite the nation . He suspended habeas corpus , leading to the controversial ex parte Merryman decision , and he averted potential British intervention in the war by defusing the Trent Affair in late 1861 . Lincoln closely supervised the war effort , especially the selection of top generals , including his most successful general , Ulysses S. Grant . He also made major decisions on Union war strategy , including a naval blockade that shut down the South 's normal trade , moves to take control of Kentucky and Tennessee , and using gunboats to gain control of the southern river system . Lincoln tried repeatedly to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond ; each time a general failed , Lincoln substituted another , until finally Grant succeeded . As the war progressed , his complex moves toward ending slavery included the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 ; Lincoln used the U.S. Army to protect escaped slaves , encouraged the border states to outlaw slavery , and pushed through Congress the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , which permanently outlawed slavery . 

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 In the spring of 1863 , Lincoln was optimistic about upcoming military campaigns to the point of thinking the end of the war could be near if a string of victories could be put together ; these plans included Hooker 's attack on Lee north of Richmond , Rosecrans ' on Chattanooga , Grant 's on Vicksburg , and a naval assault on Charleston . 

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 The final few months of 1862 saw a high water mark for Benjamin 's diplomacy . In October , the British Chancellor of the Exchequer , William E. Gladstone , expressed confidence in Confederate victory , stating in Newcastle , " There is no doubt that Jefferson Davis and other leaders of the South have made an army . They are making , it appears , a navy , and they have made what is more than either — they have made a nation . " Later that month , Napoleon proposed to the British and Russians ( a U.S. ally ) that they combine to require a six months ' armistice for mediation , and an end to the blockade ; if they did so , it would likely lead to Southern independence . The proposal divided the British Cabinet . In mid @-@ November , at the urgings of Palmerston and War Secretary George Cornewall Lewis , members decided to continue to wait for the South to defeat Lincoln 's forces before recognizing it . Although proponents of intervention were prepared to await another opportunity , growing realization among the British public that the Emancipation Proclamation meant that Union victory would be slavery 's end made succoring the South politically infeasible . 

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 Determined both to hold the party together and to recruit the ablest men for his cabinet , Lincoln then persuaded each of his former rivals to join his cabinet . Seward assumed the post of Secretary of State , Chase that of Secretary of the Treasury , and Bates that of United States Attorney General . The South secedes following Lincoln 's election , and the country falls into the American Civil War . Goodwin describes in detail some cabinet decisions , such as the debate over provisioning Fort Sumter in South Carolina , the first state that had seceded ( in December 1860 ) , and the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation , which freed the slaves of secession states . She also traces the home life of the book 's main figures , including the marriage of Chase 's daughter and close companion Kate , First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln 's role in Washington , D.C. society , and the death of Lincoln 's son Willie . 
