Abraham Lincoln.. Cough Cough..

“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.” – Abraham Lincoln

On this night at 10:15, about a half hour ago, one hundred and fifty four years ago, President Abraham Lincoln was shot to death by John Wilkes Booth at Fords Theater in Washington DC. He will forever be remembered as the Commander In Chief who presided over the most costliest war in human life in American history. It is estimated that between eight hundred thousand and one million people were killed in the Civil War. It amounted to three percent of the population or three people out of every ten. We added in the people who were injured. You can see the war affected every one in America.

Although African American’s made up only one percent of the Northern population, the made up ten percent of the Union Army. African American’s also fought for the Confederacy… they bedda.. Lincoln is also know as the “Great Emancipator,” for freeing the slaves. Now while Lincoln did eventually come around to freeing the slaves, it wasn’t at the top of his list. He wanted to stop the war :

“If I could end the war by freeing all the slaves, I would. If I could end the war by freeing some of the slave I would. If I could end the war by freeing none of the slaves I would.” – Abraham Lincoln

Cough.. Cough.. Lincoln holds a precarious place in African American psyche. As late as the latter part of the twentieth century you could almost go into any African American home and find a picture of Abraham Lincoln and Dr Martin Luther King Jr. As time went on and younger generations started studying Civil War history, it became clear.. to Lincoln emancipation was entirely political. The North had invested so much blood in bringing the Southern States back to the Union, any victory had to include destroying their way of life and that meant freeing the slaves. Its a well know fact that after the war, Lincoln asked the federal government to give the travel passage to any negro that wanted to go back to Africa. Some left.

It may or may not be a coincidence that the personal income tax was started by Lincoln to finance the war. Similarly, it may or may not be a coincidence that the IRS wants their money on the day Lincoln was killed. I will let you be the judge of that. I have seen a lot of post that talk about Lincoln picture on the penny as facing away from the other presidents depicted on coins because he freed us. Now the story goes that Teddy Roosevelt asked a famous painter at the time to do the engraving for the Lincoln penny. The picture he chose to work off faced in the same direction as the image on the penny. So I guess all the other coins portraits faced in the opposite direction.. cough.. cough..

Here are some of the statistics of the Civil War:

4:1 — The ratio of people who attended church weekly to those who voted in the 1860 election

2.5 — Approximate percentage of the American population that died in the Civil War

7 million — Number of Americans lost if 2.5% of the population died in war today

2.1 million — Number of Northerners mobilized to fight for the Union army

880,000 — Number of Southerners mobilized for the Confederacy

50 — Estimated percentage of Civil War deaths that occurred in the last two years of the War

40+ — Estimated percentage of Civil War dead who were never identified

66 — Estimated percentage of dead African American Union soldiers who were never identified

2 out of 3 — Number of Civil War deaths that occurred from disease rather than battle

68,162 — Number of inquiries answered by the Missing Soldiers Office from 1865-1868

4 million — Number of enslaved persons in the U.S. in 1860

180,000 — Number of African American soldiers that served in the Civil War

1 in 5 — Average death rate for all Civil War soldiers

3:1 — Ratio of Confederate deaths to Union deaths

9:1 — Ratio of African American Civil War troops who died of disease to those that died on the battlefield, largely due to discriminatory medical care

200 — Number of African American soldiers massacred following their surrender at Ft. Pillow, Tennessee on April 12, 1864

100,000+ — Number of Civil War Union corpses found in the South through a federal reinterment program from 1866-1869

303,356 — Number of Union soldiers who were reinterred in 74 congressionally-mandated national cemeteries by 1871

0 — Number of Confederate soldiers buried in those national cemeteries

58 — Number of Confederate bodies thrown down a local farmer’s well on a federal burial detail in 1862

1,733 — Approximate number of American battlefield deaths in the Mexican War, 1846-1848

900 — Approximate number of battlefield deaths in 12 hours at the Battle of Bull Run

3,000 — Estimated number of horses killed at the Battle of Gettysburg