Portal:American Civil War/Featured article

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Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), sometimes called Abe Lincoln and nicknamed Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, and the Great Emancipator, was an American politician who served as the 16th President of the United States (1861 to 1865), and the first president from the Republican Party. Lincoln opposed the expansion of slavery and as commander in chief of the nation's armed forces oversaw the Union war effort during the American Civil War. Lincoln selected commanders and approved their strategies, selected senior civilian officials, supervised diplomacy, patronage and party operations. Rallying public opinion through messages like the Emancipation Proclamation and speeches such as his concise Gettysburg Address; Lincoln took a few short minutes to speak the address, but it had an enduringing impact on U.S. history, and American political thought. As president, Lincoln had strong opinions on plans for the abolition of slavery and the Reconstruction of the Union, but his untimely assassination just as the war ended made him a martyr and an icon of American nationalism. (More...)