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Join GroupConfederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington. Lincoln remained unconscious for nine hours and died the following morning. His body lay in state at the Capitol before being transported by a funeral train back to his final resting place in Springfield, Illinois.
Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation, which began to change the goal of the Civil War from saving the Union to abolishing slavery. The Proclamation specifically states that all individuals being held as slaves in rebel states "henceforward shall be free." On November 19 he gave the 272-word Gettysburg Address, arguably his most famous speech, to a rapt audience of 15,000 gathered at the National Cemetery of Gettysburg — the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the war.
Lincoln participated in several election debates on the subject of slavery, speaking out passionately in favor of abolition. Although he lost the election to Stephen Douglas, the exposure launched Lincoln into the national political spotlight. This served him well just two years later, when he was elected president.
After a series of family moves to both Indiana and Illinois, Lincoln left home at age 22. Working as a manual laborer, he eventually made his way to New Salem, Illinois, where he found work in a shop, gradually rising to become the general store owner. It was during this period that he discovered his gift for honest storytelling that proved to be popular with his customers, and later, his constituents.
Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. His father was a hard-working pioneer. After his mother died, Lincoln's father remarried, taking a widow with three children of her own as his new bride. Although traumatized by his mother's death, Lincoln formed a strong bond with his stepmother, Sarah, who encouraged him to learn to read. This would have a profound impact on his future. (His parents were essentially illiterate.)
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