Chapters 13-14 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 13 is called "An Instrument in God's Hands," referring to what Donald calls Lincoln's "fatalism" in his view of the prospects of ending the war with the Union intact.

The period covered by the chapter begins at the summer of 1862, when things are not going well for Lincoln and the Union army. Lincoln's generals, especially McClellan, remain obstinate and do not carry out Lincoln's plans. He shakes up the command structure by sending the aggressive John Pope to the field and appointing Henry Halleck general-in-chief.

Lincoln also privately begins working on what will become the Emancipation Proclamation. Publicly, he professes that his main purpose is to preserve the Union and that the abolition of slavery is not necessarily required to accomplish this. To the more radical abolitionist factions in the North, he signals his personal opposition to slavery, but...