On a personal note my grandfather's grandfather was a Pennsylvania blacksmith. In 1862 he was conscripted at age 41 and assigned to a Cavalry regiment. He was captured in May 1863 at Chancellorsville and did not survive captivity. This event started a cycle of poverty that took nearly 100 years to emerge from.
The war resulted in over 700,000 KIA, and nearly three times that number disabled, many of whom died soon after the conflict as a result of their infirmities. How many additional families were adversely affected too?
What power did Lincoln have to "end slavery" in any "Northern (sic) state"?
The Amacipation (sic) Proclamation only freed slaves in states in rebellion and was done primarily to foster popular support for the North in Britain.
You're a step above both the Lefties and the Neo-Confederates who always say it didn't free any slaves. As Commander In Chief, Lincoln, with a stroke of a pen (and the advance of Union troops) could free slaves in areas of rebellion as a war measure. He had no such constitutional authority in states or areas of states "loyal" to the Union (i.e. where the US Courts were functioning.) BTW. But as early as 1862, he began pleading with leaders of the 4 “Union” states that had slaves to end it in their states. Two did, and two didn’t. As an "extra credit" please tell us what "Northern States" had slavery in 1860.
The plight of northern factory workers, including child labor...
What exactly does that have to do with it? Lincoln had the vote and support of the majority of the "northern factory workers".
On a personal note my grandfather's grandfather was a Pennsylvania blacksmith. In 1862 he was conscripted at age 41 and assigned to a Cavalry regiment. He was captured in May 1863 at Chancellorsville and did not survive captivity. This event started a cycle of poverty that took nearly 100 years to emerge from.
The Union did not begin conscripting troops until 1863 and even at the height of the war did not draft 41 year-old men. (The Confederates began the draft in 1862 and by the end of the war were drafting men as old as 55.) In 1862, Pennsylvania had no trouble rasing regiments for the Union cause. There was no need for a draft and there was no time when the Union drafted 41 yewar-old men in any state. If your GG grandfather went to war at age 41, he was a volunteer and you should be more than proud of him. And if 5 generations of your family managed to stay poor through the greatest economic expansion in the history of the world, I would suggest that you look to other causes than Abraham Lincoln.
The war resulted in over 700,000 KIA, and nearly three times that number disabled, many of whom died soon after the conflict as a result of their infirmities. How many additional families were adversely affected too?
The war resulted in a little over 200,000 kia (approx. 110,00 Union and 94,000 Confederate) with another 400,000 who died of various diseases common to the day.
"How many additional families were adversely affected too?
Apparently not enough to keep the image of Lincoln from being the dominant political icon for several generations after the war. His party, that continually invoked his image, held nearly uninterrupted power for nearly 50 years after the war. The Americans who lived through the war and its aftermath considered Lincoln to be the savior of the Republic.