Abraham Lincoln Research Paper

Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809 at sunrise. His birthplace was a one-room log cabin, which was sixteen feet long and eighteen feet wide. The tiny cabin had only one dimly-lit window and hard-packed earth for flooring.

When Abraham was six years old he and his sister Sarah walked two miles to a log cabin schoolhouse where he learned to read, write, and do arithmetic. Abe liked writing best of all and practiced it wherever he went. He wrote with charcoal on the back of a wooden shovel and even in dust and snow. There was little time for play, but between chores Abe liked to climb the rocky cliffs at Knob Creek Farm. There were no close neighbors so he was used to being alone and played by himself.

In December 1816 the Lincoln family
Abe became a popular citizen of New Salem he won the respect and fellowship of the ruffians by wrestling their strongest men. Abe won the respect of the more peaceable citizens of the community with his good humor, intelligence, and his integrity.

When the Black Hawk War broke out in April 1832 Lincoln and the Clary 's Grove men enlisted. Though Lincoln knew nothing of military life, the Clary 's Grove men elected Lincoln as the captain of their rifle company. When his term expired he reenlisted as a private. His military career lasted three months, but he saw no actual fighting.

At the age of twenty-three Abraham Lincoln ran for the Illinois legislature. During his speech for the legislature a fight broke out, Abe strode up to the man who had started the fight, picked him up, and threw him out of the crowd Abraham then continued his speech. Abraham was defeated, there were thirteen county candidates running for four seats and he finished
The Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863. By November 1864 Lincoln was nearly exhausted by the burden of war and the death of his son William. Lincoln believed that he would be defeated in the coming election. The people rallied with him and reelected him. When he gave his inaugural address March 4, 1865 the war was almost to an end. A month later on April 9, 1865 General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate army to General Ulysses S. Grant. On April 11 the American Flag was raised over Fort Sumter where the war had begun.

To celebrate the victory Lincoln took Mary and two guests to the Fort 's Theatre on April 14. During the third act John Wilkes Booth crept into the presidential box and shot President Lincoln in the head. Booth leapt onto the stage and escaped. Booth was shot and killed on April 26.

Soldiers carried the President to the nearest residence, a boardinghouse. There the unconscious President died at 7:22 A.M. on April 15, 1865. A funeral train carried Lincoln 's body back home to Springfield Illinois, where he was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery on May