Abraham Lincoln's Life

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in Hardin County, Kentucky. His parents were uneducated pioneers. His father, Thomas Lincoln, thought there were better opportunities elsewhere, so the Lincolns migrated 100 miles to Indiana. Lincoln helped his father, who was a farmer. His mother died when he was nine and his father remarried. He attended school and loved to read, although because of his high-pitched voice he said the word "there" "thar" and said the word "get" "git." He was a master of the English language by reading every book he could hold. He practiced law in Springfield, Illinois and he was very popular in the court circuit. Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd in 1842 and they had four boys. Edward Lincoln, the family's second child, died when he was four. Lincoln was elected to the United States House of Representatives. He ran for the Senate and lost. He was elected President of the United States and guided the nation during the Civil War. It was his aim to preserve the union of the states. The Emancipation Proclamation was one of the most important features of his presidency. It did not free the slaves, but it gave all Americans the same rights under the Constitution. The Gettysburg Address was another important document. More than 60,000 soldiers died in a three-day-battle in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; he tried to bring the nation together in their grief. William, the family's third child, died in the White House when he was 11. Lincoln was elected to a second term in 1864 and in the Civil War ended in Appomattox, Virginia when Confederate General Robert Edward Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses Simpson Grant who was later the eighteenth President of the United States on April 9, 1865. The peace treaty was signed on April 11, 1865. Three days later Lincoln was shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth of Virginia, at Ford's Theater while watching a play. He died from the gunshot wound the next day on April 15, 1865 in Petersen's boarding house across from the theater. Note: Abraham Lincoln was President from 1861 thorugh 1865 and the Vice Presidents were Hannibal Hamlin and Andrew Johnson.