In the fall of 1862, the United States was reeling from one defeat after another at the hands of the Confederate Army under the leadership of General Robert E. Lee. European powers such as England and France were anxious to recognize the Confederacy, in part to discomfit the upstart United States and partly to be able to traffic in the coveted cotton needed by their textile mills.
General George McClellan of the Union, having amassed an enormous army, convinced himself over and over that Lee's forces were greater. As President Lincoln fumed, the man who was a national hero refused to attack.
Meanwhile, Lincoln struggled over when to release his Emancipation Proclamation. The European powers wanted to recognize the rebellion, but if he could declare slaves in the rebellion states free h…