Funny enough, general McClellan actually did say "I didn't lose! I merely failed to win!" after his campaign.

You go, “I’ll probably split these into 15 min parts” i check the time to see it’s a 40 min video. I love it

Fun fact about the Iron Clads: Two of them fought to a stalemate in one battle where both ships ran out of ammo and did no damage to each other.

One interesting thing to note is how at the start of the war the north mostly saw slavery as an economic issue. This was because most never had actually seen it and by the end of the war the young men that actually went south and fought and saw the horrors of true slavery changed there minds and supported Lincolns abolishianism

A quote I find incredibly interesting when talking about John Brown and the raid on Harpers Ferry was one from Frederick Douglass: "His zeal in the cause of freedom was infinitely superior to mine. Mine was a taper light, his was the burning sun. Mine was bounded by time, his stretched away to the silent shores of eternity. I could speak for the slave. John Brown could fight for the slave. I could live for the slave. John Brown could die for the slave"

When you travel down to Virginia, visit some of the battle sites because they are all over the state. I’ve lived here for several years and moved 3 times and have always had a battle site, skirmish, or encampment within 15 miles

When you mentioned that it was crazy how quickly they formed an army, it was because Before World War One, there was no standing unified army. It was essentially every state would have their own army that would fight under the banner of the republic during war time. This was why there were often armies in this war called thing like “The Massachusetts 2nd” or “The Texas Fifth Regiment” because they were formed by a state by state basis

Charles Sumner (the senator who was hit with a cane) was really a man ahead of his time. He spent his entire career fighting not only for an end to slavery, but also an end to exclusionary immigration laws, an end to imperialism, advocated for women’s rights, and tried to pass a civil rights bill a full 80 years before the country finally got around to implementing one. Most of his contemporaries shunned his efforts at granting full land ownership and voting rights to the newly freed slaves during Reconstruction. A shame he’s only remembered for being hit with a cane.

I like how he says “ what would happen if “we” didn’t win this war?” Glad to see that you are fully embracing American patriotism, we love to see it❤️

All jokes aside this the channel Oversimplified helped me study for my exam. It is funny and educational.

Part of the reason Lincoln didn't enact the emancipation proclamation right away was because Maryland was on the fence about which side they wanted to be on. He was compromising with them and trying not to have DC, and himself, surrounded by the enemy if Maryland flipped.

Don't forget that Abe was slaying vampires behind the scenes of all this👌

Another fun fact is that Lincoln was a wrestler and won 299 matches and lost 1 but even then was questionable so it got him into the national hall of fame for wrestling.

As of people a lot of the people where related to the founding fathers. Like Robert E. Lee was related to George Washington by marriage and his land in Arlington was captured the union on the outskirts of DC and was later turned in the national cemetery.
Reading generals minds: another thing about Lee is before the war he was the headmaster at West Point (the officer training school) and was even offered the position of commander of the army of the Potomac and again most of the generals on both sides had been friends and colleagues for decades
While Lincoln was a good political leader he wasn’t the best general and made a lot of calls where he should have just let his generals do his thing

Willie and his younger brother Tad were considered "notorious hellions" when they lived in Springfield. Their father's law partner William Herndon said they pulled books off their shelves while their father appeared oblivious.

When Abraham Lincoln took office as President of the United States, Willie and Tad moved into the White House. To give them playmates, Mary Todd Lincoln asked Julia Taft to bring her younger brothers, 14-year-old "Bud" (Horatio Nelson Taft Jr., 1847–1915) and 12-year-old "Holly" (Halsey Cook Taft, 1849–1897) to the White House.

Willie and Tad became ill in early 1862, possibly with typhoid fever. Tad was relatively lightly affected but Willie gradually weakened; his parents spent much time at his bedside. He died on February 20.

Both parents and Tad were deeply affected. Lincoln said, "My poor boy. He was too good for this earth. God has called him home. I know that he is much better off in heaven, but then we loved him so much. It is hard, hard to have him die!"; after the burial, he shut himself in a room and wept alone. Mary Lincoln remained in bed for three weeks and was unable to attend Willie's funeral or look after Tad. Abraham Lincoln took solace in caring for and comforting Tad, who remained very ill and was grieving himself for his brother's death. Tad also lost the companionship of Bud and Holly, whom Mary refused to allow in the White House anymore, as they reminded her too much of Willie.

Willie was interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown. After Abraham Lincoln's assassination in 1865, he was re-interred at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois, first in a temporary tomb and in 1871 in a state tomb alongside his father and his brother Eddie. Tad and Mary Todd Lincoln were also later placed in the crypt of the Lincoln Tomb.

As a new citizen, and a veteran,  I suggest you investigate the Battle of the Little Bighorn/Greasy Grass, AKA "Custer's Last Stand".  Though it really was more of a retreat under fire.  The Civil War is absolutely key to American psychology, and sociology.  It was the Civil War that changed the way Americans literally refer to themselves:  ante-bellum it was "The US are"; after the war it became 'the US is".  I would also advise, you NOT do the typical tourist spots that Euros do, and take the time to visit Gettysburg and Antietam.  Both are within a few hours drive of each other.AFA other countries:  The UK made slavery illegal throughout the Empire in about 1833.  The Netherlands outlawed slavery in their colonies about 1850.  Brazil did not outlaw slavery until the late 1800's. In fact, many ex-plantation owners emigrated to Brazil for this reason.  So most European powers AND yes the US all outlawed slavery only within about 30 years of each other.
I should point out, that for northern farmers it was NOT about "making more money".  These are not "farms" like estates/agribusinesses in the UK.  These were SUBSISTENCE farmers, who made enough to feed their families, with a small surplus to sell.

Love your reaction, but I think you missed the idea of what they meant by economic issue.  The people worried about it economically were already dirt poor farmers in the north who didn't have slaves and were worried about their land getting bought out by rich plantation owners, leaving them both dirt poor and then homeless.  Like another comment said, they also had almost no idea about the details of slavery, most never travelling outside their small towns and information coming slowly if it came at all.  The quote "never attribute to malice what you can to ignorance" is very fitting for this.

38:09 Yeah it’s definitely one of those moments in history where you wonder for a moment if time travelers really did try something

To answer a couple questions you asked in the video: the Northern US states had small numbers of slaves in the 1700s but starting with Vermont they all made chattel slavery illegal in the decades immediately following the American revolution (although debt slavery and indentured servitude still existed to some extent). Britain was one of the first European countries to make chattel slavery illegal in 1833, although with the major exception of Jamaica and a couple other British colonies who's economies depended on cheap labor mainly for sugar cultivation. In 1808 the US had banned the importation of new slaves, but not the keeping and sale thereof and slavery was widespread from Maryland and Delaware all the way down through the south-eastern quarter of the continental US, although the largest enslaved populations were in the cotton producing states of South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama. In the 1830s onward the British navy had a dedicated anti-slavetrade fleet which patrolled the Atlantic and intercepted mostly Portuguese and Spanish slave ships traveling from West Africa to Central and South America. However, the motivation for this antislavery action was perhaps more to undermine the economies of their Catholic rivals than out of any altruism for the Africans. On the question of slaves escaping during the war, many did and made their way North where they were eventually allowed to join the Union army. In Jones county Mississippi, escaped slaves, fugitives and Confederate deserters hid in marshlands and using hit and run tactics, starting a counter-rebellion and by wars' end had liberated the county and susceded from Mississippi declaring their own free soil state. However the Union didnt support them and the state of Mississippi renamed the county and supressed knowledge of them.

I wanted to comment "stop, you've already done this video". Then I realized I've seen so many Brits react to this I questioned my own motives.

I’m so happy you did this one, you should watch all of his they are great