Thomas Takes on… Lincoln (2012)

Sunday, July 18, 2021

By Anthony E. Thomas

Lincoln and Black Soldiers

Steven Spielberg (b. 1946) directed the movie, Lincoln released in 2012 starring Daniel Day-Lewis (b. 1957), who played the 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). The opening scene is of black Union soldiers battling Confederate white soldiers, and a surviving black soldier recounting the event to Abraham Lincoln. The black soldier states he joined the 116th Colored Infantry from Camp Nelson, Kentucky and announces his name is Private Harold Green when prompted by Lincoln. Another black Union Soldier, Corporal Ira Clark informs Lincoln he is assigned to the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry, which laid siege to Petersburg, Virginia. From this information the recollected battle is the Battle of Petersburg in Virginia. The 116th Colored and 5th Massachusetts Cavalry conducted siege operations on Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia from October 1864 to April 1865. Corporal Clark says his unit will join with the 24th Infantry for the assault next week in Wilmington. This places the scene to be the week before Christmas in December 1864. The assault Corporal Clark mentions launched as a naval barrage on December 23, 1864, on Fort Fisher in Wilmington, North Carolina. Land operations to overtake the fort were cancelled because Union naval cannons misfired most of its volleys, making a land assault too risky. The film shows Lincoln’s staff planning the Fort Fisher assault in January 1865. The actual battle occurred on January 12, 1865. The Confederates finally surrendered Fort Fisher to Union forces on February 22, 1865, after persistent Union naval and land assailments.

The camera expands out revealing Lincoln standing before a colored unit which is likely the 116th Infantry Regiment. He mentions the Second Kansas Colored Regiment’s bravery, killing 1,000 Confederate troops. Clark appears to be a leader; suggesting the character’s qualities warranted his promotion to corporal. As a junior Non-commissioned officer, Clark boldly and assertively tells Lincoln of Negro soldiers making $3 less than white soldiers and another $3 deducted for uniform payments, which was rectified by Congress in 1864. Equal pay as whites does not satisfy Clark as he goes on to say that there are not any commissioned Negro officers. Corporal Clark articulates that since whites have become accustomed to seeing black soldiers with weapons, that perhaps they can also adapt to seeing black lieutenants and captains, in 50 years American white society will be able to see a black colonel, and in 100 years the right to vote. This line reveals that the majority of black soldiers in the Civil War did not encounter black commissioned officers, although there were approximately 120 black officers assigned to regiments in the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) during the war, mostly lieutenants and captains.

Abruptly, two white Union soldiers enter the scene excited to come across Lincoln, claiming to have heard his Gettysburg Address; delivered on November 19, 1863, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Upon the pair’s introduction, they cite the speech from memory but struggle to remember the last line. They hurry off not able to complete the speech upon an officer shouted orders to move out. Suddenly, the busied regiment of soldiers march off leaving only Corporal Clark standing in front of Abraham Lincoln. Clark cites the final line of the Gettysburg Address to President Lincoln with confidence, turns to walk away saying, “That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom…” his voice becomes distant as he walks further away, “…and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” Corporal Clark disappears behind a row of tents as Lincoln stares into the nighttime air in deep thought. The scene displays the heaviness of Abraham Lincoln’s burdens before him, push the 13th Amendment to end slavery in America before the war ends, or fully concentrate efforts to end the war. 

Movie Portrayal of Abraham Lincoln

Daniel Day-Lewis’ portrayal of Lincoln was commendable in that he embodied the calculating demeanor of Abraham Lincoln, showcasing the well-read storytelling intellectual. Lincoln’s retention of historical and literary knowledge attributes to his decision-making. In the film, Lincoln asks his two telegraph aides if they believe people have control on the time they are born into, as though the President anticipates he was predestined to be the nation’s leader in the tumultuous 1860s. He goes on to quote Euclid (circa 300 BCE) “axioms and common notions”, Lincoln recalls reading about the Ancient Greek mathematician “Euclid’s first common notion is this…things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other.” A proven mathematical theory. It is this resolve Lincoln realized blacks and whites should be equal in the human right of freedom. He seems to be inspired to push for slavery’s abolishment and not negotiate peace terms with the Confederate government officials in January 1865. Quietly, Lincoln in that instance decides to continue the war and deliberately neglects to make a deal with the Rebels. 

The Republicans were able to assemble enough votes to pass the 13th Amendment. In April 1865, the Confederate forces formally surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia. Lincoln was assassinated in the same month shortly after the war’s end, “…he now belongs to the ages”, proclaims a doctor to Lincoln’s family and White House staff while standing over Abraham Lincoln’s body lying on a bed with Lincoln’s head slouched on a blood-soaked pillow. 

The Real Abraham Lincoln

The sets and characters of the movie were well researched for accuracy of personality, speeches, and physical attributes as well as anomalies. The movie’s depiction of President Lincoln loathing slavery still unveils his cautiousness to garner support. Perhaps this carefulness was a result from his past as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives when he drafted a bill to end slavery in the 1840s. It was not supported; therefore, Lincoln lost the courage to introduce it before Congress. He opposed two Union general officers who emancipated black slaves in Border and Confederate states, and then enlisted blacks into the Union Army in 1861 and 1862. Perhaps Lincoln feared such abrupt and hasty actions would cause resentment among slaveholders in the Border states and increase Confederate sympathy and support. Nonetheless, on April 16, 1862, Congress abolished slavery in the District of Columbia and Lincoln continued to push forward with the Emancipation Proclamation which was made public in September 1862 and took effect on January 01, 1863. 

“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.” - Abraham Lincoln, 1862

Since the movie starts in December 1864, these events are not noted nor ever acknowledged in the film. The cleverness of Lincoln’s closest allies such William H. Seward (1801-1872), the Secretary of State and Thaddeus Stevens (1792-1868), a Pennsylvania Congressman, maneuvered through politics to get the 13th Amendment passed which satisfied Lincoln. This film is a historic piece centered on the fragile approach to ending slavery in the United States, not explosive battle scenes that could attract broader audiences. 

To learn more about the political strategies that resulted in abolishment read more on The First Confiscation Act, the Second Confiscation Act, the Militia Act, Union Major General John C. Fremont, Union Major General David Hunter, the Draft Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, the Emancipation Proclamation, Thaddeus Stevens, and the 13th Amendment.