President Abraham Lincoln meets with the secret Senate Republican caucus committee and shrewdly arranges for the committee members and his cabinet to explain their differences face to face.

Exploring the most important 55 months in American history
President Abraham Lincoln meets with the secret Senate Republican caucus committee and shrewdly arranges for the committee members and his cabinet to explain their differences face to face.
Republican senators gather in an extraordinary caucus to determine how to better manage the war effort after the terrible defeat at Fredericksburg.
Northerners learn of the true disaster at Fredericksburg, which sparks enough outrage to make this the greatest crisis of the Lincoln presidency to date.
Abraham Lincoln orders the drafting of militia into the Federal armies and allows for the recruitment of blacks as military combatants for the first time.
Abraham Lincoln issues a proclamation warning southerners to stop aiding and abetting the Confederacy or risk having their property, including slaves, confiscated by military force.
Abraham Lincoln addresses corruption in the War Department by appointing a new secretary determined to wage more aggressive war.