Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address on March 4, 1865, near the end of the Civil War. In just 3 sentences, the address acknowledged the differences between the North and South on the issue of slavery, called for binding up the nation's wounds following the war, and stated that both sides were fighting for their own interpretations of right while God's purposes were being worked out.

1. Lincoln's Second Inaugural
Too Much?
Not Enough?
Just Right?

3. What's Going On?
● Union army three pronged attack on South
● Grant pursues Lee and tries to capture
Richmond (Confederate capital)
● Sheridan destroys the crops in the
Shenandoah Valley (VA) to cut off
Confederate food supply
● Sherman marches from Chattanooga, TN
to the coast of Georgia, laying waste to
all in his path

7. Context
● Who appears to have the upper hand?
● How might the Union be feeling?
● How might the Confederacy be feeling?

8. KEY QUESTION
● How do these events influence the writing of
Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural, and his
treatment of the South after the war?