“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune..." - William Shakespeare

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

July 1

“The decision by the Confederacy’s high ommand to invade the North in the summer of 1863 was a gamble that held out the ultimate glittering prize. A Confederate victory on Northern soil would be just the thing to induce England and/or France to grant formal recognition to that thing which Lincoln saw as a complete fiction: the Confederate States of America. And, of course, with that recognition hopefully would come financial aid on more or less favorable terms, maybe even a military alliance that would break the pesky, ever-tightening Yankee blockade of Southern ports [and resume the flow of cotton to all those hungry European factories]. In short, a victory on Northern soil could easily translate into Southern independence.” - Arnold Kunst