“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.” - WilliamShakespeare

 From“Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst  

July1

“The decision by the Confederacy’s high command to invade the North in the summer of1863 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/orFrance to grant formal recognition to that thing which Lincoln saw as acomplete 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-tighteningYankee 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