Abraham Lincoln is considered by many American historians to be the best of the American presidents. He was the 16th president and took office at a time when the country was ready to split apart. The split had been coming for a couple of decades before but Lincoln's election victory in 1861 sparked many of the southern slave states to secede from the United States, calling themselves the Confederate States of America (CSA). The CSA then attacked Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Virginia, and American military fort, which started the American Civil War.  Lincoln was "hands on" during the American Civil War, closely supervising strategy and tactics laid out by his generals. He implemented a naval blockade of CSA ports. Lincoln avoided war with Great Britain during the Trent Affair - when two Confederate envoys were captured on British Royal Mail steamers.  On 1 January 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared slaves in the states "in rebellion...