That second bit explains the Union's weakness. The Union even without the Confederates was so divided that Lincoln had to literally go door to door trying to convince/bribe/threaten every congressman into doing the bare fucking minimum to help the war effort. During the first two years of the war Lincoln was essentially fighting three fights. One with pissed off Confederates who wanted to leave to avoid change. One with pissed of border states who also didn't want things to change but stayed in the Union in an effort to play the loyalty card and one with the pissed off Northern states who wanted him to go full abolitionist. Take into consideration that the only two Generals he had who were effective were in the west going around drinking whiskey and fucking up the Confederate food supply while incompetent Generals back east were putting DC at risk because they were bros with their Confederate counterparts and refused to commit fully to total war and you have the Union at a very poor spot.