The presidency of Abraham Lincoln began on March 4, 1861, when he was inaugurated as the 16th President of the United States, and ended upon his assassination and death on April 15, 1865, 42 days into his second term. Lincoln presided over the Union victory in the American Civil War, which dominated his presidency. Lincoln carried all but one Northern state to win an Electoral College majority with 180 votes to 72 for Breckinridge, 39 for Bell, and 12 for Douglas. McClellan had won minor battles in the Western Virginia campaign, and those victories had allowed Unionist West Virginia to hold the Wheeling Convention and eventually secede from Virginia. With Lincoln's support, McClellan rejected Scott's Anaconda Plan, instead proposing a strike against Virginia which would end the war with one climactic battle.