Title: The Civil War: The Emancipation Proclamation [Video]
Headings: The Civil War: The Emancipation Proclamation
The Civil War: The Emancipation Proclamation
Civil War: The Emancipation Proclamation

Content: Lincoln moved quickly. The Emancipation Proclamation issued on September 22nd was actually in the form of an ultimatum, requiring Southern states to return to the Union within roughly three months or have their slaves declared free. When the Confederacy refused and the timetable expired, on January 1st, 1863, Lincoln delivered the final, official version of the proclamation as a presidential order in a speech – in it, he declared that all slaves in Southern, Confederate-controlled territories “…shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” The proclamation officially opened up the ranks of the Union army to African-Americans and called for the organization of black regiments. As the Union general staff came into its own and actually began conquering large swathes of Confederate territory – thanks mainly to skilled generalship by Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman – many freed slaves in these areas began to swell the Union ranks. Thanks in large part to the proclamation, roughly 180,000 African-American soldiers, including freed slaves, would fight for the North during the remainder of the war and contribute to the final victory, achieved in April 1865. Lincoln’s order gave a fresh dose of energy to the moral aspect of the Union fight. For the North, the war now had a very powerful motivating end goal: the destruction of slavery. As they swept into Southern states, Union troops were liberators.