USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -While the Battle of Antietam was not quite the decisive Union triumph Lincoln hoped for, Lee’s retreat was victory enough for Lincoln to issue the emancipation proclamation on which he had continued to labor since July. Lincoln read the revised proclamation to his cabinet on September 22, 1862.

Detailed explanation-2: -Fact #4: The Battle of Antietam (also known as Sharpsburg) provided the necessary Union victory to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Detailed explanation-3: -President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free."

Detailed explanation-4: -The proclamation reflected Lincoln’s new way of thinking about the conflict. Until this time, it was seen as a rebellion, a fight to preserve the Union without touching slavery. Now Lincoln was threatening to crush the Confederacy by destroying slavery, the basis of its economy and society.

Detailed explanation-5: -The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect immediately freeing enslaved Black people in the rebelling states, but it took the Civil war to enforce the order. The Union secured victory in April 1865 when the Confederates surrendered at Appomattox.