President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the Irish Brigade

Belle Montgomery

2nd Lieutenant
Joined
Oct 25, 2017
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On this day, September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln had a preliminary version of his Emancipation Proclamation delivered to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

This was five days after the bloodiest battle in U.S. history, "Antietam" in Maryland. The casualties numbered 4,710 killed and 21,000 wounded, and the Irish Brigade suffered a proportionally higher casualty rate than any other unit in the battle.

Since the Union Army’s defeat at the second battle of Bull Run two months earlier, Lincoln had been thinking about exercising his authority as commander-in-chief to issue an Emancipation Proclamation that would abolish slavery as a “military necessity.”

Secretary of State William Seward convinced him to hold off until the Union Army showed “success” on the battlefield. When Confederate General Robert E. Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia with 39,000 soldiers across the Potomac River into Maryland in early September, Lincoln resolved to himself that he would sign the document once the rebel army was driven back across the Potomac.
REST OF ARTICLE WTH VIDEO and PICS: https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/president-lincoln-emancipation-proclamation-irish-brigade
 
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