WEBVTT - Ep. 474: Civil War - Part 4: What You Were Never Told About The Emancipation Proclamation 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:08.879 The Emancipation Proclamation only applied to areas that were under 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:12.880 Confederate control. It really didn't free the slaves anywhere where 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:16.040 the United States at that point had any jurisdiction to 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:20.320 free the slaves. So, you know, it is more of 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:25.840 a diplomatic kind of psychological document. But Lincoln believed that 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:30.960 if this was issued, as one historian years later commented 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:33.600 that the slaves weren't going to read the fine print, 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:39.240 and he believed that there would be massive runaways from 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:42.279 these plantations in the South, that the word would get 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:46.120 around in the enslaved communities, and that people would would 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:49.239 bolt and head for the nearest Union army. 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:52.520 This is the fourth pail of water that we've dipped 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:55.360 out of the ocean of the Civil War. Meaning this 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:58.200 is part four of our series. We've covered some ground 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:01.640 and I've enjoyed every step, but it's time to learn 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:05.840 about the Emancipation Proclamation and how it was a huge 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:08.800 gamble for Lincoln but would be one of the most 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:13.640 consequential war acts of the American Civil War. But how 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:18.959 could this seemingly moral proclamation devastate the Confederates. We're about 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:22.360 to find out together, And hey, guys, as my wife, 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:26.679 Misty says, it's a Civil War summer on bear Grease, 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:30.920 Join me as I explore things that I have never known. 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:40.839 I really doubt that you're gonna want to miss this one. 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:44.360 My name is Clay Knucom and this is the bear 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:49.240 Grease podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.800 for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:56.520 story of Americans who lived their lives close to the land. 0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:00.880 Brought to you by to Covi's Boots. Boy boot Man, 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:03.600 and I've been wearing to Covis for years. They're the 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:06.560 most comfortable boot I've ever put on. Good boots for 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:24.880 good times. Test test test Test Test, Yeah, Rolling, Man Rolling. 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:29.200 I'm sitting across from one of my favorite historians, a 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:33.320 brilliant man. He's published over ten books. His name is 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:38.359 doctor Brooks Blevins. He works at Missouri State University. He's 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:41.840 wearing T shirt and jeans, lace up leather work boots 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:45.800 and a red ball cap. He's unpretentious. He told me 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:48.320 he gets a haircut every six months, and he's come 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.560 and do. But that's kind of beside the point. I 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:55.000 pull out a giant book to try to impress him, 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:57.880 and it works. He takes note I. 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:00.960 Forgot how big that book was. That is a It 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:02.200 is a biblical size. 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:08.560 So when I got this book, battlecryt Freedom by James McPherson. 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:12.600 When you see it on Amazon, you can't see it 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:15.760 side angle, You just see the cover. And I envisioned 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:20.160 it being like this little, like three hundred page, you know, book, 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:24.000 just cuddly and nice. When I got it, it was 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:28.480 not cuddly at all. Yeah, this is the book that 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:32.000 you assigned your students back in the nineties. 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:35.800 I did. I did, And I think that first time 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:38.400 I taught a Civil War class, I signed that book. 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:42.800 And then I probably came to the realization these people, 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:47.080 they're probably not reading a thousand page book for this course. Yeah, 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:49.400 but I was fresh out of grad school and gung 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:51.240 ho and crazy, and. 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:55.440 The audacity to assign a book to college students this 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:58.800 big is exactly why Brooks is here. As a matter 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:02.360 of fact, this book is just one of over sixty 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:06.960 thousand books written on the American Civil War, and more 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:11.880 pumped out each year. American interest in this topic seems endless, 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:15.520 and I want to ask him the question that we 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:21.400 started out this whole series discussing how do you feel 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:26.000 like people, your students, but also just the general world. 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:30.240 What are your comments on how people or why people 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:31.680 are so interested in the Civil War? 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:35.560 You know, growing growing up when I did in the South, 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:39.440 I think it almost came with the territory of being 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:43.279 a Southern kid. It just seemed like something you just 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:47.240 kind of grew up interested in. And so I don't 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:51.240 remember ever not being interested in the Civil War, but 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:55.200 I think historians probably spent a lot of time trying 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:59.320 to explain why there's so much interest, especially in the South, 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:04.479 the losers who had historically been more interested in the 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:08.760 Civil War than the winners. I guess. You know, my dad, 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:11.760 who was an old coach, spent most of his career 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:15.599 as a basketball coach and sometimes baseball coach, would always 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:18.920 say he he dwelt a lot more on the losses 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:22.360 than he did on the winds. And maybe maybe there's 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:26.000 some kind of psychology there where the South just couldn't 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:28.559 get over it. We just hung up on getting beat 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:32.919 with all this mythology about being the superior fighters and 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:39.680 tougher and meaner and you know, better outdoorsmen, better better horsemen, 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:41.920 and all that kind of stuff. Than the Yankees were 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:44.599 and then and then they still get beat So maybe 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:46.520 part of it is just you know, not being able 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:48.720 to get over it like that. But but I think 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:54.000 in general, for Americans, it's one of the few gigantic 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:58.679 historic moments that's it's really our moment. I mean, there's 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:03.359 there's a little bit of foreign intrigue in this, you know, 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.040 with England and France and trying that the Confederacy trying 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:09.599 to get allies on their side, but for the most part, 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:13.200 it's our story. It's not only our story, but it's 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:16.840 kind of the the folkrum of all of American history. 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:19.520 If you go to high school or go to college 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:23.280 today and you take American history classes, it's either up 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:25.640 through the Civil War or it's after the Civil War. 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.600 You know, that's still the dividing line. It was when 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:31.680 I was in school a long time ago, and it 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:32.360 still is. 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.320 I hadn't really thought about it like that part, but 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:38.919 you're right, that's the way you think about American history 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:41.679 as like, yeah, that's free Civil War. I mean almost 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:45.120 like the way we divide time with Christ's birth, which 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:47.480 is pretty peculiar really when you write it. 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:51.200 Yeah, yeah, so much of the world doesn't see history 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:53.880 and time that way, just as you know the rest 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:57.960 of the world certainly doesn't divide the period you know, 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:02.240 from the sixteen hundreds to the twenty first century as 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:06.880 up through eighteen sixty five, and then after eighteen sixty five, 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:10.080 you know, I mean, that's our So that's our peculiar 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:14.160 little thing, and that's and I think that's part of 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:17.760 the reason it still fascinates us. It is really the 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:27.040 defining moment in American history. 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:31.960 This is part four of our series. And ashamedly, but 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:36.559 also excitedly, I'll admit we're probably halfway through the Civil War, 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:41.480 but it just all seems so consequential, so relevant. But 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:47.080 in September of eighteen sixty two, something terrible happened, more 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:50.040 terrible than everything that had happened before. And it all 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:54.280 starts when Robert E. Lee marches his army into Maryland, 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:58.000 into Union territory. His hopes are a victory on enemy 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:02.320 soil would gain international tension and potentially help from Europe. 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:05.240 If his rebels could win a battle in the north, 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.360 it would indicate strength. And he even thought he might 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:12.120 take Washington, d c or at least make Lincoln buckle 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:16.120 and offer peace terms. It was bold. Here is our 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:20.520 old buddy j D. Hewittt of the History Underground YouTube channel, 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.440 introducing us to the name of this battle that's going 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:25.200 to get us moving. 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:31.360 He probably can't talk about the major battles of the 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:35.520 Civil War without talking about the Battle of Antietam, single 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:39.320 bloodiest day in American history. Even to this day, it 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:43.920 is the single bloodiest day September seventeenth, of eighteen sixty two. 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:48.920 There will be almost twenty three thousand casualties in this 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:53.720 single day. That includes the dead, wounded, missing. Thirty six 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:59.200 hundred will actually die. Antietam, beyond its bloodshed, will be 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:04.560 the catalyst for something historic, But that's coming. So before 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:07.240 we get into the battle, I've just got a more 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:10.320 relevant question that's going to help us understand Antietam. And 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:13.320 it's a question for JD that just demands attention, and 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:16.959 it's about the style of fighting in the Civil War 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:21.199 that caused so much death. I think everybody has watched 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.000 a Civil War movie or a scene a Civil War 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:26.560 painting and we have a sense of the kind of 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:30.240 fighting that they were doing that was causing this number 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:33.040 of casualties. Yeah, I mean it was it was like 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:37.560 an old school style of fighting, typically where they're like 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:41.520 lining up in formation and just like marching towards each 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:44.439 other shooting. Is that about right? I mean, I realize 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:47.640 that's simplistic, yeah, yeah, but essentially yeah. 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:49.400 And people look at that and they're like, well, that 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:50.200 doesn't make sense. 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:53.240 How where I'm going with this? That doesn't make sense. 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:55.199 Why would they do that? Okay? 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:58.760 So what they are doing when they are lining up 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:02.000 in formation, as you were taking all of your men, 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:04.800 you're firing in unison, and you're sending a wall of 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:09.040 lead over to the other side. So people say, well, 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.080 why didn't they just kind of separate and fight like 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:14.240 they would in modern times like in World War two 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:16.480 in the Civil War with. 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:18.079 The equipment that they had. 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:19.959 Well, then what you do is like you have the 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:22.719 small pocket of guys over here on the left, where 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:25.120 you're just going to have your entire formation aim there 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:26.840 and you're going to take them out, okay, and then 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:30.120 you're going to go take out the smaller one, and 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:31.880 you know, so on and so on and so forth. 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:38.360 So the tactics that they are using are the best 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:42.080 that they have with the technology and with the knowledge 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.560 that they have at the time. There are people who 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:47.720 are going to one hundred and fifty years from now 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:51.760 look back on us and say, wow, I cannot believe 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:54.320 that they fought the way that they did in Iraq 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:55.160 and Afghanistan. 0:10:55.320 --> 0:11:00.000 That is completely crazy. The tactics will have advanced so far. 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:05.559 Are if you lined up two hundred yards from a 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:11.440 thousand soldiers that had one shot muskets, that kind of 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:15.840 artillery they were using, and you were just like, all right, ready, go, 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:21.079 I mean, is that not just a suicide mission? I mean, 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:23.240 are you just not for like, for sure gonna die? 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:26.679 That's what I just see. And when you hear the 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:29.360 number of casualties, the number of people that died, it 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:32.000 just feels like and maybe there was just no other option, 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:34.880 maybe just war during those times, it's like, well, yeah, 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:35.800 you're supposed to die. 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:38.480 Yeah, yeah, I know what I know. It's how it 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:39.040 feels like. 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:43.840 But this, this war is is going to put an 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:49.040 end to that because because now with these you know, 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:52.800 we have rifles, you have you know, the mini ball 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:56.880 and things like that. There are all kinds of advances 0:11:56.920 --> 0:12:01.240 in military technology where you know, in the Revolutionary War, 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:05.880 you were shooting a round ball and maybe you hit 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:08.520 your target, and maybe you don't, you know, depending on 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:11.520 what the range is. So the best way to fight 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.600 is to get your whole regiment or your whole company 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.760 or whatever in a line of battle and then all 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:20.720 fire in unison. 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:22.760 But the other guys are doing the same thing. 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:24.560 They're doing the exact same thing. 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:27.200 Yeah, I mean, it's just no wonder so many people 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:27.760 got killed. 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:28.839 Yeah, yeah, I. 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:32.480 Mean human casualty. It just seems like it wasn't. I 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:36.520 realized human casualty and death at any point in human 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:39.680 history would have been hard for people to deal with. 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:45.040 But it's hard not to think that human life during 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:48.640 those times was just thought about differently. Yeah, I mean, 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:51.640 what was it. I mean, you just went to war 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:54.280 to die. It just feels like it's just like, well, 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:57.280 Jimmy's going war, he will die. 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:01.040 I don't think anybody goes in expecting to die or 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:05.320 wanting to die. I think that they have a value. 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:09.960 It's not like they view human life as as cheap. 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:13.600 They probably would have been more familiar with death than 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:15.920 what we are. If you want to know what the 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:19.400 big killer is in the Civil Wars, disease, that's what's 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:20.360 killing a bunch of guys. 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:25.439 This was a deadly transition period in military technology. Both 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:30.280 sides have been trained in Napoleonic military strategies. Commanders couldn't 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:34.400 control scattered troops, no radios, cell phones, only human to 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:39.760 human communication, and formally, firearms didn't have long ranges, so 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:43.320 armies just stayed together. This was the first war fought 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:48.400 with rifled muskets, which increased the effective range from basically 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:52.200 eighty yards to over three hundred yards. As a matter 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.720 of fact, jeff Davis Jefferson Davis, when he was Secretary 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:58.800 of War for the United States in eighteen fifty five, 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:02.080 converted the un United States military to the fifty eight 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:07.080 caliber Springfield rifled musket. By eighteen sixty three, a seven 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:11.840 shot spencer carbing was used by the Union. New technology 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:16.520 with old tactics created terrible bloodshed. But this would also 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:21.000 be the last major war fought on horseback at close range. 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:22.880 In a bay of that fight, a horse is a 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:27.000 powerful tool, but it's an easy and big target at 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:31.080 three hundred yards. The rifle made the horse obsolete in 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:35.920 the battlefield. But we got to get back to Antietam. 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.960 Lincoln's Union army had been struggling in the East. He 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.000 was continually being let down by his generals, and he 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:45.840 was waiting on a Union victory, so he could pull 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:48.920 out something that was burning a hole in his pocket, 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:53.520 a document waiting to be signed, and proclaimed he had 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:56.840 actually made a covenant with God. He said, if his 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:01.760 armies drove the Confederates out of Maryland, he'd release the document, 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:06.120 which would have more power than a rifled barrel. So 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:09.000 hold that document in the back of your mind while 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:13.600 JD and Doctor Blevins describe and teet them. 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:18.520 In short, the Army of the Potomac under George McClellan, 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:23.920 who is following Roberty Lee into Maryland. I remember Maryland 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:26.840 is a slave state that remains loyal to the Union. 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:31.200 Roberty Lee is taking the fight out of Virginia and 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:37.400 taking it into the Northern States. So this is this 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:39.360 is an invasion of the North. 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:43.480 And so he marches his army up into Maryland. It's 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:45.520 one of those weird things, kind of a one of 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:49.760 those Hollywood moments in the Civil War where a Union 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:54.600 soldier finds a bunch of cigars wrapped in this you know, 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:58.160 wrapped in these papers, and he gets the looking at 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:01.640 these papers and he realizes He's basically got Robert E. 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:06.080 Lee's plans for his expedition. That some you know, some 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:09.720 officer had wrapped up his cigars in and lost it 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:12.560 somehow on the trip up up through there. 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:15.600 And one of the Union guys picks it up. 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:19.280 It makes its way up to McClellan and and he says, 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:21.800 with this right here, I will finally have what I 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:23.360 need to to whip Bobby Lee. 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:24.000 You know. 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:28.080 He those make it back to headquarters. George McClellan. General, 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:31.280 George McClellan is the He's the commander of the army, 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:34.840 of the Potomauth Union Army. This very stately looking Yeah, 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:36.840 I mean, you know, if you if you drew up 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:40.280 what a general should look like, it would look like 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:44.440 George McClellan. This big, tall, broad shouldered, you know, deep 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:48.280 chested guy with a stentorian voice and just you know, 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:52.200 always impeccably dressed and all that stuff. But he gets 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:55.360 the orders and turns out George McClellan may look the 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:58.040 part of a great general, but he didn't play the 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:02.640 part of a great general. And even with Robert E. 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:08.400 Lee's plans, he still fights. They fight this major battle, 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:13.840 a one day battle, September seventeenth, and by all rights, 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:16.199 the Union army should have just wiped up on the 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:21.160 Confederates and sent them scurrying back to Virginia right away. 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:24.960 But because of McClellan's hesitance, and he was just kind 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:29.280 of a naturally slow moving conservative guy, he always thought 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:32.640 he's outnumbered, even when he had twice as many troops 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:39.120 as the Confederates. Lincoln is terribly upset and basically gets 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:42.720 rid of McClellan, you know, after that battle, sends him 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:45.040 off to do other things, and you know, it gets 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.840 him away from the Army of the Potomac. But Lincoln decides, 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:50.840 you know, this may be as good as it gets. 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:53.520 At least at the end of that battle, Robert E. 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.520 Lee turned around and went back to Virginia. We can 0:17:56.640 --> 0:18:00.920 claim it as kind of a victory. And so five 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:05.560 days after the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln issues the preliminary 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:07.880 Emancipation Proclamation. 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:13.040 So Emancipation Proclamation, of course, this is the proclamation that 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:18.320 frees all of the slaves in the Confederate States. So 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:23.080 slavery is still going to exist in Missouri, Kentucky, and 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:28.199 in Delaware and Maryland. But it's introduced as a war measure. 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:31.119 Prior to the Battle of Antietam, he had it ready 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:36.080 to go, had it drafted. But if he just issues it, 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:38.840 it looks like a move out of desperation. So he's 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:41.640 waiting for a Union victory in order to issue this, 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:46.800 and then after he announces that all of the slaves 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:49.040 in the South are going to be freed, it takes 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:53.880 effect in January of eighteen sixty three. That's the bloodiest 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:54.879 day in American history. 0:18:55.119 --> 0:19:00.520 And it's really from that moment that Lincoln and the 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:03.800 North wins. The diplomatic battle there. 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:09.280 Antietam was a tactical draw, but functionally a strategic Union 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:13.199 victory and good enough for the President to finalize his 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:18.520 deal with God and issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which was 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:23.479 a written executive order by Abraham Lincoln. When he signed it, 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:27.119 he said, I never in my life felt more certain 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:30.200 that I was doing right than I do in signing 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:33.879 this paper. If my name ever goes into history, it 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:38.199 will be for this act, and my whole soul is 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:42.360 in it. I think it's a unique and important document 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:45.399 worth understanding. As a matter of fact, I'd like to 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:50.040 read it. This is the transcript of that order that 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:54.520 held Lincoln's soul on the first day of January, in 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:57.439 the year of Our Lord one thousand, eight hundred and 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:02.080 sixty three. All persons held as slaves within any state 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:06.479 or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:11.080 then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:16.280 thenceforth and forever free. And the Executive Government of the 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:21.040 United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:24.960 recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:28.439 do no act or acts to repress such persons or 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:31.680 any of them, in any efforts they make for their 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:36.439 actual freedom. So I'm stepping out of the proclamation. And 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:39.480 there is a section where it talks about where this 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:43.679 has jurisdiction and a bunch of eighteen hundreds legal jargon. 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:47.199 I'll spare you, but it's all the rebel seceded states. 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:51.840 And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:55.680 I do order and declare that all persons held as 0:20:55.720 --> 0:21:01.280 slaves within said designated states in parts of states, are, 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:05.960 and henceforth shall be free, And that the Executive Government 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:10.160 of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:15.000 will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. And 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:18.840 I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free, 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:23.920 to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self defense. 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:28.480 And I recommend to them that, in all cases, when allowed, 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:34.640 they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. And I further declare 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:38.240 and make known that such persons of suitable condition will 0:21:38.280 --> 0:21:41.800 be received into the armed Service of the United States, 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:47.119 to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:50.920 man vessels of all sorts and said service. And upon 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:54.520 this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:59.919 warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:04.800 considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:09.399 God and witness, whereof I have hereunto set my hand, 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:12.359 and caused the Seal of the United States to be 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:16.440 affixed done at the City of Washington, the first day 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:19.480 of January and the year of our Lord one thousand, 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:23.199 eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:30.000 the United States of America the eighty seventh, signed Abraham Lincoln, 0:22:31.560 --> 0:22:36.960 end of proclamation. Can you imagine what this meant if 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:40.240 you were an enslaved person, your family had been in 0:22:40.320 --> 0:22:45.040 bondage for generations so long that you didn't know when 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:49.080 the last free person in your family was alive, and 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:53.639 suddenly you're legally free, but the powers over you don't 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:58.159 recognize that proclamation's authority. I'd like to have been a 0:22:58.200 --> 0:23:01.479 fly on the wall to listen to the conversations that 0:23:01.520 --> 0:23:09.160 these people had together. We've got to learn why this 0:23:09.359 --> 0:23:12.960 was such a slick and powerful move by Abe Lincoln 0:23:13.520 --> 0:23:16.040 when I think about the Civil War, And again, this 0:23:16.119 --> 0:23:18.960 is just my exploration. This whole series is just my 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:22.680 exploration into questions that I have in places of interest, 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:26.760 Like if there was a timeline on that timeline would 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:31.480 be the Emancipation Proclamation, and I would have known that 0:23:31.560 --> 0:23:35.360 proclamation to, you know, declare that all the. 0:23:35.320 --> 0:23:37.679 Slaves were free. 0:23:37.960 --> 0:23:40.240 That's about the extent of what I would have known 0:23:40.280 --> 0:23:43.280 it as, and I would have I would have viewed 0:23:43.280 --> 0:23:48.280 it as this really moral proclamation that just came from 0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:53.080 this position of this is this is an unjust institution 0:23:53.520 --> 0:23:57.919 that's inhumane and shouldn't exist on planet Earth. And you know, 0:23:58.000 --> 0:24:01.000 that's what this whole war is about. This is what 0:24:01.080 --> 0:24:04.600 I would have thought before. The more as I've learned 0:24:04.600 --> 0:24:06.280 about it is way more complex than that. 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:08.960 Yeah, I would say the first thing is you hit 0:24:09.000 --> 0:24:11.760 the nail on the head. The Emancipation Proclamation is it's 0:24:11.760 --> 0:24:17.600 a complex story. It's a pretty straightforward document, but the 0:24:17.640 --> 0:24:22.239 story behind it is full of nuance, and it is 0:24:22.280 --> 0:24:27.600 certainly not as simple as your armchair history of the 0:24:27.720 --> 0:24:33.119 United States would suggest. We know Lincoln from the time 0:24:33.160 --> 0:24:37.359 he first became president had announced that I have no 0:24:37.520 --> 0:24:42.400 plans to involve the government with slavery where it currently exists. 0:24:43.600 --> 0:24:45.760 He was from that free soil tradition where the big 0:24:45.800 --> 0:24:48.800 thing was we don't want it to expand anymore. We 0:24:48.920 --> 0:24:50.960 just wanted to keep it kind of contained where it is. 0:24:51.000 --> 0:24:55.000 But he announced that. Of course, the reason he's announcing 0:24:55.040 --> 0:24:58.800 that is because by the time he's inaugurated, seven states 0:24:58.840 --> 0:25:02.560 have already seceded and formed the Confederacy, and he's trying 0:25:02.560 --> 0:25:06.159 to keep the other slave states from seceding. So he 0:25:06.560 --> 0:25:09.240 makes that announcement. I think he meant it. In eighteen 0:25:09.320 --> 0:25:13.119 sixty one. Lincoln was a pretty moderate guy. As the 0:25:13.160 --> 0:25:17.440 war went on, I do think he drifted more toward 0:25:17.520 --> 0:25:23.000 the abolitionist side, but he never became a full out abolitionist. 0:25:23.000 --> 0:25:27.960 Certainly not a kind of radical abolitionist. Nobody was exactly 0:25:28.000 --> 0:25:31.160