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Notes #5:
The Emancipation
Proclamation, The
th
54 and Women in
the War
The Constitution does not give the President the power
to abolish slavery in the Union. He does however make
a bold move when it came down to the issue. What he
does decide to do with slavery will change the course of
the war.
Lincoln met with his Cabinet for the first reading of
the Emancipation Proclamation draft on July 22,
1862.
• On Jan 1st, 1863, Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation. This granted
freedom to all slaves in areas of the
Confederacy still in rebellion.
• Lincoln used his powers as commander-in-chief
to issue the Emancipation Proclamation as a
military tactic aimed at crippling the enemy’s
labor force.
• The proclamation did not pertain to slaves in the
border states, but it did allow African-Americans
to join the Union Army and Navy.
• Lincolns proclamation has now
made slavery an issue.
England and France, both
morally opposed to slavery,
could not in good conscience
ally themselves with the
Confederacy.
• The South ignored the
Emancipation Proclamation.
• PLEASE REMEMBER: The
Emancipation Proclamation
did not free all slaves-The only
real way to end slavery was to
make a constitutional
amendment that made slavery
illegal in the U.S.
The Emancipation Strategy
In the early part of the
war, blacks were not
allowed to join the Army,
but by after the
proclamation, Congress
allowed African
Americans to enlist.
The response was
great (180,000 free
blacks and escaped
slaves). To serve the
Union. Black troops
received less pay and
had to be led by white
The 54th Massachusetts Infantry was one of the first all black
units.
Like in the Revolutionary War, officers of all black units had
to be white. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw served as the
commanding officer of the 54th Massachusetts.
http://www.history.com/videos/gilder-lehrmanmassachussetts-54th#gilder-lehrmanmassachussetts-54th
Colonel Robert Gould
Shaw
Their most famous battle was the assault on Fort
Wagner in 1863 in which almost half of the regiment
11
was killed, including Colonel Robert Gould Shaw
Women in the Civil War
• Women on both sides worked
during the war. The most
famous nurse from the Union
was Clara Barton.
• She was known as the "Angel
of the Battlefield”
• Founder of the American Red
Cross in 1881.
• After the war, she opened the
Missing Soldier Office. She
was able to find information on
more than 22,000 soldiers.
Clara Barton
The armies weren’t all-male
• Hundreds of women on both
sides pulled a Mulan, assuming
male identities and appearances
so that they might fight for their
respective nations.
• Some of them did it for
adventure, but many did it for
monetary reasons: the pay for a
male soldier was about $13
month, which was close to
double what a woman could
make in any profession at the
time.
Female Heroines of the Civil War