Alayna's Civil War Blog: Emancipation Proclamation and 54th Massachusetts Regiment

Dear Diary,
Yesterday on September 22, 1862, Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation is a military decree that states that all enslaved people in states that are still rebelling after January 1st, 1863 will be considered free. The proclamation does not apply to states that are already under the Union's control. I think Lincoln think that this will force more states to want to rethink joining the confederacy to protect their rights to slaves. If they rejoin the Union then they will be allowed to keep their slaves. This should be a huge turning point in the war. This might give the Union more of an advantage then they already had. I believe this is a great idea and hope that it works as well as I think it will. This is a major turning point in the war because this will cause a lot of the slaves in the South to want to help the North.Here is a photo of the proclamation:

That's all for now Diary,

Rebecca

Emancipation Proclamation. N.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2016.

<http://www.librarycompany.org/steptowardfree

dom/images/section123/1-2-xam1862unistapres

-5792-f-30b.jpg>.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Diary,

After President Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation, the Union started to actively recruit black troops. There is now an all black regiment called the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. Even though there are still people who are racist in the military, the blacks have been fighting better then expected. The 54th has earned respect for their bravery and courage. These men have overcome their unequal treatment and found something to fight for. These black men ave served the Union throughout many battles. Almost 70,000 have lost their lives serving this country. I am very happy with the way the 54th is being respected nowadays. Here is a photo of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment: