Answer: The Union declared victory at Antietam.
The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln that changed the federal legal status of more than 3.5 million African American slaves in certain areas of the South from enslaved to free.
In September 1862, the Union declared victory at the Battle of Antietam. This victory gave Lincoln the excuse he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. On September 22, 1862, five days after the battle, Lincoln called his cabinet and issued a Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln told Cabinet members that he had made a covenant with God that if the Union drove the Confederacy out of Maryland, he would issue the proclamation. The final proclamation was issued on January 1st, 1863.
