“Don’t put words in my mouth. I never mentioned Lincoln. I cited slogans.”
You did make the claim: “In the end, the Union Army settled the issue (slavery) and freed the slaves . . .”
Is it really putting words in your mouth to say the policies of the Union Army were the policies of the U.S. President?
You don’t think that the Union Army freed slaves in occupied states in rebellion and in all states of the Confederacy after Appomattox?