[centurion316]

You don’t think that the Union Army freed slaves in occupied states in rebellion and in all states of the Confederacy after Appomattox?

[jeffersondem]

“You don’t think that the Union Army freed slaves in occupied states in rebellion and in all states of the Confederacy after Appomattox?”

Oh, so your point has been the Union Army was fighting to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation issued in 1863?

Fair enough. What was the Union Army fighting for in 1861 and 1862 - to “free the slaves?”

Some say that was exactly what Lincoln and the North were fighting for. Maybe they were.

[DiogenesLamp]

You don’t think that the Union Army freed slaves in occupied states in rebellion and in all states of the Confederacy after Appomattox?

By what legal authority did they do that? The US constitution has a clause that absolutely requires slaves to be returned to their masters. How did they get around that?