[WhiskeyPapa]

The Emancipation Proclamation freed almost no one. See my earlier post.

But slaves that chose to free themselves had a place to go closer than Canada or Mexico. And many did.

The EP weakened the rebellion. Your sophistry is moot.

Walt

[ought-six]

Sorry, Walt. My "sophistry" as you put it, is just historical fact. Some slaves had "freed themselves" for many, many years before the War or the EP (it was called runaway). The EP did nothing. That's a fact. Read the damn proclamation yourself if you don't believe me. But your unealthy adoration of Lincoln, to the point of god-worship, blinds you to historical fact. Many, many posters have brought that to your attention over the months that I've been on FR.

Now, what weakened the Confederacy was the following:
(1) lack of materiel and supplies vis-a-vis the North;
(2) great imbalance in number of troops (the North had, relatively speaking, an exhaustible supply;
(3) poor military leadership in the West, where they could not afford to lose any major battles (where the North had incompetents like McClellan, Halleck, Butler and Hooker, to name a few, the South had equally lousy generals like Braxton Bragg and John Bell Hood).