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Emancipation Proclamation.

Initially, the Civil War between the North and the South was fought by the North to prevent the secession of the South and preserve the Union. Ending slavery was not a goal. That changed on September 22, 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln issued his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which stated that slaves in those states or parts of states still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, would be free. One hundred days later Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious areas "are, and henceforward shall be, free." Lincoln's bold step was a military measure by which he hoped to inspire the slaves in the Confederacy to support the Union cause. Because it was a military measure, the proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, and left slavery untouched in the border states. Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery, it did fundamentally transform the character of the war. Henceforth, every advance of Federal troops expanded the domain of freedom. Moreover, the proclamation announced the acceptance of black men into the Union Army and Navy. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and their own freedom.

united states of america↗

Map of the territory of the United States from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean; ordered by Jeff'n Davis, Secretary of War to accompany the reports of the explorations for a railroad route

"The United States gained vast territories in the West through the Mexican War of 1846-48 and the 1846 Oregon Treaty with Great Britain. By the early 1850s, government and commercial interests were debating the possibilities of building a transcontinental railroad to the Pacific. The Army Appropriations Act of 1853 provided for the completion of railroad surveys to determine possible routes. This map, issued in 1858 by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, depicts the United States west of the Mississippi on the eve of the Civil War. California and Texas were at this time the only Western states. Western regions initially became part of the United States as military departments, which only later were organized into territories and, eventually, states. The map uses colors to show the military departments and Indian lands. Brown flags indicate military establishments. In the lower right are listed all of the important surveys and expeditions that contributed to the mapping of the West, from the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804 to a survey of roads between the Sacramento and Columbia Rivers undertaken by two army officers in 1855. The routes of these expeditions are shown on the map. The map was compiled by then-Lieutenant Gouverneur K. Warren of the Army Topographical Engineers and a future Union general in the Civil War. Davis later became president of the Confederacy and a bitter adversary of President Abraham Lincoln under whose leadership, ironically, work on the transcontinental railroad began in 1862." World Digital Library.

united states↗

Map showing the different routes surveyed for the Union Pacific Rail Road between the Missouri River and the Platte Valley,

"President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act into law on July 1, 1862. The act gave two companies, the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad, responsibility for completing the transcontinental railroad. The Union Pacific was to lay track westward from a point near Omaha, Nebraska, toward Ogden, Utah; the Central Pacific was to build eastward from Sacramento, California. The Union Pacific began construction on December 2, 1863. This map, submitted to Secretary of Interior James Harlan on September 18, 1865, by Lieutenant Colonel J.H. Simpson of the Army Corps of Engineers, shows the different routes between the Missouri River and the Platte Valley in Nebraska surveyed for the Union Pacific. Based on a map submitted by Silas Seymour, consulting engineer to the Union Pacific, the map shows five alternative routes with probable connections to existing railroads. Also shown are relief by hachures, county boundaries, drainage, vegetation, and roads. Nebraska was at this time a territory; it became the 37th state on March 1, 1867. Under the authorizing legislation, the railroad was not to have grades or curves exceeding the maximums on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the first U.S. railroad to cross the Appalachians. This profile shows the careful attention paid by the engineers to the steepness of the grades on alternative routes considered for the line. The horizontal scale shown is one mile to one inch (1.61 kilometers to 2.54 centimeters), and the vertical scale is 60 feet to one inch (18.28 meters to 2.54 centimeters). The profile accompanied a topographic map showing five different routes between the Missouri River and the Platte Valley in Nebraska, which was part of a report submitted to Secretary of Interior James Harlan by Lieutenant Colonel J.H. Simpson of the Army Corps of Engineers." World Digital Library. Detailed map of Nebraska showing relief by hachures, drainage, vegetation, roads, and railroads.

nebraska↗