Lincoln revealed the Emancipation Proclamation on this day in 1862, stating that slaves in rebellious states as of January 1, would be “forever free”. Robert Gould Shaw, (later of the Massachusetts 54^th dramatized in the film “Glory”), wrote, so the ‘Proclamation of Emancipation’ has come at last, or rather, its forerunner…. I suppose you all are very much excited about it. For my part, I can’t see what practical good it can do now. Wherever our army has been, there remain no slaves, and the Proclamation will not free them where we don’t go.” It would take more years of suffering and death by Union troops to effect the Proclamation.