Park service marks emancipation anniversary
Rare original copy of President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation which sold at a New York auction for more than $2 million. Photo: AP Graphics Bank
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Posted: 09/22/2012
SHARPSBURG, Md. (AP) - The National Park Service is marking the 150th anniversary of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation at Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg.
The event Saturday commemorates President Abraham Lincoln's announcement on Sept. 22, 1862, that unless the Confederate states returned to the Union by January, their slaves would be considered free.
The announcement came five days after the Battle of Antietam. Lincoln had drafted the document earlier but held off on releasing it because of Confederate victories that summer. The Confederate retreat from Antietam was enough of a Union victory for him to make the announcement.
Earlier Saturday, the park service is helping dedicate the restored Tolson Chapel in Sharpsburg. The 146-year-old building served after the war as a schoolhouse for the children of former slaves and free blacks.
AP-WF-09-22-12 0818GMT
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
PRINT
Special Reports
-
SPECIAL REPORT | Day care inspections
SPECIAL REPORT | Thousands of child care center inspections reports are NOW AVAILABLE. Find out what inspectors founds inside day care centers across the state.
-
Inside a Criminal Mind | Jason Scott
SPECIAL REPORT | When it's out of your hands, when your life is at the mercy of an armed, masked man staring down at you from the barrel of a gun in your own home, you grasp at whatever it is you can control; breathing, composure, or faith.
-
SPECIAL REPORT | Bad Medicine
SPECIAL REPORT | ABC2 Investigator Joce Sterman has reviewed thousands of pages of documents for her Bad Medicine report.
Top Stories
-
Maryland's top spellers
Biographical information on Maryland's contestants in the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee
-
1-year-old killed in Baltimore shooting
-
Detectives used service guns in training
-
VIDEO: Jokes during the National Bee
-
Burglars pose as utility workers
-
Obama's drone rules leaves questions
- Stay Connected
