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On 18 September 1862, both sides set out the day. In the evening Lee began moving his army south
and slipped back across the Potomac. The Maryland Campaign was over.
Most consider that Antietam was a draw. However, it was a "strategic"
victory for the Union.
Lincoln now had a victory and he would move his plan forward. President Lincoln signed
the Emancipaation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. This document stopped Great Britan and France from entering the
war on the side of the Confederacy. After all what country would support a country that permits holding slaves against
a country whose stated purpose was to free slaves.
Now the war was not only a war to save the Union, it was also a war to free
the slaves.
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