How did the war change after the Emancipation Proclamation?

Answer 1

Here is an excerpt from the website Libertyletters.com:

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

Despite this expansive wording, the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control. Most important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union military victory.

Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not immediately free a single slave, it fundamentally transformed the character of the war. After January 1, 1863, 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, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom.

From the first days of the Civil War, slaves had acted to secure their own liberty. The Emancipation Proclamation confirmed their insistence that the war for the Union must become a war for freedom. It added moral force to the Union cause and strengthened the Union both militarily and politically. As a milestone along the road to slavery's final destruction, the Emancipation Proclamation has assumed a place among the great documents of human freedom.

Text taken from the National Archives website: http://archives.gov

Editor's note: Basically, the Emancipation Proclamation changed the Civil War by encouraging the slaves to fight for freedom. This also allowed them to join the Union Military to fight against the Confederate Military in order to gain freedom.

Due to the Emanicpation Proclamation, the Union Military gained more men than the already outnumbered Confederate Military, and had boosted their morale.

Answer 2

The Emancipation Proclamation took effect January 1, 1863. Although there were Confederate armies in the field and still fighting, the date most commonly referred to as the end was April 9, 1865, the day General Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. This means the war dragged on for another two years, three months, and nine days after the proclamations issuance.