You mean the 14th amendment thing which ratified some 4 years after the war?
4 years? Guess it must have been a pressing issue of the day. /s
The 13th Amendment which freed all slaves was passed by Congress in January 1865 largely due to the efforts of Abraham Lincoln. President Lincoln well deserves the honor he receives as the “Great Emancipator” both for the proclamation and the 13th Amendment.
“You mean the 14th amendment thing which ratified some 4 years after the war?”
No, actually, I meant the 13th amendment, which passed in 1865 and is seen by most—and certainly was seen by many at the time—as a peacetime extension of the Emancipation Proclaimation. I prefer not to confuse the two, but it’s undeniable that the Proclaimation making the abolition of slavery not only a practical but also a moral cause in the theater of war rendered the peacetime abolition of slavery somewhat inevitable upon the North’s victory.
Also, the Union army did, indeed, free slaves it came across after the Proclaimation’s issuance, even if slaves in territory under their control were not immediately manumited.
No, that would be the 13th Amendment which was passed out of Congress with Lincoln's considerable support and which was ratified by about 20 states before Lincoln was murdered.