The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, accomplished the immediate freedom of enslaved people in Confederate-held territory. While it did not abolish slavery throughout the entire United States, it marked a significant turning point in the Civil War, transforming the struggle for union into a battle for human freedom. The proclamation galvanized support for the abolitionist cause and allowed for the enlistment of African American soldiers in the Union Army, bolstering its numbers. Additionally, it shifted the war's moral focus, declaring that "all persons held as slaves" within rebellious states "shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free," laying the groundwork for the eventual passage of the Thirteenth Amendment.