Hey everyone, welcome to the 275th episode of our Civil War podcast.

My name is Rich.

And I'm Tracy.

Hello y'all.

Thanks for tuning into the podcast.

January 1st, 1863 was a defining day in the Civil War.

It was the day Abraham Lincoln changed the entire basis of the conflict by declaring that

all persons held as slaves within areas still in rebellion would be, quote, vents forward

and forever free.

Lincoln's historic declaration struck a blow not only at the Confederate war effort,

but at the society the Confederacy represented and defended.

Lincoln released another document that same day which also struck a blow at the Confederacy,

but received little attention beyond the parties involved.

It was a bill admitting West Virginia into the Union as the 35th state.

While the emancipation proclamation was an instrument aimed at ending slavery, the bill

admitting West Virginia permitted her to join the Union as a slave state.

The release of these two documents on the same day was among the more intriguing paradoxes

of Lincoln's administration and is among the least known or understood events of that

momentous period of history.

Like the emancipation proclamation, West Virginia's statehood was the culmination of a

series of extraordinary maneuvers which reached back to the Session Convention that was

convened in Richmond in February of 1861.

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