Juneteenth celebrates June 19, 1865, as the day when freedom was granted to over 250,000 slaves in Texas. On June 18, 1865 Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas with 2,000 federal troops. This was two months after the war had essentially ended with surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee to Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House.
This was more than two-years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued by President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862. The proclamation carried an effective date of January 1, 1863. However, the proclamation had little real impact in the Confederates States during the balance of the war – and freed few, if any, slaves.
For a local understanding of the historical event this holiday marks, let’s read what Kevin Earl Dayhoff posted last year. Kevin Earl Dayhoff is a long-term Carroll County resident and a devoted member of HSCC. He also writes for the Baltimore Sun and has a historian’s eye on past events. We have his permission to repost.