In the autumn of 1862, Abraham Lincoln visited the Antietam Battlefield in Sharpsburg, Maryland, USA. Elected as the 16th President of the United States just two years prior, he faced a nation torn apart by the Civil War. The long-simmering dispute over the right to slaves had erupted into open warfare between the North and South. The Union sought to enforce its authority, while the South had withdrawn from the Union.
Despite his reluctance to war, Lincoln understood that a democratic republic could not tolerate rebellion. The South's defiance had to be met. Initially, the war's primary aim was not the liberation of slaves. However, after Lincoln's powerful Gettysburg Address in 1863, the purpose of the war became clear. When he invoked the US Declaration of Independence, declaring that all are created equal, regardless of skin colour, it became evident that the President was committed to this principle.