The Civil War now at the peak of its battles, the death toll rising, and the pressure building on Abraham Lincoln to turn the tides of war in favor of the Union Army. Lincoln was facing enormous pressure from Congress to find any advantage that would give the North a chance to win the war against the South. Lincoln saw that disrupting things in the Southern economy and way of living would unsettle the South just enough to distract them in the war. He would issue the Emancipation Proclamation in order to try and release the slaves and destabilize the South in their war efforts. Lincoln threatened to emancipate all the slaves, in both Northern and Southern states, unless the rebellions of the South were ended. With the slaves fighting for freedom,