In the disaster at Shiloh, Union General Ulysses S. Grant sees victory. On the night of April 6, 1862, Grant's beleaguered army along the Tennessee River is reinforced. The next morning, Grant's counterattack leads to victory. The defeated Confederate force of 40-thousand retreats south to Corinth, Mississippi. At Shiloh, the Confederates lose arguably their best opportunity to change the outcome of the war. The shocking combined casualties of 24-thousand men is more than in all the wars fought to that date in the United States. Many of the nearly 4 million slaves across the South see the war as an opportunity to seize their own destiny. Thousands of escaping slaves, dubbed 'contrabands', seek refuge with Union forces advancing into the South. At Corinth, Mississippi, the Union army sets up a 'contraband camp.' The former slaves begin building a community that includes a school, hospital, and church. As thousands of slaves flee northward, the question asked all over America is this: are they still slaves or are they now free? In a cottage overlooking Washington DC, Abraham Lincoln begins drafting a "proclamation" whose message will boldly answer that question.
