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by Wally G. Vaughn (Author)
Juneteenth proponents claim that slaves in Texas first heard of the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865, two and a half years after it became effective. United States Navy vessels monitored the coast of Texas and slaves of owners in Texas ran away under the Emancipation Proclamation and enlisted in the Union Navy as early as January 1863. Confederate military records detailed that some of them were captured January 21, 1863, after a fight between Union and Confederate vessels off Sabine Pass, Texas. Nearly a dozen sailors that had absconded from owners were crew members on the U. S. S. Morning Light when captured by enemy forces that day. The Union Army landed in Texas during the second half of 1863 and recruiting slaves to enlist and fight their owners to help end the contest was an objective. Major General Napoleon J. T. Dana wrote to his superior from Brownsville, Texas, on December 2, 1863: "Thirty-three men have been mustered in for the Twenty-sixth Regiment, Corps d'Afrique..." Beginning in 1863 slaves ran away from owners at Galveston and accessed Union vessels that were part of the fleet in Galveston Bay. Slaves continued to respond to the Emancipation Proclamation in 1864 accessing Union vessels on the coast of Texas and enlisting in the Union Army. An abundance of critical information escaped Juneteenth researchers that soundly confirmed slaves in Texas were aware of the Emancipation Proclamation two and a half years earlier than asserted. In this publication readers will be shown the missteps made by Juneteenth researchers and how these gaffes brought them to the erroneous conclusion that slaves in Texas first became aware of the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865.
