Confederate General Robert E. Lee freed all of his family's slaves in 1862 upon the death of his father-in-law. Lee observed that, "There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil."
Union General Ulysses S. Grant manumitted in 1859 a slave that he owned. However, the slaves belonging to his wife, a Missouri resident, did not receive their liberty until 1865, when Missouri legally abolished slavery in that state. Mrs. Grant did not have to comply with the provisions of the Emancipation Proclamation and free her slaves in 1863, as the Proclamation applied only to those states officially in rebellion at that time--which did not include Missouri.
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