06/19/2026
While President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, it was unenforceable in Confederate states without Union military presence. It took over two years for Major General Gordon Granger to reach Texas—the westernmost Confederate state—and enforce the abolition of slavery. June 19, 1865, is the day Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce the end of slavery. It came more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Today, it is celebrated as America’s "second Independence Day".