re: #176 mmmirele

Today is my 60th solar return, but more importantly, it’s the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth. The National Archives has found what is probably the first original copy of General Order No. 3.

Here’s a story from the Washington Post, with pictures in a military copybook.

washingtonpost.com

Fascinating stuff. Especially seeing the original document.
Though I’m still wondering how/if, in the 2-1/2 years between the effective date of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (1/1/1863) and “Juneteenth”, NO slaves in Texas ever got wind of the abolition of slavery?
Or was Granger’s order just intended as a formal confirmation of facts that were already known, I.e. intended as much as a reminder to the (now-former) slaveholders, as to (now) freemen?