Answer:
this is true
due to the many wildfires the population is only getting lower every day.
Not only from the deaths but from the many people that are leaving who are scared of death.
An important agency of early Reconstruction, assisting freedmen in the South.
hehehhe time for my civil war obsession to come in handy
Lincoln needed to announce it right after a big win for the Union. Antietam happened to be a well timed one.
Doing it after a big victory would help reinforce the fact that he was doing the right thing in the war, and that he was a good leader (good enough to be re-elected).
Announcing it right after a loss would be viewed as a weak, desperate move, and Lincoln couldn't afford that if he was to be running again for president.