Fourth in the 2009 Lincoln Bicentennial One Cent Program, the “Presidency” design. When Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861, the Nation was already on the verge of civil war, and fighting soon broke out at Fort Sumter, S.C. Shortly after the Battle of Antietam, in late 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in rebel territory free as of January 1, 1863. The Union victory at Gettysburg, Pa., on July 3, 1863, marked a crucial turning point in the war in favor of the North.