Final answer:
Abraham Lincoln did not require his generals to return slaves to their owners following the Emancipation Proclamation. This Proclamation was part of a military necessity to harm Confederate war efforts and aimed for gradual emancipation rather than immediate freedom in all regions.
Step-by-step explanation:
No, after the Emancipation Proclamation, President Abraham Lincoln did not continue to require his generals to return slaves to their owners. The Proclamation, issued on January 1, 1863, declared slaves in rebelling states to be 'henceforth and forever free', aligning with Lincoln's view of emancipation as a crucial military necessity to undermine the Confederacy's war efforts.
He even contemplated voluntary colonization to ease post-war tensions between races. Despite the gradual approach, the heart of the Emancipation Proclamation was a war strategy directed against Confederate resources, leveraging the abolition of slavery as a tactical move to weaken the opposing side.
Therefore, the military strategy of the Union shifted with the Emancipation Proclamation, and returning slaves to their owners was no longer a policy. Instead, a new goal emerged: the destabilization of the Confederacy by freeing slaves to aid Union efforts and appealing to pro-Union sentiments in the South to shorten the conflict.