Indiana's War

by Nation, Richard F.

• ISBN13: 9780821418475
• ISBN10: 0821418475
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-11-10
• Publisher: Ohio Univ Pr

Summary

Indianars"s Waris a primary source collection featuring the writings of Indianars"s citizens during the Civil War era. Using private letters, official records, newspaper articles, and other original sources, the volume presents the varied experiences of Indianars"s participants in the war both on the battlefield and on the home front. Starting in the 1850s, the documents show the sharp political divisions over issues such as slavery, race, and secession in Indiana, divisions that boiled over into extraordinary strife and violence in the state during the rebellion. This conflict touched all levels and members of society, including men, women, and children, whites and African Americans, native-born citizens and immigrants, farmers and city and town dwellers. Collecting the writings of Indianars"s peoples on a wide range of issues, chapters focus on the politics of race prior to the war, the secession crisis, war fever in 1861, the experiences of soldiers at the front, home-front hardships, political conflict between partisan foes and civil and military authorities, reactions to the Emancipation Proclamation, and antiwar dissent, violence, and conspiracy. Indianars"s Waris an excellent accompanying primary source text for undergraduate and graduate courses on the American Civil War. It documents the experiences of Indianars"s citizens, from the African American soldier to the antiwar dissenter, from the prewar politician to the postwar veteran, from the battle-scarred soldier to the impoverished soldierrs"s wife, all showing the harsh realities of the war.

Author Biography

Richard F. Nation is an associate professor of history at Eastern Michigan University.  He is the author of At Home in the Hoosier Hills: Agriculture, Politics, and Religion in Southern Indiana, 1810–1870.   Stephen E. Towne is an associate university archivist at Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis. He is the editor of A Fierce, Wild Joy: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Edward J. Wood, 48th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xiii
Series Editors' Preface	p. xv
Preface	p. xvii
Acknowledgments	p. xix
Introduction	p. 1
The Politics of Slavery	p. 6
Escaping Slavery through Indiana	p. 10
1852 African American Exclusion Vote	p. 13
Indiana's Leading Abolitionist	p. 15
Democratic Thoughts on the Compromise of 1850	p. 17
The Nebraska Bill	p. 18
The People's Parry	p. 19
Dred Scott and Kansas	p. 20
Bleeding Kansas and the Lecompton Constitution	p. 22
The Split in the Democratic Party	p. 23
Rights of Negroes in Indiana	p. 24
John Brown	p. 26
The Election of 1860 and Secession	p. 27
Democrats Prepare a Racist Campaign	p. 29
Democrats Split	p. 30
Douglas Democrats	p. 31
"They want to rule us because they won't trust us"	p. 32
The Election of 1860	p. 33
Secession as Bluster and Bluff	p. 36
"The south is making a great to do"	p. 36
A Politician Writes His Sons from Washington	p. 37
Abolitionists as Dis-Unionists	p. 39
An Attempt at Compromise	p. 41
Choosing Sides, Making an Army	p. 43
The War Begins	p. 45
"I never saw such excitement in all my life"	p. 46
Fort Sumter and the Call to Arms	p. 47
Enforced Loyalty	p. 48
The First Volunteers	p. 49
The Early Trials of War	p. 49
Sojourner Truth Visits Indiana in the Wake of the War's Start	p. 52
Jesse Bright's Expulsion	p. 53
Bright's Defense	p. 54
Replacing Bright	p. 55
"If the South can maintain its position all will be well"	p. 56
Camp Life	p. 57
Conscientious Objectors	p. 58
A Union Democrat's Account of Draft in Hancock Country	p. 59
Avoiding the Draft	p. 61
The Front Lines	p. 62
"Drunkenness is the great vice of soldiers"	p. 64
Away from Home	p. 65
"Boys, I want you to keep this"	p. 68
"We had the satisfaction of seeing the elephant"	p. 70
"No man need want to witness an execution"	p. 71
Faked Illnesses to Obtain Medical Discharges	p. 72
"The hospital is a hard place to be in"	p. 73
Women at the Front	p. 75
Caring for the Sick and Wounded	p. 77
Prisoner of War	p. 78
"Them dreadful days"	p. 81
"Our motto is, 'death to traitors'"	p. 82
Death	p. 84
The Home Front	p. 87
Hearts Separated	p. 89
A Father's Grief	p. 91
Running the Farm	p. 93
"I do not know what he would do if it was not for his girls"	p. 94
Support for Soldiers' Families	p. 96
War and Madness	p. 97
These Terrible Times	p. 100
"Money is abundant"	p. 101
Aiding the Freed Peoples	p. 102
Race, Slavery, and the Emancipation Proclamation	p. 104
"The new Revolution upon which we are embarked"	p. 106
Aroused to a Solemn Duty	p. 107
"The penalty of their crimes"	p. 107
"The people of this county will never consent to receive such an immigration of negroes"	p. 109
"The black wave of freed negroes is surging across the Ohio"	p. 113
"I don't like old Abe's proclamation"	p. 113
"1863 was the year of jubilee for two and a half millions of the human family"	p. 116
"We can't whip the south without her negroes"	p. 117
"The Idea of adopting the negro into the United States Service seems to be useless"	p. 118
"Here is a wide field opened for good"	p. 119
"Fly to my Country Call"	p. 120
"White soldiers are more than friendly"	p. 122
"Kill all, that's my doctrin"	p. 123
The Battle to Control State Government	p. 125
"Our people believe that secession meetings should not be tolerated"	p. 127
"Indiana will loose sight of party in this hour and rally around good men"	p. 128
"The democracy of Indiana are for prosecuting the war for the maintenance of the Constitution, and the enforcement of the laws"	p. 129
"Our only wonder is that we were not beaten worse"	p. 130
Buell Is to Blame	p. 132
The Streets of Indianapolis to Run with Blood	p. 133
"The Loyal members of the Legislature have all gone home"	p. 135
"We was ordered out one night to town to blow up the state house"	p. 136
The Republicans Bolt Again	p. 137
Military Punishment for Speech Considered Treasonous	p. 138
"Forewarned is forearmed"	p. 139
"Let me exhort the people to moderation and submission to the laws"	p. 140
"Armed forces must be employed to crush the opposition"	p. 143
"Our difficulties can soon be settled"	p. 144
The Morgan Raid	p. 146
"Rebels have invaded Indiana in considerable force"	p. 148
"Wake up old Hoosier"	p. 149
The Raiders in Salem	p. 150
Morton Fights Martial Law	p. 151
"I never expected to see such times as these here"	p. 152
Dissent, Violence, and Conspiracy	p. 155
"Burned by an incendiary"	p. 159
"These abolitionists are indeed a pretty set of pimps"	p. 160
"Arbitrary arrests for differences of opinion"	p. 161
Violence against the Press	p. 162
"If I should happen to be shot"	p. 163
"It haint the inion they are after it is to break down the Constitution"	p. 166
"Something should be done to show traitors in this locality that the law must be sustained"	p. 167
"You cannot be aware of the full extent of the danger"	p. 167
Draft Resistance	p. 168
"Assembled and armed, for the purpose of inaugurating civil war in this community"	p. 169
"Let no arms come to this county"	p. 172
Secret Organization Uncovered	p. 173
"The fact is well established"	p. 177
An Unveiled Threat	p. 179
"The condition of affairs in Indiana"	p. 181
Startling Intelligence	p. 183
"These facts will open the eyes of the people"	p. 184
The Conspiracy Trials	p. 185
Democrats in Trouble	p. 188
The Presidential Ballot	p. 189
War's End	p. 190
Fort Wayne "Surrenders"	p. 192
A Soldier on the Death of Lincoln	p. 193
"Rebel leaders will get their dues"	p. 194
A Poem on Lincoln's Death	p. 196
Joy at Lincoln's Death	p. 197
Postwar Mental Illness in Veterans	p. 197
Ex parte Milligan	p. 199
Change in the Economy and Society	p. 204
Evansvilie Race Riot	p. 204
Democratic Opposition to African American Equality	p. 206
Assisting the Freed Peoples	p. 206
Changes in African American Population	p. 209
"At least they ought to be willing"	p. 211
Democratic Reaction to the Fifteenth Amendment	p. 211
Divided Communities	p. 212
Timeline	p. 215
Discussion Questions	p. 231
Notes	p. 235
Selected Bibliography	p. 241
Index	p. 245
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.