Across the Divide: Union Soldiers View the Northern Home Front

Union soldiers left home in 1861 with expectations that the conflict would be short, the purpose of the war was clear, and public support back home was universal. As the war continued, however, Union soldiers began to perceive a great difference between what they expected and what was actually occurring. Their family relationships were evolving, the purpose of the war was changing, and civilians were questioning the leadership of the government and Army to the point of debating whether the war should continue at all. Separated from Northern civilians by a series of literal and figurative divides, Union soldiers viewed the growing disparities between their own expectations and those of their families at home with growing concern and alarm. Instead of support for the war, an extensive and oft-violent anti-war movement emerged. Often at odds with those at home and with limited means of communication to their homes at their disposal, soldiers used letters, newspaper editorials, and political statements to influence the actions and beliefs of their home communities. When communication failed, soldiers sometimes took extremist positions on the war, its conduct, and how civilian attitudes about the conflict should be shaped. In this first study of the chasm between Union soldiers and northern civilians, Steven J. Ramold reveals the wide array of factors that prevented the Union Army and the civilians on whose behalf they were fighting from becoming a united front during the Civil War. In Across the Divide, Ramold illustrates how the divided spheres of Civil War experience created social and political conflict far removed from the better-known battlefields of the war.

About the Author :
Steven Ramold, Associate Professor of American History at Eastern Michigan University, is the author of two previous books, Slaves, Sailors, Citizens: African Americans in the Union Navy and Baring the Iron Hand: Discipline in the Union Army. He and his wife reside in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Review :
The book is well written and well researched, particularly in manuscript collections...[T]his volume should be welcomed by those interested in the Civil War North. (Journal of the Civil War Era) Across the Divideis an excellent addition to the field of Civil War history. It forces us to reconsider how we understand the experiences of Union soldiers in the war and how they saw themselves within a northern society undergoing dramatic social and political changes. (Michigan War Studies Review) ...deserves credit for drawing attention to interesting questions. - Chandra Manning (The Journal of American History) Across the Divideis an important book that paints a powerful picture of important sources of Northern military-civilian disharmony during the Civil War. - Andrew Wagenhoffer (On Point: The Journal of Army History) Despite numerous studies of the Civil War home front, no one has written on soldiers attitudes toward the home front at monograph length until now....Ramold has done the Civil War community a great service raising issues, and every Civil War scholar should read this book. - Samuel Watson (Civil War Book Review) Disputes the old argument that citizen-soldiers in the Union Army differed little from civilians. He shows how a chasm of mutual distrust grew between soldiers and civilians during four years of fighting that led many Democratic soldiers to abandon the party of their fathers, embrace emancipation as a war aim, and build the groundwork for the postwar Republican Party. Filled with gripping anecdotes, this book makes for fascinating reading. - Scott Reynolds Nelson,Legum Professor of History, College of William & Mary Filled with superb research. - S. Gac (Choice) In each chapter Ramold does a nice job of offering concise summaries of crucial contextual material on the home front, before moving on to illustrative comments from soldiers' letters and diaries....The result is an engaging read, full of fine detail… - J. Matthew Gallman (American Historical Review) In this fascinating book, Steven J. Ramold shows how Union soldiers perceived and judged the wartime behavior of the Northern populace, a process that bred anger, fear, and resentment and deepened the divide separating those in the ranks fighting against the rebels from those at home seemingly rebelling against the fight. A captivating and welcome study of an underappreciated yet significant facet of the Union war effort. - William B. Feis,Buena Vista University Overall, this is an extremely engaging study and a valuable contribution to an important issue. - Barbara A. Gannon (Register of the Kentucky Historical Society) Ramold poses an important question and makes a good...start on our appreciation of the differences between Northern civilizations and soldiers. - James Marten (Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography)