When it came to the Civil War, Michiganians never spoke with one voice. At the beginning of the conflict, family farms defined the southern Lower Peninsula, while a sparsely settled frontier characterized the state's north. Although differing strategies for economic development initially divided Michigan's settlers, by the 1850s Michiganians' attention increasingly focused on slavery, race, and the future of the national union. They exchanged charges of treason and political opportunism while wrestling with the meanings of secession, the national union, emancipation, citizenship, race, and their changing economy. Their actions launched transformations in their communities, their state, and their nation in ways that Americans still struggle to understand.
Building upon the current scholarship of the Civil War, the Midwest, and Michigan's role in the national experience, Michigan's War is a documentary history of the Civil War era as told by the state's residents and observers in private letters, reminiscences, newspapers, and other contemporary sources. Clear annotations and thoughtful editing allow teachers and students to delve into the political, social, and military context of the war, making it ideal for classroom use.
Table of Contents:
Contents
List of Illustrations
Series Editors’ Preface
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
One - Michigan, Slavery, and the Coming of the Civil War
Henry Bibb Writes from Detroit to His Former Owner in Kentucky
Northerners Are Slaves to the Slaveholders
Lewis Cass Favors Nonintervention in the Territories
A Democrat Opposes Lewis Cass on Slavery
Michigan Republican Platform, 1854
Michigan’s Personal Liberty Laws
Abraham Lincoln Campaigns in Kalamazoo
John Brown and Frederick Douglass Debate Slave Insurrection in Detroit
A Nonpartisan Newspaper Bolts for the Republicans
Stephen A. Douglas, “The Conflict and the Cause”
Stephen A. Douglas Responds to Hecklers in Dowagiac
Two - The Secession Crisis
Governor Austin Blair Declares “Secession Is Revolution”
Secession Resulted from Republicans’ Agitation on Slavery
“The Blood of Southern Men Enriched the Soil of Michigan”
An Anti-abolition Riot during the Secession Crisis
The Michigan Legislature Opposes Compromise with Secessionists
Zachariah Chandler’s “Blood-Letting” Letter
A Democrat’s Pessimistic Response to Lincoln’s Inaugural: “We Shall Have War”
Northern Michigan Learns of the War
Three - Shifting Michigan to a War Footing
Michigan’s Deceptive Silence While War Fever Escalates
A Mother Tries to Curb Her Son’s Desire to Enlist
The South May Be Crimsoned with Traitors’ Blood, but Freedom Shall Be Maintained
A Volunteer Meeting
Recruiting a Cavalry Troop
Leaving Michigan for the Front
Orlando Bolivar Willcox Speaks in Detroit after His Release as a Prisoner of War
One Year: Reflections on the War in December 1861
Four - The Soldier’s Life
The Routine of Camp Life
Soldiers’ Deteriorating Morals
Paroling Prisoners of War
Notifying a Soldier’s Family Regarding Death
A Self-Inflicted Wound?
Execution of a Deserter
A Soldier’s Thoughts Regarding Reenlistment
A Soldier Discourages His Brother from Enlisting
Two Michigan Soldiers on Opposing Sides of the Battlefield
A Hospital Steward Describes the Battle of Shiloh
A Soldier’s Reflections on Combat and Military Life
The 24th Michigan Infantry at Gettysburg
Under Confederate and Union Fire
Custer and the Michigan Cavalry Brigade at Yellow Tavern
Environmental Devastation on the Virginia Front
The 2nd Infantry’s Address to the People of Michigan
How the Soldiers Feel about the War
Tensions in the Ranks
A Woman and a Soldier
Michigan Annie: A Regimental Daughter
The Michigan Colored Regiment
Indigenous People from Northern Michigan Form a Company of Sharpshooters
Five - Conscription, Commutation, and Dissent
Hoping to Escape the Draft
Detroit’s Antiblack Riot, 1863
Prevent Conscription by Increasing Bounties
A Soldier’s Reaction to Commutation Fees
Avoiding the Draft by Pooling Resources
The Challenges of Hiring Substitutes
Draft Resistance in Huron County
A Political Prank Succeeds beyond Its Creators’ Wildest Dreams
A Political Prisoner Writes to Abraham Lincoln
Six - Civilians Confront the War
Reflections on Defeat following the First Battle of Bull Run
A Mining Engineer Responds to the Federal Defeat at Bull Run
The Civil War Comes to Copper Country
“Let us have no more Robbery at the Expense of our Volunteers and Taxpayers”
A Democrat Questions War Contracts
An African American Gives Up on the United States
Black Detroiters Denounce White Racism
A Woman’s Anxiety and Loneliness
The Michigan Soldiers’ Aid Society Issues an Appeal
A Michigan Journalist Describes a Civil War Hospital
A Nurse’s Work at a Convalescent Hospital
A Civil War Nurse Writes to Her Husband in Michigan
A Prospective Army Nurse Inquires about Serving
War Accelerates the Push toward Labor-Saving Machinery
A Soldier Complains about Inadequate Support for Military Families
Labor Disputes in the Upper Peninsula’s Iron Mines
The Failed Attempt to Rescue Confederate Prisoners
Detroit Responds to Another Attack from Canada
Seven - Michigan’s Wartime Politics
A Democrat’s Growing Fears Regarding Abolitionists
Democrats as Unwitting Traitors
A Soldier Complains of Abolitionists’ Failure to Support McClellan and the Troops
“This War Should Never End Until the Rebellion is Completely Crushed”
A Democrat Questions Emancipation
A Republican Responds to Democrats’ Opposition to the Emancipation Proclamation
A Democrat Embraces Emancipation
A Republican Editor Assesses Lincoln in 1863
Michigan’s Lone Democratic Representative Addresses the US Congress
A Good Cause Ruined by Bad Management
Democrats Have Been Supportive of the War
A One-Time Supporter of Lincoln Renounces the President
A Democratic Appeal for the Soldier Vote
Kalamazoo Republicans’ Appeal on the Eve of the 1864 Election
Detroit Blacks Appeal to Michigan Legislature for Full Citizenship
Eight - The Civil War Changes Michiganians’ Relationship to Slavery
Increased Hostility to Slavery Yet Questioning Emancipation
Democratic Reaction to “Abolition Fanaticism”
A Michigan Soldier Opposes Prospective Emancipation
Heralding Lincoln’s Signing of the Emancipation Proclamation
Democratic Objections to the Emancipation Proclamation
A Michigan Soldier Opposes the Enlistment of African Americans
Michigan Whites Respond to African American Soldiers
War Will Continue So Long as Slavery Exists
The South Understood through the Lens of Slavery
Freedom’s Underside: A Civil War Refugee Camp
We Are No Admirer of Slavery
Michigan Ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment Ending Slavery
Nine - The Civil War’s End and Reconstruction
The Feeling in the Army: Soldiers’ Reactions to Lincoln’s Assassination
Jefferson Davis’s Capture
The War Is Over and Soldiers Want to Go Home
Jacob Howard on Reconstruction
Michigan Democrats Embrace Andrew Johnson
“Is the Union Restored?”
A Lynching in Mason, 1866
William L. Stoughton Denounces the Ku Klux Klan
Zachariah Chandler’s Last Speech
The Michigan Civil Rights Act of 1885
War Looks Much Different in Retrospect
The Painful Lives of Disabled Veterans
Jane Hinsdale’s Successful Application for a Civil War Pension
A Veteran Reflects on the Civil War in 1917
Timeline
Discussion Questions
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
John W. Quist is a professor of history at Shippensburg University. He is the author of Restless Visionaries: The Social Roots of Antebellum Reform in Alabama and Michigan and coeditor of James Buchanan and the Coming of the Civil War.
Review :
"(M)ore than soldiers' stories and the usual 'greatest hits' of Michigan in the war…. (Michigan's War is) an excellent collection of real, mainly contemporaneous documents…. (T)here are also heart-breaking and troubling views here that reflect Michigandlers' ambivalence over the war and abolition, and out-and-out racism….
Any serious reader of the state's history in the Civil War will not want to leave this book to college students."
(Civil War Book Review)
