Illinois in the American Civil War

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The Great Seal of the United States of America during the American Civil War
Union states
in the
American Civil War
Dual governments
Territories and D.C.

During the

Western Theater of the Civil War), and of military supplies, food, and clothing. Situated near major rivers and railroads, Illinois became a major jumping off place early in the war for Ulysses S. Grant's efforts to seize control of the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers. Statewide, public support for the Union was high despite Copperhead
sentiment.

The state was energetically led throughout the war by Governor

Western Theater, although a few regiments played important roles in the East, particularly in the Army of the Potomac
. Several thousand Illinoisians were killed or died of their wounds during the war, and a number of national cemeteries were established in Illinois to bury their remains. In addition to President
Elihu P. Washburne
. No major battles were fought in the state, although several river towns became sites for important supply depots and "brownwater" navy yards. Several prisoner of war camps and prisons dotted the state after 1863, processing thousands of captive Confederate soldiers.

However, not everyone in the state supported the war. In fact, there were even calls for secession in Southern Illinois or

Little Egypt by several residents. In Marion residents voted to secede from the United States. A few, even, volunteered for the Confederate States Army in Tennessee. Thirty-four men, while Frank Metcalf claimed they were forty-five,[1] from the southern tip of the state, were recruited from Jackson and Williamson County, joined Company G, "The Illinois Company", of the 15th Tennessee Regiment Volunteer Infantry.[2]
This can be attributed to the region's close cultural and economic ties to the South since many Southerners had migrated there. However, the movement for secession soon fizzled after the proposal was blocked and shelved.

Eighteen counties of southern Illinois formed the congressional district of Democrat

Little Egypt for the remainder of the war.[5] Confederate sentiment would remain alive in Southern Illinois amid the growing Copperhead political movement in the North
.

History

7
th IVI

During the Civil War, 256,297 people from Illinois served in the Union army, more than any other northern state except for

military draft was little used in Chicago
and its environs, but was a factor in supplying manpower to Illinois regiments late in the war in other regions of the state. Camp Douglas, located near Chicago, was one of the largest training camps for these troops, as well as Camp Butler near Springfield. Both served as leading prisoner-of-war camps for captive Confederates. Another significant POW camp was located at Rock Island. Several thousand Confederates died while in custody in Illinois prison camps and are buried in a series of nearby cemeteries. There were no Civil War battles fought in Illinois, but
gunboats and associated river fleets. One of which would take part in the nearby Battle of Lucas Bend
. Leading
Stephen Hurlbut. Brigadier General Elon J. Farnsworth, who began his career in the 8th Illinois Cavalry, died at the Battle of Gettysburg. President Lincoln maintained his home in Springfield, Illinois, where he is buried. Over 100 soldiers from Illinois units would earn the Medal of Honor
during the conflict.

Union home-front support

The Chicago city government and voluntary societies gave generous support to soldiers during the war.[7] Composer and music publisher

women's rights movement in Illinois. Mary Ann Bickerdyke, a resident of Galesburg
, was a noted nurse for the Western armies. Workers in various factories and mills, as well as the port and stockyards, helped provide a steady source of materiel, food, and clothing to Illinois troops, as well as to the general Union army. Mound City foundry workers converted river steamboats into armored gunboats for Federal service. With traditional Southern markets cut off by the war, the port of Chicago rose in prominence as Illinois expanded trade with the Great Lakes region. Chicago meatpackers earned venture capital during the war that was reinvested in 1865, as the war ended, to create the Northern city's Union Stock Yards.

War politics

During the

Stephen Douglas (160,215; 47.2%). Of minor consequence in the statewide results were Southern candidates John C. Breckinridge (2,331; 0.7%), and John Bell (4,914; 1.5%).[8]
Throughout the war, Illinois politics were dominated by
Richard Yates and Senators Lyman Trumbull and Orville H. Browning. Democrats scored major gains in the 1862 election by attacking Lincoln's emancipation plan as danger to the state since it would bring in thousands of freed slaves.[9] As a result, the Democrats had a majority in the legislature and in 1863, Browning's Senate seat, formerly held by Douglas prior to the war, was filled by the Democrats with the election of William Alexander Richardson
. In the 1864 presidential election, Illinois residents supported Lincoln's re-election, giving the president 189,512 votes (54.4% of the total) to General George McClellan's 158,724 votes (45.6%).[10] Within a year, Lincoln was dead and his remains had been returned to Springfield for burial.

Confederate Homefront support

Copperheads

Opposition views of the Peace Democrats (or "

Gettysburg Campaign in June 1863, Union troops forcibly closed the newspaper at bayonet point. It was only reopened when Democratic mobs threatened to destroy the rival Republican paper and President Lincoln intervened.[11]
Barry shows that Amos Green (1826–1911) from Paris, Illinois, was a leading lawyer and Peace Democrat (Copperhead). Green saw the War as unjust and Lincoln as a despot who had to be stopped. He wrote vicious denunciations of the administration in local newspapers. He was arrested for sedition in 1862. After his release in August 1862, he became the grand commander of the secret Order of American Knights in Illinois, which fought restrictions on civil liberties. It was also called the Knights of the Golden Circle and later the Sons of Liberty. Green was funded by the Confederate government to arrange riots at the Democratic National Convention in 1864. Although the riots never materialized, he continued giving antigovernment speeches until he was again arrested in November 1864. After this arrest, he agreed to testify for the government about the activities of the Knights; his testimony implicated others but ignored his own deep involvement in antigovernment plots.[12] In 1864, a clash between Copperheads and Union Soldiers in Charleston, Illinois resulted in nine dead and twelve wounded in what is now called the "Charleston Riot".

Notable leaders from Illinois

Among the many Illinois generals who rose to post-war prominence were

John M. Palmer, a resident of Carlinville, was a postbellum Governor of Illinois and the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Party in the 1896 election
.
William P. Carlin of Carrollton became a general in the postbellum U.S. Army and commanded several outposts in Montana
and elsewhere.

A number of soldiers from Illinois regiments would eventually become governors of U.S. states. Among them were

John St. John, future governor of Kansas; and Samuel Rinnah Van Sant
, future governor of Minnesota.

See also

References

  • Cole, Arthur Charles, The Era of the Civil War, 1848–1870, (Sesquicentennial History of Illinois, Vol 3) (
    ISBN 0-252-01339-5
    ) (1919, reprinted 1987), outstanding scholarly history covering politics, economy and society.
  • Hicken, Victor, Illinois in the Civil War, University of Illinois Press, 1991, a scholarly history focused on the soldiers.
  • Illinois in the Civil War. Retrieved February 1, 2005.
  • Chicago History. Retrieved August 7, 2006.
  • Northern Illinois University's Illinois During the Civil War website. Retrieved August 8, 2006.
  • Leip, David. "1860 Presidential Election Results". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved July 27, 2005.
  • Leip, David. "1864 Presidential Election Results". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved July 27, 2005.

Notes

  1. ^ Metcalf, Frank. "The Illinois Confederate Company," Confederate Veteran, vol. 16, pp.224-5. S.A. Cunningham, 1908.
  2. ^ 15th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry - Company G, The Confederate Army's Southern Illinois Company, Illinois in the Civil War website
  3. ^ William S. Morris; et al. (1998). History 31st Regiment Illinois Volunteers Organized by John A. Logan. SIU Press. pp. 15–20.
  4. ^ James Pickett Jones (1995). Black Jack: John A. Logan and Southern Illinois in the Civil War Era. SIU Press. pp. 82–90.
  5. ^ "The Civil War and Late 19th Century" Archived 2012-02-23 at the Wayback Machine, The History of Southern Illinois, Egyptian Area on Aging, Inc., 1996–2009, accessed 15 May 2009
  6. ^ Illinois regiments during the Civil War Archived 2005-02-04 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ Kurt A. Carlson, "Backing the Boys in the Civil War: Chicago's Home Front Supports the Troops - and Grows in the Process," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Spring/Summer 2011, Vol. 104 Issue 1/2, pp 140-165
  8. ^ Leip, 1860
  9. ^ Bruce S. Allardice, "'Illinois is Rotten with Traitors!' The Republican Defeat in the 1862 State Election," . Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Spring/Summer 2011, Vol. 104 Issue 1/2, pp 97-114
  10. ^ Leip, 1864
  11. ^ Chicago History website
  12. ^ Peter J. Barry, "Amos Green, Paris, Illinois: Civil War Lawyer, Editorialist, and Copperhead," Journal of Illinois History, Spring 2008, Vol. 11 Issue 1, pp 39-60

Further reading

Historiography and memory

  • Karamanski, Theodore J. "Illinois at the High Tide: The Era of the Civil War, 1848–1870." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 111.1-2 (2018): 55–78. online
  • Knoll, Jeremy. "Remembering the Fallen: The Creation of Civil War Monuments in Illinois, 1865–1929." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 114.2 (2021): 33–95.

Primary sources

  • Burton, William L., Descriptive bibliography of Civil War manuscripts in Illinois. Civil War Centennial Commission of Illinois, Northwestern University Press, 1966.
  • Flotow, Mark, ed. In Their Letters, in Their Words: Illinois Civil War Soldiers Write Home (Southern Illinois University Press, 2019).
  • Office of the Adjutant General, Roster of Officers and Enlisted Men. 9 volumes, State Printing Office, 1900.
  • U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 70 volumes in 4 series. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1880–1901. online
  • Voss-Hubbard, Mark, ed. Illinois's War: The Civil War in Documents. (Ohio University Press, 2013) 244 pp. online review

External links

Research resources

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