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