Introduction
During the American Civil War (1861-1865), the
State of Ohio played a key role in providing troops, military officers, and
supplies to the Union army. Due to its central location in the Northern United
States and burgeoning population, Ohio was both politically and logistically
important to the war effort. Despite the state's boasting a number of very
powerful Republican politicians, it was divided politically. Portions of
southern Ohio followed the Peace Democrats and openly opposed President Abraham
Lincoln's policies. Ohio played an important part in the Underground Railroad
prior to the war, and remained a haven for escaped and runaway slaves during the
war years.
The third most populous state in
the Union at the time, Ohio raised nearly 320,000 soldiers for the Union army,
third behind only New York and Pennsylvania in total manpower contributed to the
military. Several leading generals hailed from Ohio, including Ulysses S. Grant,
William T. Sherman, and Philip H. Sheridan. Five Ohio-born Civil War officers
would later serve as the President of the United States. The Fighting McCooks gained fame
as the largest immediate family group ever to become officers in the U.S. Army.
The state was
spared many of the horrors of war as only two minor battles were fought within
its borders. Morgan's Raid in the summer of 1863 spread terror among the
populace. Ohio troops fought in nearly every major campaign during the war. More
than 35,000 Ohioans died in the conflict and more than 30,000 wounded
soldiers returned home.
Northwest Territory and
Slavery
The United States created the Northwest
Territory under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Slavery was not permitted in
the new territory. Settlement began with the founding of Marietta by the Ohio
Company of Associates, which had been formed by a group of American
Revolutionary War veterans. Following the Ohio Company, the Miami Company (also
referred to as the "Symmes Purchase") claimed the southwestern section, and the
Connecticut Land Company surveyed and settled the Connecticut Western Reserve in
present-day Northeast Ohio.
The Northwest Territory originally included
areas previously known as Ohio Country and Illinois Country. As Ohio prepared
for statehood, the Indiana Territory was created, reducing the Northwest
Territory to approximately the size of present-day Ohio plus the eastern half of
the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and the eastern tip of the Upper Peninsula.
American settlement of the Northwest Territory
was resisted by Native Americans in the Northwest Indian War. The natives were
eventually conquered by the newly formed United States in
1794.
Under the Northwest Ordinance, areas of the
territory could be defined and admitted as states once their population reached
60,000. Although Ohio's population numbered only 45,000 in December 1801,
Congress determined that the population was growing rapidly and Ohio could begin
the path to statehood. The assumption was that it would exceed 60,000 residents
by the time it was admitted as a state. Furthermore, in regards to the Leni
Lenape Native Americans living in the region, Congress decided that 10,000 acres
on the Muskingum River in the present state of Ohio would "be set apart and the
property thereof be vested in the Moravian Brethren . . . or a society of the
said Brethren for civilizing the Indians and promoting
Christianity."
The US Congress, furthermore, prohibited slavery
in the territory. (Once the population grew and the territory achieved
statehood, the citizens could have legalized slavery, but chose not to do so.)
The states of the Midwest would be known as Free States, in contrast to those
states south of the Ohio River. Migrants to the latter came chiefly from
Virginia and other slaveholding states, and brought their culture and slaves
with them.
As Northeastern states abolished slavery in the
coming two generations, the Free States would be known as Northern states. The
Northwest Territory originally included areas previously called Ohio Country and
Illinois Country. As Ohio prepared for statehood, Indiana Territory was carved
out, reducing the Northwest Territory to approximately the size of present-day
Ohio plus the eastern half of Michigan's lower
peninsula.
Slavery
Ohio's roots as an anti-slavery and abolitionist
state go back to its territorial days in the Northwest Territory, which forbade
the practice. When it became a state, the constitution expressly outlawed
slavery. Many Ohioans were members of anti-slavery organizations, including the
American Anti-Slavery Society and American Colonization Society. Ohioan Charles
Osborn published the first abolitionist newspaper in the country, "The
Philanthropist," and in 1821, the father of abolition Benjamin Lundy began
publishing his newspaper the Genius of Universal Emancipation.
Ohio was a key stop on the Underground Railroad where prominent abolitionists played a role, including John Rankin. Ohio resident Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the famous book "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which was largely influential in shaping the opinion of the North against slavery.
Ohio was a key stop on the Underground Railroad where prominent abolitionists played a role, including John Rankin. Ohio resident Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the famous book "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which was largely influential in shaping the opinion of the North against slavery.
Sentiment
Much of southern Ohio's economy
depended upon trade with the South across the Ohio River, which had served for
years as passage and a link with the slave states of Virginia and Kentucky. The
culture of southern Ohio was closer to those states than it was to northern
parts of the state, owing to many settlers coming from the South and being
formerly territory of the state of Virginia as part of the Virginia Military
District. Most of the state's population was solidly against secession and in
favor of a strong central government. During the 1860 Presidential Election,
Ohio voted in favor of Abraham Lincoln (231,709 votes or 52.3% of the ballots
cast) over Stephen Douglas (187,421; 42.3%), John C. Breckinridge (11,406;
2.6%), and John Bell (12,194; 2.8%).
A number of men with Ohio ties
would serve important roles in Lincoln's Cabinet and administration, including
Steubenville's Edwin M. Stanton as Attorney General and then Secretary of War,
and former Ohio U.S. Senator and Governor Salmon P. Chase as Secretary of the
Treasury. Prominent Ohio politicians in Congress included Senators John Sherman
and Benjamin F. Wade.
During the war, three men would serve as
Governor of Ohio– William Dennison, David Tod and John Brough. Without
requests by the War Department, Dennison sent Ohio troops into western Virginia,
where they guarded the Wheeling Convention. The convention led to the admission
of West Virginia as a free state. Tod became known as "the soldier's friend,"
for his determined efforts to help equip and sustain Ohio's troops. He was noted
for his quick response in calling out the state militia to battle Confederate
raiders. Brough strongly supported the Lincoln Administration's war efforts and
was key to persuading other Midwestern governors to raise 100-day regiments,
such as the 131st Ohio Infantry in early 1864, to release more seasoned troops
for duty in Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's spring campaign.
In January 1863, public
sentiment within the state was strained by Abraham Lincoln’s issuance of the
Emancipation Proclamation. For some, this merely confirmed their fears that the
war was truly about freedom for the slaves and not a war about restoring the
Union. However, the greatest single strain on public sentiment arrived later in
1863 when Congress passed the conscription act, which authorized the Federal
government to draft or force citizens into military
service.
Through the middle of the war, the Copperhead
movement had appeal in Ohio, driven in part by noted states’ rights advocate,
Congressman Clement Vallandigham, a leading Peace Democrat. After General
Ambrose E. Burnside issued General Order Number 38 in early 1863, warning that
the "habit of declaring sympathies for the enemy" would not be tolerated in the
Military District of Ohio, Vallandigham gave a major speech charging the war was
being fought not to save the Union, but to free blacks and enslave whites.
Burnside ordered his arrest and took
Vallandigham to Cincinnati for trial. At the trial, Vallandigham was found
guilty. The court sentenced him to prison for the duration of the war. President
Lincoln attempted to quiet the situation by writing the Birchard Letter, which
offered to release Vallandigham if several Ohio congressmen agreed to support
certain policies of the Administration. To try to prevent political backlash and
preserve authority of Gen. Burnside, Abraham Lincoln changed Vallandigham's
sentence to banishment to the South. The threat was imprisonment if Vallandigham
returned to Northern soil. The South allowed Vallandigham to migrate to Canada,
from where he ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor against Brough in 1863.
Vallandigham's campaign bitterly divided much of southern Ohio.
Newspapers, nevertheless, remained
engaged in very lively discussion of war issues, from the Republican, War
Democrat and Copperhead perspectives. Public sentiment, however, shifted more in
favor of the Lincoln Administration, particularly as Ohio generals rose in
prominence, with military successes in the Atlanta Campaign, the Siege of
Petersburg, and Sheridan's Valley Campaigns. In the 1864 Presidential Election,
Ohio strongly supported Lincoln's reelection. The state gave the president
265,674 votes (56.4% of the total) versus 205,609 votes (43.6%) for General
George McClellan.
En route to Washington, D.C. for his
inauguration, President Lincoln passed through Ohio by train, with brief stops
in numerous cities. His first formal speech given after his election was in
Hudson, Ohio, a stop he made en route to Cleveland. Although Lincoln had visited
the state several times before the war, he would not return during the Civil
War. In 1865 his funeral train carried his body through the state, bound for
Springfield, Illinois.
Civil War
According to the 1860 U.S. census, Ohio had a
population of 2,339,511.
Nearly 320,000 Ohioans served in
the Union army, more than any other Northern state except New York and
Pennsylvania. Of these, 5,092 were free blacks. Ohio had the highest percentage
of population enlisted in the military of any state. Sixty percent of all the
men between the ages of 18 and 45 were in the service. Ohio mustered 230 regiments of infantry
and cavalry, as well as 26 light artillery batteries and 5 independent companies
of sharpshooters. According to Dyer (1908), the total fatalities among these
units numbered 35,475 men, including hundreds of officers, which is more than
10% of all the Buckeyes in uniform during the war, and more than 30,000 wounded
Ohioans returned home. Dead and wounded totaled more than
65,000.
In response to the call to arms by President
Lincoln to suppress the rebellion in 1861, Ohio raised 23 volunteer infantry
regiments for three months' service, 10 more regiments than the state's quota.
When it became evident that the war would not end quickly, Ohio began
raising regiments for three-year terms of enlistment. At first the majority were
stocked with eager volunteers and recruits. Before the war's end, they would be
joined by 8,750 draftees. Ohio troops fought in nearly every major battle and
campaign during the war.
Numerous leading generals and army commanders
hailed from Ohio. The General-in-Chief of the Union armies, Ulysses S. Grant,
was born in Clermont County in 1822. Among the 19 major generals from Ohio were
William T. Sherman, Philip H. Sheridan, Don Carlos Buell, Jacob D. Cox, George
Crook, George Armstrong Custer, James A. Garfield, Irvin McDowell, James B.
McPherson, William S. Rosecrans, and Alexander M. McCook (of the "Fighting
McCook" family, which sent a number of generals into the service). The state
would contribute 53 brigadier generals.
A handful of Confederate generals were
Ohio-born, including Bushrod Johnson of Belmont County and Robert H. Hatton of
Steubenville. Charles Clark of Cincinnati led a division in the Army of
Mississippi during the Battle of Shiloh in 1862 and he became the Governor of
Mississippi in 1863. Noted Confederate guerrilla Capt. William Quantrill was
also born and raised in Ohio. In addition to Grant and Garfield, three other
Ohio Civil War veterans would become President of the United States in the
decades following the war: William McKinley of Canton, Rutherford B. Hayes of
Fremont, and Benjamin Harrison of the greater Cincinnati area.
Dozens of small camps were established across
the state to train and drill the new regiments. Two large military posts were
created: Camp Chase in Columbus and Camp Dennison near Cincinnati. The 1st
Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI) would eventually be joined on the muster
rolls by more than 100 additional infantry regiments. Ohioans first engaged in
military action at the Battle of Philippi Races in June 1861, where the 14th and
16th Ohio Infantry participated in the Union victory. Ohioans comprised
one-fifth of the Union army at the April 1862 Battle of Shiloh, where 1,676
Buckeyes suffered casualties. Ohio would suffer its highest casualty count at
the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863, with 3,591 killed or wounded.
Another 1,351 men were taken prisoner of war by the Confederates. Among these
prisoners, 36 men from the 2nd Ohio Infantry would perish in the infamous
Andersonville prison, as did hundreds more Buckeye soldiers there.
Several Buckeye regiments played critical roles
in other important battles. The 8th OVI was instrumental in helping repulse
Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg. At the same battle, the 66th OVI
flanked repeated Confederate assaults and helped secure the crest of Culp's
Hill. George Nixon, great-grandfather of President Richard Nixon, died at
Gettysburg in the 73rd OVI.
John Clem, celebrated as "Johnny Shiloh" and
"The Drummer Boy of Chickamauga," became the youngest person to become a
noncommissioned officer in United States Army history. More than 100 soldiers
from Ohio units earned the Medal of Honor during the conflict. Several were
awarded the medal for the ill-fated Great Locomotive
Chase.
President Lincoln had a habit on the eve of a
battle of asking how many Ohio men would participate. When someone inquired why,
Lincoln remarked, "Because I know that if there are many Ohio soldiers to be
engaged, it is probable we will win the battle, for they can be relied upon in
such an emergency."
Small-scale riots commenced in ethnic German and
Irish districts, and in areas along the Ohio River with many Copperheads. Holmes
County, Ohio, was an isolated area dominated by Pennsylvania Dutch and some
recent German immigrants. It was a Democratic stronghold and few men dared speak
publicly in favor of conscription. Local politicians denounced Lincoln and
Congress as despotic, seeing the draft law as a violation of their local
autonomy. In June 1863, small scale disturbances commenced, but they ceased when
U.S. army units arrived.
Unlike its neighbors West Virginia, Kentucky,
and Pennsylvania, Ohio was spared from serious military encounters. In September
1862, Confederate forces under Brig. Gen. Henry Heth marched through northern
Kentucky and threatened Cincinnati. They turned away after encountering strong
Union fortifications south of the Ohio River. Not long afterwards, Brig. Gen.
Albert G. Jenkins briefly passed through the extreme southern tip of Ohio during
a raid. It was not until the summer of 1863 that Confederates arrived in force,
when John Hunt Morgan's cavalry division traversed southern and eastern Ohio
during Morgan's Raid. Although Morgan's Raid lacked tactical or strategic
military significance, it terrorized the local populace and it culminated in
Morgan's capture in Columbiana County. The Battle of Buffington Island was the
largest fought in Ohio during the Civil War.
By the end of the war, the Union's top three
generals–Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Philip Sheridan–were
Ohioans.
Prisoner-of-War Camps
Camp Chase
Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio, was a military
staging, training and prison camp during the Civil War. Camp Chase, also known
as Camp Chase Prison, was one of the five largest prisons in the North for
Confederate prisoners-of-war. Camp Chase's prison population peaked at 9,423 on
January 31, 1865. The Army ensured that the graves of those who died were marked
with thin headboards and "only the number of the grave and name of its
individual occupant;" thus the "graves of the Confederate soldiers were not
marked as soldiers, and remained thus inadequately," until the 20th century when
Congress approved efforts to recognize the sacrifice of CSA
soldiers.
Camp Chase was officially dedicated June 20,
1861. It is named in honor of Salmon Portland Chase (1808-1873), former governor
of Ohio, the Secretary of the Treasury under President Abraham Lincoln, and
later Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Initially designated as a
training camp for new recruits in the Union Army, Camp Chase was converted to a
military prison as the first prisoners of war arrived from western Virginia. In
the early months of the Civil War, Camp Chase primarily held political
prisoners--judges, legislators and mayors from Kentucky and Virginia accused of
loyalty to the Confederacy. In early 1862, Camp Chase served briefly as a prison
for Confederate officers. But after a military prison for Confederate officers
opened at Johnson's Island, Ohio, Camp Chase housed only non-commissioned
officers, enlisted men, and political prisoners.
In February 1862, 800 prisoners of war (officers
and enlisted men) arrived at Camp Chase. Included among the 800 Confederate
soldiers were approximately 75 African Americans; about half of whom were
slaves, the other half being servants to the confederate officers. Much to the
horror and dismay of the citizens of Columbus, these men continued to serve
their master's in the prison camp. An Ohio Legislative committee was formed and
protests over the continued enslavement of these men were sent to Washington
D.C. The African Americans were finally released in April and May of 1862; some
then enlisted in the Union army.
According to an exchange agreement reached
between North and South on July 22, 1862, Camp Chase was to operate as a way
station for the immediate repatriation (return to country of birth or
citizenship) of Confederate soldiers. After this agreement was mutually
abandoned July 13, 1863, the facility swelled with new prisoners, and military
inmates quickly outnumbered political prisoners. By the end of the war, Camp
Chase held 26,000 of all 36,000 Confederate POWs retained in Ohio military
prisons. Crowded and unhealthy living conditions at Camp Chase took a heavy toll
among prisoners. Despite newly constructed barracks in 1864, which raised the
prison capacity to 8,000 men, the facility was soon operating well over
capacity. Rations for prisoners were reduced in retaliation against alleged
mistreatment at Southern POW camps. Many prisoners suffered from malnutrition
and died from smallpox, typhoid fever or pneumonia. Others, even those who
received meager clothing provisions, suffered from severe exposure during the
especially cold winter of 1865. In all, 2,229 soldiers died at Camp Chase by
July 5, 1865, when it officially closed.
Johnson's Island
Johnson's Island was a 300-acre island in
Sandusky Bay, located on the coast of Lake Erie, 3 miles from the city of
Sandusky, Ohio. It was the site of a prisoner-of-war camp for Confederate
officers captured during the Civil War. Although Johnson's Island, also known as
Johnson’s Island Prison Camp, was the only Union prison exclusively for Southern
officers, it also detained some Confederate enlisted soldiers. The first
prisoners arrived in April 1862. During the period of 40 months the prison was
operational, at least 12,000 Confederate officers were imprisoned at Johnson's
Island. Among the prominent Confederate generals imprisoned on Johnson's Island,
both captured during the Battle of Gettysburg, were Isaac R. Trimble and James
J. Archer.
More than 12,000 men passed through Johnson’s
Island until it was closed in September 1865. Approximately 200 prisoners died
as a result of the harsh winters, food and fuel shortages, and disease.
Johnson's Island had one of the lowest mortality rates of any Civil War prison.
Although Confederates made many escape attempts, including efforts by some to
walk across the frozen Lake Erie to freedom in Canada, few escapes were
successful.
| Ohio Penitentiary
The Ohio Penitentiary, also known as the Ohio
State Penitentiary, was a prison Columbus, Ohio. The Ohio Penitentiary in
Columbus was a three-story stone structure with heavy iron bars on the windows
and doors of cell blocks. It was used to house hardened convicts until July 30,
1863, when David Todd, governor of Ohio, informed Warden Nathaniel Merion that
the prison would also detain Confederate prisoners-of-war. During the war, the
penitentiary detained less than 400 men.
Four days prior, Confederate cavalry General
John Hunt Morgan and 364 of his men had been captured at the end of the longest
cavalry raid of the war. They had terrorized the populations of Indiana and Ohio
as they traveled and traversed more than 700 miles through said states in 25
days. Because Camp Chase, the prisoner-of-war camp outside Columbus, was not
considered secure enough for Morgan’s Raiders, they were confined at the Ohio
Penitentiary.
Morgan and 30 of his officers were thrown into
the general prison population of felons in the penitentiary. They were also
denied all visitors, and had to endure the humiliation of having their heads
shaved and wearing convict clothes. These soldiers were occasionally punished by
being put on a bread and water diet and placed in solitary confinement in “dank,
pitch-black prison cells.” Said treatment of Morgan and fellow Confederates was
contrary to the rules governing the confinement of prisoners-of-war. However, on
the night of November 27, 1863, Morgan and six of his officers escaped. They had
toiled for 20 days with two small knives to gouge out a tunnel to freedom.
Morgan returned to his cavalry activities in Tennessee after his escape, but, at
Greeneville, Tennessee, in 1864, he was killed by Union
cavalry.
Aftermath
After the Civil War, Ohio became
one of the major industrial states in the northern tier, connected to the Great
Lakes area, from where it received raw commodities, and able to transport its
products of manufacturing and farming to New York and the East Coast via
railroads. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, its growing industries
attracted thousands of new people for the expanding number of jobs, both blacks
from the South, in the Great Migration, and immigrants from Europe. As a result,
the cultures of its major cities and later suburbs became much more diverse with
the traditions, cultures, foods and music of the new arrivals. Its industries
were integral to US power during and after World War II. Economic restructuring
in steel and other manufacturing cost the state many jobs in the later 20th
century as heavy industry declined. New economic models have led to different
kinds of development in the late 20th and 21st
centuries.
See also Ohio Civil War History
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