OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Ohio in the Civil War Pt 1 *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 September 30, 1999 *********************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio Diaries of S. J. Kelly Plains Dealer Know Your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley *********************************************************************** Ohio in the Civil War -- Part 1 The Civil war transformed Ohio from a commercial state to many cities dependant on manuacturing. Migrating settlers transplanted their religious, political and social ideals to the western reserve including the abhorrence of slavery. Not all Ohioians hated slavery, nor were they convinced that a civil war would resolve the deep-rooted ideological differences. As the country moved to the election of 1860, and closer toward war, the rhetoric and emotional appeal of partisian was being editorialized in newspapers and somewhat clouded the issues. President Lincoln was wont to ask on the eve of a battle, how many Ohio men would participate. When he was asked why, he 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." Ohio provided 315 organizations of military units in the civil war. There were 6,536 killed in action, 4,674 died in hospitals, and 13,354 died of deseases contracted while in service. Hundreds of others sacrificed arms and legs, or were partially disabled in other ways for the remainder of their lives. Grant, Sherman and Sheridan, the three generals commonly acknowledged as having possessed superior military talents and accredited with leading the Federal forces to some of the greatest victories, were all natives of Ohio. Besides these, Ohio produced 19 major generals and 53 brigadier generals, with a total enlistment of 340,000 soldiers. Newspapers-- Politics -- & activities Cleveland citizens consistantly supported the war policy of the Lincoln administration. This was expressed in 3 forms, election returns; positions of the editors of the Leader, the Herald and the Plain Dealer; and the support that local government gave to military establishments and military related activities, including the recruitment of volunteers. The republican party had solid support in all counties of Ohio, except Huron by 1855. In 1859, republican George B. Senter was elected mayor with a majority of republican council members. City elections were dominated by the Union party [Republican] ticket in the years 1863-65. The greatest threat to Ohio republicans and to the Lincoln administration occurred during the gubernational election of 1863. Copperhead or Peace democrate Clement L. Vallandigham of Dayton ran against Cleveland democrat John Brough, who ran on the statewide Union party ticket. Copperhead activity, although limited, found its major voice in Plain Dealer editorial policy, which supported Vallandigham's candidacy and a platform of a negotiated peace with the Confederacy. The Cuyahoga County Union Central Committee polled the county before the election. In Brooklyn Twp., 650 voters counted as potential Union Party Brough supporters, and 225 as Vallandigham " traitors and doubtful " supporters. The poll excluded convalesscent soldiers at the U.S. General Hospital, but the officers there assured the Central Committee that the 200-300 patients were Brough men. Soldiers particularly opposed Vallandigham's peace position. As early as July 1861, Clevelander's in an unidentified regiment threatened to ride him out of their camp on a rail, calling him "secessionist" and "traitor" as he visited troops near Washington D.C. Officers extricated him from the encampment and kept the peace. In March 1862, 75 men of the 2D Ohio Volunteer Calvalry. many of them Clevelanders, destroyed the office and presses of the anti-Lincoln newspaper, Crisis, while wintering in Columbus. Bough beat Vallandigham soundly in the Oct election, with a majority of votes in Cuyoga County, he carried Cleveland. Support of the Lincoln adminisration continued to the 1864 presidential race. Lincoln won against Democrat George B. McClellan in Ohio by overwelming vote. The Union party received support from Democrats who backed the Lincoln administration. It found voice in the Herald, a moderate newspaper, and the Leader, which took a radical stance but by the war's end supported the Lincoln administration rather then congressional control of reconstruction. The Plain Dealer, edited by Democrat Joseph W. Gray, supported Stephen Douglas's Presdential candidacy in 1860 and like Douglas, backed Lincoln during te secession crisis of 1861. Gray's death in 1862, led to the editorship of J.S. Stephenson, who turned the paper into an anti-Lincoln orgin that supported the latter. Stephenson was replaced by William W. Armstrong in March 1865, who again made the Plain Dealer, a responsible opposition publication of the Democratic party. The issue of emancipation proved to be one of the most emotional issues of the war in Cleveland. Of the proposed Jan1, 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, Herald editor Josiah A. Harris, wrote that emancipation was necessary to defeat the south. Leader editor Edwin Cowles held that the north was morally right in emancipating slaves and that Lincoln was to be commended " for the stalwart blow he struck for freedom and for peace and future tranquility of the Union." Democrats, however, condemned emancipation. The war they felt, was being fought to preserve the union, not abolitionism. Stephenson of the Plain Dealer was replaced by William W. Armstrong in March 1865, who again made the Plain Dealer a responsible opposition publication of the Democratic party. ********************************************* Ohio in the civil war continues in part 2 --