Indiana, a state in the Midwest, played an important role in supporting the Union during the American Civil War. Despite anti-war activity within the state, and southern Indiana's ancestral ties to the South, Indiana was a strong supporter of the Union. Indiana contributed approximately 210,000 Union soldiers, sailors, and marines. Indiana's soldiers served in 308 military engagements during the war; the majority of them in the western theater, between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains. Indiana's war-related deaths reached 25,028 (7,243 from battle and 17,785 from disease). Its state government provided funds to purchase equipment, food, and supplies for troops in the field. Indiana, an agriculturally rich state containing the fifth-highest population in the Union, was critical to the North's success due to its geographical location, large population, and agricultural production. Indiana residents, also known as Hoosiers, supplied the Union with manpower for the war effort, a railroad network and access to the Ohio River and the Great Lakes, and agricultural products such as grain and livestock. The state experienced two minor raids by Confederate forces, and one major raid in 1863, which caused a brief panic in southern portions of the state and its capital city, Indianapolis.
Indiana experienced significant political strife during the war, especially after Governor Oliver P. Morton suppressed the Democratic-controlled state legislature, which had an anti-war (Copperhead) element. Major debates related to the issues of slavery and emancipation, military service for African Americans, and the draft, ensued. These led to violence. In 1863, after the state legislature failed to pass a budget and left the state without the authority to collect taxes, Governor Morton acted outside his state's constitutional authority to secure funding through federal and private loans to operate the state government and avert a financial crisis.
The American Civil War altered Indiana's society, politics, and economy, beginning a population shift to central and northern Indiana, and contributed to a relative decline in the southern part of the state. Increased wartime manufacturing and industrial growth in Hoosier cities and towns ushered in a new era of economic prosperity. By the end of the war, Indiana had become a less rural state than it previously had been. Indiana's votes were closely split between the parties for several decades after the war, making it one of a few key swing states that often decided national elections. Between 1868 and 1916, five Indiana politicians were vice-presidential nominees on the major party tickets. In 1888 Benjamin Harrison, one of the state's former Civil War generals, was elected president of the United States.
Indiana's contributions
Indiana was the first of the country's western states to mobilize for the Civil War. When news reached Indiana of the attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861, many Indiana residents were surprised, but their response was immediate. On the following day, two mass meetings were held in Indianapolis, the state capital of Indiana, and the state's position was decided: Indiana would remain in the Union and would immediately contribute men to suppress the rebellion. On April 15, Indiana's governor, Oliver P. Morton, issued a call for volunteer soldiers to meet the state's quota set by President Abraham Lincoln.
Indiana's geographical location in the Midwest, its large population, and its agricultural production made the state's wartime support critical to the Union's success. Indiana, with the fifth-largest population of the states that remained in the Union, could supply much-needed manpower for the war effort, its railroad network and access to the Ohio River and the Great Lakes could transport troops and supplies, and its agricultural yield, which became even more valuable to the Union after the loss of the rich farmland of the South, could provide grain and livestock.Barnhart, p. 191.
Military service On April 15, 1861, President Lincoln called for a total of 75,000 volunteers to join the Union army. On the same day, Governor Morton telegraphed the president offering 10,000 Indiana volunteers. The state's initial quota was set at six regiments (a total of 4,683 men) for three months of service. Orders were issued on April 16 to form the state's first regiments and to gather at Indianapolis. On the first day, five hundred men were encamped in the city; within a week more than 12,000 Hoosier volunteers had signed up to fight for the Union, nearly three times as many needed to meet the state's initial quota.Thornbrough, p. 124.
Governor Morton and Lew Wallace, Indiana's adjutant general, established Camp Morton at the state fairgrounds in Indianapolis as the initial gathering place and training camp for the state's Union volunteers. (Camp Morton was converted to a prisoner-of-war camp in 1862.)Parsons, p. 13. By April 27, Indiana's first six regiments were fully organized as the First Brigade, Indiana Volunteers, under the command of Brigadier General Thomas A. Morris. Members of companies not selected for these first regiments were given the option of volunteering for three years of service or returning home until they were needed; some companies formed into regiments in the state militia and were called into federal service within a few weeks.Parsons, p. 21.
Indiana ranked second among the states in terms of the percentage of its men of military age who served in the Union army. Indiana contributed 208,367 men, roughly 15 percent of the state's total population to serve in the Union army,Other references state that 193,748 white men and 1,537 colored troops from Indiana served in the Union army. See See also and 2,130 to serve in the navy. Most of Indiana's soldiers were volunteers; 11,718 were re-enlistments.Barnhart, p. 221. Deserters numbered 10,846.
Indiana's volunteers responded to requests for military service in the early months of the war; however, as the war progressed and the number of casualties increased, the state government had to resort to conscription (the draft) to fill its quotas.Madison, p. 159.Thornbrough, p. 104. Military conscription, which began in October 1862, was a divisive issue within the state. It was especially unpopular among Democrats, who viewed it as a threat to individual freedom and opposed legislation that allowed a man to purchase an exemption for $300 or pay another person to serve as his substitute. A total of 3,003 Hoosier men were drafted in October 1862; subsequent drafts in Indiana brought the total to 17,903.Terrell, v. 1, p. 44.
Indiana's volunteers and draftees provided the Union army with 129 infantry regiments,Dyer's summary of Indiana's troops in A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion reports a total of 152 infantry regiments, but this number includes thirteen Indiana regiments that did not fully organize, fourteen that formed into cavalry and heavy artillery regiments, and a regiment of U.S. colored troops. See Fox, pp. 500–504, and 13 cavalry regiments,The 28th, 41st, 45th, 77th, 90th, 71st, 119th, 39th, 121st, 125th, 126th, 127th, and 131st Indiana Volunteers were designated as Indiana cavalry regiments 1 through 13, respectively. See Fox, p. 502. 3 cavalry companies, 1 regiment of heavy artillery,Originally formed as the 21st Indiana Infantry Regiment in 1861; it was designed as the 1st Indiana Heavy Artillery Regiment in 1863. See Terrell, p. 1110. and 26 light artillery batteries.Arville Funk, in Hoosiers In The Civil War, incorrectly reports the total number of Indiana infantry regiments as 126. See Thornbrough, p. 142. In addition to providing Union troops, Indiana also organized its own volunteer militia, known as the Indiana Legion. Formed in May 1861, the Legion was responsible for protecting Indiana's citizens from attack and maintaining order within the state.Thornbrough, p. 141.
More than 35 percent of the Hoosiers who joined the Union army became casualties: 24,416, roughly 12.6 percent of Indiana's soldiers who served, died in the conflict.Indiana's death toll from the war eventually reached 25,028, roughly 12.6 percent of those from Indiana who served. See See also Thornbrough, pp. 160–161. An estimated 48,568 soldiers, double the number of Hoosiers killed in the war, were wounded.Terrell, v. 1, Appendix, p. 115. The report explains that its totals, while not "entirely accurate," were based on the best data available at the time it was prepared. Indiana's war-related death toll eventually reached 25,028 (7,243 from battle and 17,785 from disease).Madison, p. 153.Thornbrough, pp. 160–161.
Notable leaders from Indiana
By the end of the war, Indiana could claim 46 general officers in the Union army who had at one time resided in the state. These men included Don Carlos Buell, Ambrose Burnside, Lew Wallace, Robert H. Milroy, and Joseph J. Reynolds, and Jefferson C. Davis, among others.Thornbrough, p. 162.Barnhart, p. 195.
Training and support Slightly more than 60 percent of Indiana's regiments mustered into service and trained at Indianapolis.Bodenhamer and Barrows, eds., p. 441. Other camps for Union soldiers were established elsewhere in the state, including Fort Wayne, Gosport, Jeffersonville, Kendallville, Lafayette, Richmond, South Bend, Terre Haute, Wabash, and in LaPorte County.See Terrell, v. 1, p. 12; Funk, Hoosiers In The Civil War, pp. 58–63; and
Governor Morton was called the "Soldier's Friend" because of his efforts to equip, train, and care for Union soldiers in the field. Indiana's state government financed a large portion of the costs involved in preparing its regiments for war, including housing, feeding, and equipping them, before their assignment to the standing Union armies. To secure arms for Indiana's troops, the governor appointed purchasing agents to act on the state's behalf. Early in the war, for example, Robert Dale Owen purchased more than $891,000 in arms, clothing, blankets, and cavalry equipment for Indiana troops; the state government made additional purchases of arms and supplies exceeding $260,000.Terrell, v. 1, Appendix, pp. 38–41. To provide ammunition, Morton established a state-owned arsenal at Indianapolis served the Indiana militia, home guard, and as a backup supply depot for the Union army. The state arsenal operated until April 1864, employing 700 at its peak; many of its employees were women. A federal arsenal was also established in Indianapolis in 1863.Thornbrough, p. 165.
The Indiana Sanitary Commission, created in 1862, and soldiers' aid societies throughout the state raised funds and gathered supplies for troops in the field. Hoosiers also provided other forms of support for soldiers and their families, including a Soldiers' Home and a Ladies' Home, and Orphans' Home to help meet the needs of Indiana's soldiers and their families as they passed through Indianapolis.Thornbrough, pp. 170, 176.