Torn Asunder During the Civil War
~ by Julia Pearson
The Civil War lasted from April 12, 1861, when the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina, until the surrender by General Robert E. Lee to Union General Ulysses S. Grant near the Appomattox, Virginia court house on April 9, 1865. The causes of this great tragedy are still being debated, with Pulitzer-prize winning author James McPherson writing:“ The Civil War started because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states.” With the election of Abraham Lincoln, seven southern states seceded to form a new nation, the Confederate States of America.
In Military History of Brown County by Weston A. Goodspeed, it is reported that the political campaign of 1860 was followed intently by many.“ Every township had had its company or companies of Wide- Awakes, and scarcely a night passed without public speaking and noisy and enthusiastic demonstration. The clubs of Democracy had uniformed themselves with hickory suits, erected poles, and flung the names of Douglas and Johnson or Breckinridge and Lane to the breeze. Torch-light processions and vociferous cheering had nightly disturbed the drowsy air. The few Republican clubs were jubilant and confident.”
Secret political societies played significant roles throughout the state. The Copperheads( named for the copper pennies some wore
Library of Congress
on the lapel as an identifying badge) presented a lingering wedge to the Union war effort. The Knights of the Golden Circle( KGC), founded by nebulous individual George W. L. Bickley, arose in the mid- 1850s to advance the cause of slavery and was able to recruit supporters in Indiana, including Brown County, since it tapped into a significant pocket of conservative Democrats who espoused state sovereignty.
A large number of Brown County settlers had migrated from south of the Mason Dixon Line and Democrats held the upper hand in politics.
Cultural historian Howard Mumford Jones has observed this region was“ tinctured with southern values.” For a while there were reports of 125,000 Knights of the Gold Circle in Indiana, and 1.5 million in the country. Of course, counties with Democratic majorities were viewed with suspicion. Republicans also established secret societies to combat the threat of the KGC. The groups were supported by the Republican or Union governors of the Midwestern states and were known as Loyal or Union Leagues.
44 Our Brown County • Jan./ Feb. 2018