Introduction

Indiana became the 19th U.S. state when was admitted to the Union on December 11, 1816.

The history in Indiana, a state in the Midwestern United States, began with migratory tribes of Native Americans who inhabited Indiana as early as 8000 BC. Tribes succeeded one another in dominance for several thousand years and reached their peak of development during the period of Mississippian culture. The region entered recorded history in the 1670s when the first Europeans came to Indiana and claimed the territory for the Kingdom of France. At the conclusion of the French and Indian War and after one hundred years of French rule, the region was claimed by Britain for twenty years. After the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War, the entire trans-Allegheny region, including what is now Indiana, was ceded to the United States.

The United States government divided the trans-Allegheny region into several new territories. The largest of these was the Northwest Territory, which was progressively divided into several smaller territories by the United States Congress. In 1800, the Indiana Territory was the first new territory established from a portion of the Northwest Territory. The territory grew in population and development until it was admitted to the Union in 1816 as the nineteenth state, Indiana. Following statehood, the newly established state government laid out on an ambitious plan to transform Indiana from a segment of the frontier into a developed, well-populated, and thriving state. The state's founders initiated a program that led to the construction of roads, canals, railroads, and state-funded public schools. Despite the noble aims of the project, profligate spending ruined the state's credit. By 1841 the state was near bankruptcy and forced to liquidate most of its public works. During the 1850s, the state's population grew to exceed one million. The ambitious program of its founders was realized as Indiana became the fourth-largest state in terms of population, as measured by the 1860 census.

At the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861-1865), Indiana was run by a Democratic and Southern sympathetic majority in the state legislature. Despite significant anti-war activity in the state and southern Indiana's ancestral ties to the Southern United States, it did not secede from the Union. It was, however, by the actions of Governor Oliver Morton, who illegally borrowed millions of dollars to finance the army, that Indiana could contribute so greatly to the war effort. Morton suppressed the state legislature with the help of the Republican minority to prevent it from assembling during 1861 and 1862. This prevented any chance the Democrats might have had to interfere with the war effort or to attempt to secede from the Union.

Indiana, a free state and the boyhood home of Abraham Lincoln, remained a member of the Union during the Civil War. Indiana regiments were involved in all the major engagements of the war and almost all the engagements in the western theater. Residents of Indiana, also known as Hoosiers, were present in the first and last battles of the war. During the war, Indiana provided 126 infantry regiments, 26 batteries of artillery, and 13 regiments of cavalry to the cause of the Union. The state also 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 in the capital city, Indianapolis.

In the initial call to arms issued in 1861, Indiana was assigned a quota of 4,683 men to join the Union Army in suppressing the Southern rebellion. In the Federal government's subsequent calls for troops during the Civil War, Indiana met each call with fervor and enthusiasm. The state met each Union quota and also raised numerous state units, including militia, guard, reserve, and independent. Before the war ended, Indiana contributed 208,367 men to fight and serve in the war. Casualties were high among these men: 24,416 lost their lives in the conflict and over 50,000 more were wounded.

The U.S. Civil War altered Indiana's society, politics, and economy, beginning a population shift northward and leading to a decline in the population of the southern part of the state. Wartime tariffs led to an increase in the population's standard of living and encouraged the growth of industry in the state.

The conflict had a major impact on the development of Indiana. Before the war, the population was generally in the south of the state where easy access to the Ohio River provided a cheap and convenient means to export products and agriculture to New Orleans to be sold. The war closed the Mississippi River to traffic for nearly four years, forcing Indiana to find other means to export its produce. This led to a population shift to the north where the state came to rely more on the Great Lakes and the railroad for exports.

Secession Crisis

Although winning only 40% of the vote nationwide in 1860, Abraham Lincoln won Indiana's 13 electoral votes with 51.09% of the vote statewide, compared to Stephen Douglas's 42.44%, John Breckenridge's 4.52%, and John Bell's 1.95%.

Due to their location across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky, the Indiana cities of Jeffersonville, New Albany, and Port Fulton saw increased trade and military activity. Some of this increase was due to Kentucky's desire to stay neutral in the war. In addition, Kentucky was home to many Confederate sympathizers, and bases were needed for Union operations against Confederates in Kentucky. Militarily, it was safer to store war supplies in towns on the north side of the Ohio River. Camp Joe Holt was established between Jeffersonville and New Albany in what is the present-day visitor's center of the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville, Indiana. Towards the end of the war, Port Fulton was home to the third-largest hospital in the United States, Jefferson General Hospital, which was built on land confiscated from expelled U.S. Senator and Confederate sympathizer Jesse D. Bright.

In 1861, when Kentucky governor Beriah Magoffin refused an order to allow pro-Union forces to mobilize in his state—he issued a similar order regarding Confederate forces—Indiana governor Morton issued orders allowing loyal Kentuckians to join Indiana regiments. Many Kentucky troops, especially from the city of Louisville, joined Hoosier regiments at Camp Joe Holt. Morton repeatedly came to the military rescue of Kentucky's pro-Union government during the war and became known as the "Governor of Indiana and Kentucky." Morton also was called the "Soldier’s Friend" because he organized the General Military Agency of Indiana, the Soldiers' Home, Ladies' Home, and Orphans' Home to help meet the needs of Indiana's soldiers and their families. Morton also established an arsenal in Indianapolis to supply the Indiana Militia, Home Guard, and the Federal government.

The Civil War era showed the extent of Southern influence on Indiana. Much of southern and central Indiana had strong ties to the South. Many of the region's early settlers had come from the Confederate state of Virginia and from Kentucky. Indiana and Kentucky always had a special friendship, and the Hoosiers were influenced by the actions of the Kentucky government, which attempted to stay neutral in the beginning stages of the war. Governor Morton wrote to President Abraham Lincoln that no other free state was so populated with Southerners, and they kept Morton from being as forceful against secession as he wanted to be.

Indiana Senator Jesse D. Bright had been a leader among the Indiana Democratic Party for several years prior to the outbreak of the war. In 1862, Bright was expelled from the United States Senate on allegations of disloyalty. He had written a letter to "His Excellency, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederation", in which Bright offered the services of a friend to sell the South firearms. As of 2011, he was the last senator to be expelled from the Senate. Bright was replaced with a pro-Union Democrat, former governor Joseph A. Wright.

While not particularly numerous, some Hoosiers chose to fight for the South. Most traveled to Kentucky to join Confederate regiments formed in that state. Sgt. Henry L. Stone of Greencastle rode with John Hunt Morgan when he raided Indiana. The exact number of Hoosiers to serve in Confederate armies is unknown, but there are numerous references to such men. Former U.S. Army officer Francis A. Shoup briefly led the Indianapolis Zouave militia, but left for Florida prior to the start of the war and ultimately become a Confederate brigadier general. See also Indiana in the American Civil War: A History.

Sentiment

On April 21, 1861, Morton called a special session of the Indiana General Assembly to allow him to raise additional regiments for service in the Union Army. Initially the legislature, which was controlled by the Democratic Party, was supportive of his measures and passed the legislation Morton requested. After the legislature adjourned in May, the Indiana Daily Sentinel newspaper and some prominent Democrats in the state changed their opinion of the war. The Sentinel ran anti-war articles, including one entitled "Let Them Go In Peace". The Democratic position was clarified at a state convention in the summer of 1862. The convention was chaired by Thomas Hendricks, and convention members stated that they supported the integrity of the Union and the war effort but opposed the abolition of slavery.

According to the 1860 U.S. census, Indiana, a free state, had a population of 1,350,428.

Abraham Lincoln established one of the United States' first national cemeteries, New Albany National Cemetery, for the war dead in New Albany, Indiana. Port Fulton, Indiana, in present-day Jeffersonville, was home to the third-largest Union military hospital, Jefferson General Hospital. Indianapolis was the site of Camp Morton, one of the Union's largest prisons for captured Confederate soldiers, with Lafayette, Richmond, and Terre Haute occasionally holding prisoners of war as well.

Many of Indiana's 137 regiments served with distinction in the war. The regiments each consisted of approximately 1,500 men when formed, but as their numbers declined due to casualties, smaller regiments were merged. The first six regiments mustered at the start of the war were enlisted for six months and were put into action in the western theater. Their short terms of service and few numbers were inadequate for the task of fighting the war, and by the end of 1861, Indiana fielded an additional sixty-five regiments whose men enlisted for terms of three years. These three-year regiments were employed in large part in the western theater. As the war progressed, another forty-eight regiments were mustered in 1862, with about half being sent to the eastern theater, and the other half remaining in the west. During 1863, eighteen regiments were raised to replace the casualties of the first two years' fighting. During Morgan's Raid of that year, ten temporary regiments were created and enlisted for terms of three months apiece, but disbanded once the threat posed by Morgan was gone. The last twenty-five regiments created in the state were mustered in 1864, and served until the end of the war. Most of Indiana's regiments were mustered out and disbanded by the end of 1864 as fighting declined, but some continued in service. The 13th Regiment Indiana Cavalry was the last regiment from the state to be mustered out of the U.S. Army, leaving service on November 10, 1865.

During the conflict, the 19th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment served as part of the famed Iron Brigade, and made critical contributions to some of the most important engagements of the war, including the Second Battle of Bull Run, but was nearly decimated in the Battle of Gettysburg. The 19th, furthermore, was one of the few regiments in the Union Army that fought in two battles and during each engagement lost greater than 50% of its troops engaged. According to Fox's Regimental Losses, the 19th lost 259 of the 423 (61.2%) engaged at Bull Run, and later suffered 160 casualties of the 288 (55.5%) engaged in the struggle at Gettysburg. See also Ten Bloodiest, Deadliest, and Costliest Battles of the Civil War.

Fox indicated that only 45 Union infantry regiments suffered more than 200 battle deaths during the four year war. (Most soldiers died of disease and not battle.) Although the 20th Indiana Infantry was the only unit from Indiana on the list, for it suffered a total of 201 in killed and mortally wounded, it lost and additional 113 from disease, and the regiment's total casualty rate, including wounded, was 771. The total casualties for the 20th Indiana were the highest of any unit for the state, followed by the 19th Indiana, for it had suffered 199 in killed and mortally wounded, another 119 succumbed to disease, and the total casualties for the unit were 712. (Not counted in the 19th's total was an additional 126 captured and missing.)

The 14th Indiana Infantry Regiment, also called the Gallant Fourteenth, was another notable Indiana regiment. In the Battle of Gettysburg, it was the regiment that secured Cemetery Hill on the first day of the three-day fight and prevented the possible destruction of the Union Army. Another famous regiment was the 9th Indiana Infantry Regiment, which fought in many major battles and was among the first Hoosier regiments to see action in the war.

The 28th Indiana Colored Infantry Regiment was formed on March 31, 1864, at Camp Fremont in Indianapolis near what is now the Fountain Square district. It was the only black regiment formed in Indiana during the war and lost 212 men during the conflict. The regiment signed on for 36 months, but the war was effectively over in fewer than eleven months from their enlistment, cutting the regiment's length of service short.

The last casualty of the Civil War was a Hoosier of the 34th Regiment Indiana Infantry. Private John J. Williams died at the Battle of Palmito Ranch, Texas, on May 13, 1865. See also Indiana in the American Civil War: A History.

Morgan's Raid

Indiana regiments were present on most battlefields of the Civil War and saw much fighting outside of the state. Only one significant conflict, which caused a brief panic in Indianapolis and southern Indiana, occurred on Indiana soil during the war.

Confederate officer Adam Johnson briefly captured Newburgh, Indiana, on July 18, 1862, during the Newburgh Raid. Johnson convinced the Union troops garrisoning the town that he had cannon on the surrounding hills, when in fact they were merely camouflaged stovepipes. The raid convinced the Federal government that it was necessary to supply Indiana with a permanent force of regular Union Army soldiers to counter future raids.

The one major incursion into Indiana by the Confederate Army was Morgan's Raid. The raid occurred in July 1863 and was a Confederate cavalry offensive by troops under the command of Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan. In preparation for Morgan's planned raid, Hines' Raid, a minor incursion, was carried out by troops under Thomas Hines in June 1863.

On July 8, 1863, Morgan crossed the Ohio River at Mauckport, Indiana, with 2,400 Confederate cavalry. His landing was initially contested by a small party of the Indiana Legion, who withdrew when Morgan began firing artillery from the southern shore of the river. The militia quickly retreated towards Corydon, where a larger body of militia was gathering to block Morgan's advance. Morgan advanced rapidly on Corydon and fought the Battle of Corydon. After a short, fierce fight, Morgan took command of high ground south of the town. Corydon promptly surrendered after Morgan's artillery fired two warning shots into the town from the high ground. The town was sacked, but little damage was done to buildings in the town. As a result of the battle, Morgan suffered 11 killed and 40 wounded, and the Federals lost 4 killed, 12 wounded, and 355 from the Indiana Legion were captured by the Confederates. Morgan continued his raid by moving northward and burning most of the town of Salem.

His movements appeared to be a charge at Indianapolis, and panic spread throughout the capital. Governor Morton had called up the state militia as soon as Morgan's intention to cross into the state was known and at least 60,000 men of all ages offered their assistance to repel Morgan's Raid. After destroying Salem, Morgan, however, swiftly continued raiding and pillaging his way toward the Indiana-Ohio border, leaving Indiana through West Harrision on July 13, thus ending Indiana's only military confrontation of the war. Morgan had considered attacking Camp Morton in Indianapolis to free more than 5,000 Confederate prisoners-of-war, but decided against it

The Hoosiers had fought in many of the major battles and campaigns of the Civil War, and the state's casualty rate indicates that the men had defended, fought, and died for the Union with the same zeal and loyalty of any other Northern state. 

Camp Morton

Camp Morton, also known as Camp Morton Prison, was a Union prisoner-of-war camp located in Indianapolis, Indiana, during the Civil War. It was named for Indiana governor Oliver Morton, who was the governor of Indiana during the War. It lasted from 1861-1865. Originally intended to simply be a training ground, after the Battle of Shiloh the former home of the Indiana State Fair became one of more important prisoner-of-war camps. Not a trace of the camp remains, but Confederates who died while prisoners are buried nearby in Indianapolis' Crown Hill Cemetery.

After the removal of United States forces occupying Fort Sumter, Morton volunteered to President Abraham Lincoln 10,000 Indiana troops to invade the South. Morton looked for a place to train these new recruits. He chose the ground of the then-new Indiana State Fairgrounds, naming the facility Camp Morton, after himself. It had previously been Henderson's Grove, after Samuel Henderson, the first mayor of Indianapolis. It was a 36-acre tract north of the city. Its borders were loosely the present-day roads of 19th Street, Central Avenue, 22nd Street, and Talbott Street. Alabama St. runs through the center of what was the camp.

In a span of two days, the fairgrounds were quickly converted to a military facility. The barracks were cattle and horse stalls. The hospital was originally the power hall. The guardhouses were converted offices. The first recruits arrived at the facility on April 17, 1861, four days after the surrender at Fort Sumter. Originally the facility had difficulties accommodating so many men and the necessary equipment, tents, and food to support them, but in a few weeks order was eventually established. The soldiers had to bathe in Fall Creek. Many residents of Indianapolis saw the camp as a center of attraction.

After the fall of Fort Donelson on February 15, 1862, near present-day Clarksville, Tennessee, Governor Morton informed Union general Henry W. Halleck that Camp Morton could hold 3,000 Confederate prisoners. On February 22, more than 3,700 Confederate prisoners arrived at the camp. Having arrived from battle, the Confederate soldiers lacked adequate food and clothing, and unaccustomed to Northern winters, the death rate among the unfortunate Confederate prisoners was high. March 1862 witnessed the deaths of 144 prisoners.

The period from 1863 to the parole of the last prisoner on June 12, 1865, saw an average prison population of 3,214 and 50 deaths per month, with the maximums for each figure being 4,999 and 133 respectively. During its existence, it was reported that Camp Morton detained 12,082 prisoners and 1,763, or 14.6%, died.

Social

More than half the state's households contributed one or more members to fight in the war. This made the effects of the conflict widely felt throughout the state. After the war, veterans programs were initiated to help wounded soldiers with housing, food, and other basic needs. Orphanages and asylums were established to help the wives and children of the war dead. In terms of the war dead, more Hoosiers died in the Civil War than in any other conflict. Although twice as many men were mustered in World War II, more than twice as many Hoosiers died in the Civil War. The tariffs on imported goods put in place during the war increased the profits on most of Indiana's domestically produced goods. This led to a higher standard of living for many Hoosiers in rural Indiana.

The 1870s saw the beginning of the Women's Suffrage Movement in Indiana. Suffrage legislation was introduced in the Indiana General Assembly during the term of Governor Thomas Hendricks, but the bill was defeated. The decade also saw the start of the Prohibition Movement and the founding of many temperance organizations. In the immediate aftermath of the war, many localities banned the sale or production of liquors. The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in downtown Indianapolis was built to honor the Indiana veterans of the Civil War. The construction began in 1888 after two decades of discussion and was finally completed in 1901.

*It is not claimed that these are the Three Hundred Fighting Regiments of the Army; but, that they are three hundred regiments which evidently did considerable fighting. There were, undoubtedly, others which did equally good or, perhaps, better fighting, and their gallant services will be fully recognized by the writers who are conversant with their history. But, for lack of other information, this chapter deals only with those which sustained the heaviest losses in battle. It includes every regiment in the Union Armies which lost over 130 in killed and died of wounds during the war, together with a few whose losses were somewhat smaller, but whose percentage of killed entitles them to a place in the list. It may be suggested that large casualty lists are not necessarily indicative of the fighting qualities of a regiment; that on many occasions regiments have rendered valuable service and achieved a brilliant success with but slight loss. Granted, as regards some particular action or instance; but, in the long run active service brings its many scars; where the musketry was the hottest, the dead lay thickest; and there is no better way to find the fighting regiments than to follow up the bloody trail which marked their brave advance. Fox, William F. Regimental Losses In The American Civil War 1861-1865. Albany: Albany Publishing Company. 1889.

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