Wisconsin in the Civil War: Home Front and the Battle Front, 1861-1865

This long-awaited study will appeal to students, researchers, and Civil War buffs no less than to the general reader. Well-written and engaging, it presents a vivid chronological narrative of Wisconsin’s role in the pivotal event in American history, from the presidential election of 1860 to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in the spring of 1865. Despite partisan squabbling and the terrible human cost of the war, Wisconsin contributed her fair share and more to victory. By war’s end, banking and commerce had revived and expanded; agriculture, mining, and lumbering flourished despite the labor shortage; manufacturing and the railroads were poised on the brink of tremendous postwar growth. In the span of less than twenty years, Wisconsin had evolved from its frontier origins to a mature, dynamic state of the restored Union.