Indianapolis in the American Civil War
Governor Oliver P. Morton, a major supporter of President Abraham Lincoln, quickly made Indianapolis a gathering place to organize and train troops for the Union army.
Local doctors aided the sick, some area women provided nursing care, and Indianapolis City Hospital tended to wounded soldiers.
In addition, street crime was prevalent, causing the city government to increase its police force and local merchants to hire private security.
In May 1863, in an incident sarcastically called the Battle of Pogue's Run, Union soldiers stopped and searched two departing trainloads of delegates to a statewide Democratic convention, many of whom tossed their personal weapons into a nearby creek.
As Indianapolis's citizens rallied in support of the Union, its population increased with the arrival of new businesses and industries that offered additional employment opportunities and spurred real estate development.
The Civil War era ushered in the beginning of the city's urban, industrial development, its connections to an expanding railroad network, and the growth of local charitable organizations.
On January 7, 1861, the Indianapolis Zouaves volunteered for service if Indiana's governor, Oliver P. Morton, requested it, but they were not needed until spring.
On February 11, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived in Indianapolis, one of several train stops he made en route to Washington, D.C., for his presidential inauguration.
Orders were issued on April 16 to form Indiana's first regiments and establish Indianapolis a gathering point for volunteers to enlist.
[9] Governor Morton and Lew Wallace, Indiana's adjutant general, quickly established Camp Morton on the former grounds of the Indiana State Fair (along Alabama Street, north of the city) as the initial mustering ground to organize and train the state's Union volunteers.
Francis A. Shoup, also from Indianapolis, briefly led the Independent Zouaves before the war, but he decided to go south and ultimately became a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army.
A mob forced Bingham to take a loyalty oath after articles critical of his political views appeared in the Indianapolis Journal.
[32] Union troops continued to organize and train at military camps in the city, as battles in Kentucky and Tennessee caused major changes to Indianapolis.
The citizens of Indianapolis rallied to provide humanitarian aid for the prisoners, which included additional food, clothing, and supplies.
[34][35] The Athenaeum, at the corner of East Michigan Street and Massachusetts Avenue, and another local building were converted into hospitals to treat the Confederate prisoners.
Soldiers' aid societies and the Indiana Sanitary Commission, established in 1862 with its headquarters in Indianapolis, raised funds and gathered supplies for troops in the field.
[42] The women of Indianapolis also organized groups, usually local Ladies' Aid Societies, to provide soldiers with blankets and clothing, and helped raise funds for additional troop supplies.
The city government increased its police force, local merchants hired private security, and guards were posted at Union Station to deal with law-enforcement issues.
The bodies of many deceased soldiers killed in the war were held at Indianapolis's Union Station, awaiting transport to their eventual burial spots.
[46] Governor Morton and the Indiana Sanitary Commission began recruiting women to work as nurses at military hospitals and ships in January 1863.
[40][50] Major political differences between Democrats and Republicans and wartime propaganda caused many Hoosiers to become suspicious of dissenters and fearful of potential insurrections, especially from secret societies sympathetic to the South.
[52] The incident, later called the Battle of Pogue's Run, caused no serious trouble, but it did illustrate the intensity of the state's ongoing political feuds.
On July 8, 1863, when Confederate general John Hunt Morgan crossed the Ohio River with 2,400 troopers, Indiana went into a state of emergency.
The regiment guarded railroads in Tennessee and Alabama, which were firmly in the control of Union forces, to relieve the regular U.S. army troops for active duty on the front lines.
An estimated 100,000 people waited in long lines to pass Lincoln's bier at the Indiana Statehouse, where the president's remains lay in state.
[75] Increased wartime manufacturing and industrial growth ushered in a new era of economic prosperity and the rise of labor unions in the city.
[76][77] New industries in Indianapolis included pork-packing plants and foundries, as well as numerous manufacturers, small businesses, retail shops, and banks.
[84] When the South returned to firm Democratic control at the end of the 1870s, Indiana became a key swing state, one of a few that often decided the outcome of national elections.
[90] In November 1866, the city continued to honor the service of Civil War veterans as the host of the first national Grand Army of the Republic encampment.
When the dead were reinterred at Crown Hill National Cemetery beginning in 1928, the monument was moved to Garfield Park, where it remained until its dismantling in June 2020.
