The state of Iowa played a significant role during the American Civil War in providing food, supplies, troops and officers for the Union army.
With the development in the 1850s of the Illinois Central and the Chicago and North Western Railway, Iowa's fertile fields were linked with Eastern supply depots.
The new party opposed the expansion of slavery and favored opening newly conquered Western lands to free farmers, rather than slave-based plantations.
In 1859, Samuel J. Kirkwood was nominated for governor and defeated Democrat Augustus C. Dodge after a bitter campaign which focused on the slave issue.
During the Civil War, Kirkwood gained national attention for his extraordinary efforts to secure soldiers and supplies from Iowa for the Union Army.
A strong supporter of President Abraham Lincoln's policies during the American Civil War, he was active in raising and equipping dozens of regiments for the Union Army.
In 1862, he attended the Loyal War Governors' Conference in Altoona, Pennsylvania, which ultimately gave Lincoln support for his Emancipation Proclamation.
As the Civil War erupted, Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood led efforts to raise and equip volunteer troops for the Federal service.
On October 12, 1864, a dozen raiders disguised as Union soldiers terrorized Davis County, where they looted residences and kidnapped and murdered three Iowans near Bloomfield.
Both the Ho Chunk (Winnebagos) and the Santee band of the Sioux nation posed the biggest threat to Iowa's northwestern border.
Sully selected the Sioux City Cavalry as his escort and guard over several other cavalry units because of the previous experience of its members who had worked for years before the war as trappers, traders and teamsters along the Military Road running from the US Army logistics depot at Sioux City northwest to the Dakota Territorial capital at Yankton and onward to Fort Randall which, at that time, was the largest US Army post on the upper Missouri river.
The number, 76 identified individuals, including at least four men who were sons of Iowan politicians and James Harrison Williams, an Iowa state representative before he "went South".
Following the war, a number of veterans organizations, and in particular the Grand Army of the Republic, played a prominent role in providing social functions, financial support, and memorialization of the former soldiers.