Philadelphia in the American Civil War
During the American Civil War, Philadelphia was an important source of troops, money, weapons, medical care, and supplies for the Union.
Entrenchments were built to defend the city, but the Confederate Army was turned back at Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, and at the Battle of Gettysburg.
[3] After the American Civil War officially began with the attack on Fort Sumter in South Carolina, popular opinion in Philadelphia shifted.
The police and Mayor Henry were able to prevent the mob from causing damage, but the newspaper shut down shortly afterward.
[6] In 1862, after expressing antiwar sentiments, former Democratic Representative Charles Jared Ingersoll was arrested for discouraging enlistments.
The arrest of the well-respected politician caused local Republicans embarrassment, and he was released after direct orders from the federal government.
As word reached Philadelphia that the Confederate Army was marching on Harrisburg some 100 miles to the west, Philadelphians felt no urgency to prepare the city to defend itself.
On June 26, Major-General Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh Dana took command of the military district of Philadelphia and began to build defensive entrenchments, with the help of volunteers recruited by Mayor Henry.
[9] Philadelphia's Twentieth Pennsylvania Emergency Regiment and its First City Troop were among the militia that helped prevent the Confederate forces from crossing the Susquehanna River at Wrightsville by burning the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge.
[9] After the Gettysburg Campaign, support for the war grew, and hopes for antiwar elements to make headway in the city diminished.
After the victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, patriotic feelings grew, more people enlisted in the army, and Philadelphia voted for the re-election of Republican Governor Curtin over the Peace Democrat George Washington Woodward.
[10] In June 1864, the Philadelphia division of the United States Sanitary Commission organized a large fair to raise money to buy bandages and medicine.
The Great Central Fair lasted two weeks and was held in temporary buildings covering several acres of Logan Square.
The ferry would drop them off at Washington Avenue, where they would march to waiting trains of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad.
The first Philadelphians to encounter Confederate forces were the Twenty-third Infantry Regiment and the First City Troop at the Battle of Hoke's Run in West Virginia.
Philadelphia's private shipyards, including William Cramp & Sons, also constructed many ships, such as the USS New Ironsides.
With 1,000 members by the end of the war, the Union League became a center of Republican politics and still exists as one of Philadelphia's largest and most prestigious social clubs.
The Philadelphia banker Jay Cooke made a fortune selling Union war bonds worth roughly $1 billion.
The future streetcar magnate Peter Widener amassed his initial wealth by supplying meat to the Union Army; John and James Dobson made their fortune manufacturing blankets.
Designed by Hermon Atkins MacNeil and completed in 1927, the memorial comprises two 40 ft (12 m) pylons sitting on each side of the parkway.
[24] Philadelphia's largest Civil War monument is the Smith Memorial Arch, built on the former grounds of the 1876 Centennial Exposition in West Fairmount Park.
Designed by James H. Windrim, and completed in 1912, it includes sculptures by Herbert Adams, George Bissell, Alexander Stirling Calder, Daniel Chester French, Charles Grafly, Samuel Murray, Edward Clark Potter, John Massey Rhind, Bessie Potter Vonnoh, and John Quincy Adams Ward.
