Indiana in The American Civil War

Indiana In The American Civil War

Indiana, a state in the Midwestern United States, played an important role during the American Civil War. 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. During the course of the war, Indiana contributed approximately 210,000 soldiers and millions of dollars of equipment and supplies to the Union. Residents of Indiana, also known as Hoosiers, served in every major engagement of the war and almost every engagement—minor or otherwise—in the western theater of the war. Indiana, an agriculturally rich state containing the fifth-highest population in the Union and sixth-highest of all states, was critical to Northern success.

The state experienced political strife when Governor Oliver P. Morton suppressed the Democratic Party-controlled General Assembly, which largely sympathized with the Confederacy, leaving the state without the authority to collect taxes. The state neared bankruptcy during 1861, but the Governor chose to use private funds rather than rely on the legislature. The state 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.

The American 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.