Nebraska At The Start of The Civil War
Further information: History of slavery in NebraskaAntebellum Nebraska Territory was a slavery-free region. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 had established the 40th parallel north as the dividing line between the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. It had also repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and allowed settlers in those territories to determine if they would allow slavery within their boundaries. Nebraska residents, many of them migrants from the Northern United States, chose to exclude slavery from their territory.
Anti-secession feelings ran strong in the fledgling Nebraska Territory. Seward County was originally called Greene County, after a popular U.S. Army general from Missouri. But after General Greene joined the Confederacy, the county was renamed Seward for William H. Seward, Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State.
As the war began in April 1861, Algernon Paddock was serving as the territorial secretary, the highest office. On May 15, Alvin Saunders, a staunch Republican and supporter of President Lincoln, was sworn in as the formal Governor of Nebraska Territory. He served in that capacity throughout the war.
Read more about this topic: Nebraska In The American Civil War
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