Enlarge

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln in one of the famous portraits known as the Brady Profiles. View the original source document: WHI 48683

Not everyone in Wisconsin supported the Civil War. Many of the opponents of the war were German Catholics. They did not support the Lincoln administration because it represented abolitionism, Yankee nativism and Protestant godlessness to them. The Germans were especially angry when Lincoln instated a draft in 1862 because many of them had left their homeland to escape compulsory military service.

On November 10, 1862 approximately 300 rioters attacked the draft office in Port Washington and vandalized the homes of Union supporters. Later that week in Milwaukee, a mob of protesters shut down the draft effort. In West Bend, the draft commissioner was beaten and chased from his office. But as the war continued, public opinion in Wisconsin backed Lincoln's efforts to preserve the union. 

The Home Front

Wisconsin's women played a vital role in the success of the war effort. They set aside their religious, ethnic and political differences and organized aid societies throughout the state. The Woman's Soldiers Aid Society sent medical inspectors to improve sanitary conditions among the soldiers and sent thousands of dollars of supplies to the frontlines and to hospitals. They hired nurses for army hospitals and distributed food to soldiers. They also sent care packages and news from home.

Enlarge

Cordelia A. P. Harvey

From the collection of Lucius Fairchild, 1831-1896 : Lucius Fairchild papers, 1819-1943 View the original source document: WHI 36009

The Wisconsin government promised money to wives with enlisted husbands. But the money was slow to arrive, since the government was more concerned with funding the war. But the women of Wisconsin did more than wait for a monthly check. They helped keep the economy and their families stable by working tirelessly in the fields and factories. Women rarely did field work before the war. But between 1860 and 1870, the number of women in industrial and commercial industries grew by over 500 percent.

Cordelia Harvey

Cordelia Harvey, widow of Governor Louis P. Harvey, organized charitable activities and arranged for the transfer of many wounded soldiers to Northern hospitals. After visiting hospitals throughout the South, Harvey determined that only the cooler northern climate would restore Wisconsin soldiers to health. After repeated visits to Washington to meet with War Secretary Edwin Stanton and President Abraham Lincoln, Harvey got her way, and the Harvey United States Army General Hospital opened in Madison in 1863. Toward the end of the war, she also established an orphanage in Madison for the children of soldiers killed in service.

[Source: The History of Wisconsin vol. 2 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin); Kasparek, Jon, Bobbie Malone and Erica Schock. Wisconsin History Highlights: Delving into the Past (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2004); Barker, Brett. Exploring Civil War Wisconsin (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2003); McBride, Genevieve. On Wisconsin Women (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993)]