Study 1850s to understand Iowa role in Civil War

Posted on the Des Moines Register site in response to a March 18 column by Richard Doak.


Richard Doak wrote: "The war experience defined the character of early Iowa. In proportion to its population, Iowa sent more volunteers to fight for the Union than any other state, and veterans of the war shaped the state's politics well into the 20th century."

I was raised on this sort of claim, and I agree with it as far as it goes. Maybe I'm like most Iowans in this regard. If so, I think most of us learned of Iowa's part in the war in somewhat of a vacuum, as though whatever matters began during and after the war.

But why did we send so many? And why should we care now?

For the past few years I've been studying Iowa before the war. I think we're missing the boat by reciting the sacrifice and heroism (etcetera) of the war years without learning and retelling more of the run-up. The earlier stories are fascinating in their own right (say, from Black Hawk War until Civil War), but I'm particularly taken by the immigration boom of the 1850s and Iowa's part in the rise of the Republican party.

Digging in family history has brought me to Congregationalist ancestors from Connecticut who founded a church in Durant (just after the railroad went through from Davenport to Iowa City) and who were surely abolitionist partisans in late-1850s Iowa. The first to arrive was the Yale-educated pioneer preacher, a brother of my great-great grandmother, who soon became the first chaplain of the 11th Iowa Infantry. He got sick while tending the wounded at Shiloh and died back in Cedar County, and his name is on the Civil War monument in Tipton.

We're into a season of 150th anniversaries. We could be focused on March 1857 right now and be learning a lot about who we were and how we got this way.

We could have started with 1856/2006. Thanks to Mormon interest, we've learned about ox carts heading west from from Iowa City. But few of us have learned about that same summer's high drama of Gov. Grimes' collusion with Jim Lane's Army and all sorts of other interaction between Iowa and "bleeding" Kansas. Or the elections that fall that handed power to the insurgent Republicans.

To its credit, the State Historical Society of Iowa has a project under way that will tell about John Brown's activities here and place markers at sites related to his last (1859) trip across the state. Other interpretative material will explain the context and significance in depth.

Surely we will be learning more (by 2009-10) about Gov. Kirkwood's rebuff of a Virginia extradition order for an Iowan who fought with Brown at Harper's Ferry. Some historians say the repercussions led straight to the secessionist attack on Fort Sumter.

By all means, let's learn and re-learn our Civil War heritage, our ancestors and their regimental histories. But let's also learn more of the perspectives and passions that were in play on the eve of war, that were already "defining our character" and "shaping our politics." The time to do that is now.
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Daniel G. Clark
Muscatine, Iowa