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Foreword to Iowa Confederates in the Civil War

Although the reaction to the September 2017 airing of Ken Burns’s and Lynn Novick’s The Vietnam War – a T.V. Mini-Series was not entirely unexpected, it was a stark reminder of how deep and emotional are the “scars” of war.  Almost forty-five years after the official end of the war, Burns and Novick were either vilified for opening old wounds, or praised for going where few have dared to go – a view of the war from the North Vietnamese perspective, both soldiers and civilians.

David Connon’s Iowa Confederates in the Civil War is a thorough and superbly researched book into the minds and motives of Iowans who chose to fight for the Confederacy.  In spite of General William Tecumseh Sherman’s famous reminder that “War is Hell,” young men by the thousands – both North and South – either volunteered, or later in the war were conscripted.  The seventy-six Iowans whom Connon identifies through letters, diaries, newspaper accounts, official documents, etc., had reasons or motives, some similar to and some very different from their fellow Iowans who fought for the Union. 

For some, the reasons were pretty straightforward:  economic opportunism; love of adventure, compounded by peer pressure; or an almost “romantic” notion of “patriotic fervor,” complete with a nice uniform.  For others, the reasons were more complex: “State’s rights” (or sovereignty) defending slavery as constitutional; maintaining white supremacy and defending their “country” and way of life; mixed loyalties and “divided families;” or familial concerns such as loyalty to a birthplace or parent’s birthplace.

Although minuscule in number, compared to the approximately 75,000 Iowans who fought for the Union, the Confederates have an important story to tell, and Connon’s exhaustive research fills in an important gap in Iowa Civil War history. 

John Liepa, Emeritus Professor of History and Political Science, Des Moines Area Community College

Chairperson, Des Moines Civil War Round Table

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