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Dear Readers,

Today’s blog post is the introduction to my new book, Iowa Confederates in the Civil War.  I hope you’ll enjoy it!  If you do, I hope you’ll consider buying a copy.  They would make nice Christmas presents (or stocking stuffers).

Introduction

After I moved to Iowa with my wife and newborn daughter, I read an eyewitness account of Grinnell, Iowa’s riot in 1860 over the presence of fugitive slaves in the public school. The shock and horror of the riot contrasted with today’s leafy, quiet streets, a stone’s throw from Grinnell College. Questions sprang to mind: Who instigated the riot? How did others show courage in the face of intimidation? How exactly did it play out? The more I learned, the more I wanted to know.

The aftermath of the story includes a historical footnote: Bushwhackers in southwest Poweshiek County (not far from Grinnell) murdered two federal marshals during Iowa’s first draft on 1 October 1864. This gave me pause. Did any Iowans leave the state and serve the Confederacy? Historian Hubert H. Wubben answered yes; two Iowa state legislators “went South” and wore gray. But did any others?  Who were they and what choices did they make? This book grew out of these questions.

It is common knowledge that Iowans flocked to enlist in the Union army and navy after Fort Sumter. Fifty-seven Iowans showed distinguished gallantry in battle and received the Medal of Honor. However, it may be surprising that these soldiers and sailors had counterparts in every branch of the Confederate service, and one Iowa resident is listed on the Honor Roll – the Confederacy’s highest recognition of valor in battle.

I have documented seventy-six Iowa Confederates. These men included doctors, druggists, lawyers, law students, merchants, farmers, and a newspaper editor. The men included eleven sets of brothers who were scattered across the Confederacy in the Western and Eastern Theaters. Most of them served in the infantry, with the cavalry a close second, and artillery a distant third. One served in the Confederate Navy, and at least two worked in the Confederate Treasury Department.

Iowa Confederates could be called shadow images or “doppelgängers” of their 76,500 Union counterparts. Men on both sides had similar experiences, including time in POW camps. Like Iowa Union soldiers, some Iowa Confederates withheld financial support from wives and children.

This book features new research on loyal friends of Jefferson Davis (who contributed six Iowa sons to the Confederate service); routes that men took to go South during the war; and a tantalizing witness statement, suggesting that a Confederate recruiter was active in Iowa. Readers will gain new understanding of wartime Iowa, including violations of civil liberties and the Republican propaganda campaign that successfully demonized Peace Democrats. Readers will also be introduced to pressures facing Confederates who returned to Iowa after Appomattox.

This book draws upon unpublished or little-known correspondence and diaries, as well as newspaper editorials and histories. You will find an extensive bibliography.

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I write a blog, Confederates from Iowa: Not to Defend, but to Understand. The title is meant to set readers at ease. In that spirit, I share quotes from two skillful authors. Biographer William J. Cooper, Jr., author of Jefferson Davis, American, writes:

[Davis] believed in the superiority of the white race. He also owned slaves, defended slavery as a moral and as a social good, and fought a great war to maintain it. After 1865, he opposed new rights for blacks … No reader of this book can condone any of these attitudes. My goal is to understand Jefferson Davis as a man of his time, not condemn him for not being a man of my time … I will not keep pointing out that his outlook is different than mine and from that of our own era.

I don’t harbor romantic notions about the Confederacy, and I’m not interested in entering a modern political discussion about the Confederate flag or Confederate monuments. Instead, I resonate with the words of biographer Clare Mulley, author of The Women who Flew for Hitler. She describes:

The sense you sometimes have of shaking hands ­– or joining a conversation – across history. Reading diaries and letters, or even less intimate material, can bring moments of profound empathy and a frequent sense of meeting of minds, but also the sudden shock of finding inexplicable prejudice, or worse …

Decisions and actions were rarely as clear-cut at the time as seventy years’ distance might sometimes suggest, and reaching the many truths of any life, whether factual, moral, or emotional, requires empathy as well as inquiry, criticism as well as care.

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This book rests upon the definition of “Iowa resident.” I define resident as one who lived in Iowa before the Civil War for at least two years, no earlier than 1850, and was thirteen or older during residency. These parameters exclude U.S. Army soldiers who served in the Iowa Territory, including Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. I occasionally tell stories of Iowans who do not qualify as residents (that is, who I have not documented as having two years of pre-war residence). Their stories help convey the experience of documented Iowa Confederates.

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Perhaps you, like me, wonder why someone left a nice young state like Iowa and served the other side. Consider a little data. Almost half of the seventy-six Iowa Confederates moved South during the lingering financial Panic of 1857. While seeking jobs, they were exposed to Southern influences.

Thirty-six percent of Iowa Confederates left the state in early 1861 or afterwards, as the secession winter led to Fort Sumter.

One of every four Iowa Confederates had a divided family. In other words, they had at least one immediate family member (brother or son) who served the Union.

Why would an Iowa Confederate fight to defend someone else’s fireside? Three main motives appear in the data; of course, some soldiers had interconnected motives. Fifty-one Iowa Confederates (sixty-seven percent) enlisted out of opportunism, often related to earning a living, with little regard for principles or consequences. Thirty-four Iowa Confederates (forty-five percent) enlisted out of familial concerns, often related to loyalty to their birthplace or the birthplace of their father or mother. Twenty-two Iowa Confederates (twenty-nine percent) had a philosophical motive, involving state’s rights related to slavery and/or an interpretation of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. A love of adventure underlay these motives, especially for many young soldiers. A fourth minor motive appears in the data: feeling trapped. Three soldiers in this category (four percent) felt peer pressure to enlist, or they were conscripted.

Slave ownership merits a few comments. Ten Iowa Confederates had some connection to slavery as children or as adults. Eight of them grew up in households that held one or more slaves in bondage (for at least a short time). One of those households (containing two brothers who became Confederates) was in Dubuque. During the 1850s, one future Iowa Confederate moved South, married a belle, and bought two slaves. During the war, one Iowa Confederate received a slave as a gift, and another Iowa Confederate bought numerous slaves who were “refugeed” to Texas, away from Union troops.

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 Stories are the drive train that powers this book. The pages contain tales of capture and imprisonment, loyalty, desertion, strained marriages, tenuous romances, and adventure. Read them individually, as you like.

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You may buy a copy at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com. 

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.  Thank you for reading my blog!