During the American Civil War, Indianapolis, the state capital of Indiana, was a major base of supplies for the Union. Governor Oliver P. Morton, a major supporter of President Abraham Lincoln, quickly made Indianapolis a gathering place to organize and train troops for the Union army. The city became a major railroad hub for troop transport to Confederate lands, and therefore had military importance. Twenty-four military camps were established in the vicinity of Indianapolis. Camp Morton, the initial mustering ground to organize and train the state's Union volunteers in 1861, was designated as a major prisoner-of-war camp for captured Confederate soldiers in 1862. In addition to military camps, a state-owned arsenal was established in the city in 1861, and a federal arsenal in 1862. A Soldiers' Home and a Ladies' Home were established in Indianapolis to house and feed Union soldiers and their families as they passed through the city. Indianapolis residents also supported the Union cause by providing soldiers with food, clothing, equipment, and supplies, despite rising prices and wartime hardships, such as food and clothing shortages. Local doctors aided the sick, some area women provided nursing care, and Indianapolis City Hospital tended to wounded soldiers. Indianapolis sent an estimated 4,000 men into military service; an estimated 700 died during the war. Indianapolis's Crown Hill National Cemetery was established as one of two national military cemeteries established in Indiana in 1866.
During the war, the city's population increased with the arrival of new businesses and industries that offered additional employment opportunities, spurred real estate development, and ushered in the beginning of the city's urban, industrial development. In addition, street crime was prevalent, causing the city government to increase its police force and local merchants to hire private security. The era was also a time of bitter political disputes between Indiana's Democrats and Republicans. In May 1863, in an incident sarcastically called the Battle of Pogue's Run, Union soldiers stopped and searched two departing trainloads of delegates to a statewide Democratic convention, many of whom tossed their personal weapons into a nearby creek. In July 1863 Indianapolis residents feared an attack from Confederate forces during Morgan's Raid into southern Indiana, but the Confederates turned east toward Ohio and never came to the city.
After the war, increased wartime manufacturing and industrial growth ushered in a new era of economic prosperity, and Indianapolis's population increased from 8,000 in 1850 to 45,000 at the end of 1864. A real-estate boom led to the establishment of new residential suburbs, but the city retained its slums. Indianapolis also experienced improvements to its public services, such as health care, utilities, street railways, and public schools. By 1880 Indianapolis was Indiana's commercial and industrial center. Construction for the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument began in 1888, in the center of downtown Indianapolis, after decades of discussion. The city's iconic monument was dedicated on May 15, 1902.
War years During the American Civil War, Indianapolis served as a gathering place for organizing troops. As Indianapolis's citizens rallied in support of the Union, its population increased with the arrival of new businesses and industries that offered additional employment opportunities and spurred real estate development. City residents experienced rising prices and wartime hardships, such as food and clothing shortages. It was also a time of bitter political disputes between Indiana's Democrats and Republicans. The Civil War era ushered in the beginning of the city's urban, industrial development, its connections to an expanding railroad network, and the growth of local charitable organizations.
1861 During the winter of 1860–1861, there was talk throughout the region of a possible of war with the South, but Indianapolis had only four militia groups ready to fight: the National Guards, the City Greys, the Indianapolis Independent Zouaves, and the Zouave Guards. On January 7, 1861, the Indianapolis Zouaves volunteered for service if Indiana's governor, Oliver P. Morton, requested it, but they were not needed until spring. On February 11, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived in Indianapolis, one of several train stops he made en route to Washington, D.C., for his presidential inauguration. The pre-inauguration stop made Lincoln the first president-elect to visit Indianapolis.Dunn, Greater Indianapolis, v. 1, p. 217. Two months later, the United States was on the brink of war.
On April 12, news arrived in Indianapolis via telegraph that Confederate forces had opened fire on Fort Sumter, a federal fort in the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina. On April 13, two mass meetings were held in Indianapolis, where resolutions were approved to support the Union. Indianapolis citizens proclaimed, "We unite as one man to repel all treasonable assaults upon the Government, its people, and citizens in every department of the Union––peaceably, if we can, forcibly if we must."Leary, p. 96.
On April 15, 1861, President Lincoln responded to the surrender of the federal fort after the Battle of Fort Sumter by calling for 75,000 volunteers to join the Union army and restore order. Governor Morton telegraphed Lincoln offering 10,000 Hoosier men to defend the country, but the state's initial quota was set at six regiments (a total of 4,683 men) for three months of service. Orders were issued on April 16 to form Indiana's first regiments and establish Indianapolis a gathering point for volunteers to enlist. On the first day, 500 men were encamped in the city. Within a week, more than 12,000 recruits had signed up to fight for the Union, nearly three times as many needed to meet the state's initial quota.Thornbrough, p. 124.
Governor Morton and Lew Wallace, Indiana's adjutant general, quickly established Camp Morton on the former grounds of the Indiana State Fair (along Alabama Street, north of the city) as the initial mustering ground to organize and train the state's Union volunteers. The camp's first soldiers arrived on April 17.Parsons, p. 13. During the war a total of 24 military camps were established in the vicinity of Indianapolis, including Camp Sullivan, Camp Morton, Camp Burnside, Camp Freemont, and Camp Carrington, which was the state's largest.Leary, p. 99.Bodenhamer and Barrows, eds., p. 443.
On April 20 Indianapolis's city council appropriated $10,000 for wartime use. Four days later, the Indiana General Assembly convened in Indianapolis to give the governor wartime powers and appropriate funds to support the war effort ($1.6 million for military purposes and a $2 million bond issue for state and national defense).Leary, p. 98. To provide ammunition, Governor Morton established a state-owned arsenal at Indianapolis.The state arsenal operated until April 1864, employing 700 at its peak. Many of the employees were women. See Bodenhamer and Barrows, p. 441, and Thornbrough, p. 165. Congress passed legislation to establish a permanent federal arsenal at Indianapolis in 1862.
By April 27, 1861, Indiana's first six regiments, all of which were organized at Indianapolis,Thornbrough, p. 126, and were fully organized as the First Brigade, Indiana Volunteers, under the command of Brigadier General Thomas A. Morris. These included the 6th Indiana, the 7th Indiana,The 7th Indiana was under the command of Colonel Ebenezer Dumont of Indianapolis, who later served two terms in Congress as a U.S. Representative from Indiana. See the 8th Indiana, the 9th Indiana, the 10th Indiana, and the 11th Indiana infantry regiments.Terrell, v. 2, pp. 65–66.
Slightly more than sixty percent (104) of Indiana's total regiments mustered into service and trained at Indianapolis. Men from Indianapolis and surrounding Marion County, Indiana, served in 39 regiments. In total, Indianapolis sent an estimated 4,000 men into the service. The first resident of Indianapolis to die in the war was Private John C. Hollenbeck, of Company B, 11th Indiana. He died near Romney, Virginia on June 27, 1861.Leary, pp. 99, 113–14.Bodenhamer and Barrows, eds., p. 441. An estimated 700 Indianapolis residents died during the war.
The 11th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment, also known as the Indiana Zouaves, was the first regiment organized in Indiana during the war and the first one to leave Indianapolis, on May 8, 1861.Thornbrough p. 125. All four of Indianapolis's militia units (National Guards, the City Greys, the Indianapolis Independent Zouaves, and the Zouave Guards), and an additional company of men from Indianapolis, became part of the regiment.Dunn, Greater Indianapolis, v. 1, p. 220. Wallace, who resigned as Indiana's adjutant general to take command of the 11th Indiana, went on to become a major general in the Union army. First Lieutenant Frederick Knefler, another Indianapolis resident, was an officer from Company H, 11th Indiana, who eventually rose to the rank of brevet brigadier general and became the highest-ranking Jewish military officer in the Union. Francis A. Shoup, also from Indianapolis, briefly led the Independent Zouaves before the war, but he decided to go south and ultimately became a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army.Holliday, pp. 551–54.
Most of Indiana's regimental units were organized within towns or counties, but ethnic units also formed. The 32nd Indiana, the state's first German-American infantry regiment, and the 35th Indiana, the state's first Irish-American regiment, organized at Indianapolis in 1861. Other regiments established in 1861 that included residents of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, included the 19th Indiana, the 27th Indiana, and the 33rd Indiana, among others.
There was little doubt that the majority of Indianapolis residents supported the Union. The city became a hub for Union troop organization and training. Pro-Union mobs would sometimes force individuals suspected of Confederate sympathies to take an oath of loyalty at the mayor's office. The most notable of these was J. J. Bingham, the editor of the Indianapolis Sentinel. A mob forced Bingham to take a loyalty oath after articles critical of his political views appeared in the Indianapolis Journal.The Sentinel supported the Democratic position on issues; the Journal supported the Republicans. See Thornbrough, p. 117.
1862
Union troops continued to organize and train at military camps in the city, as battles in Kentucky and Tennessee caused major changes to Indianapolis. After the battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, the Union began to collect a large number of Confederate prisoners of war for transport to the North. Governor Morton volunteered to hold some of the prisoners at Indianapolis. Designated as one of four northern prisoner-of-war camps, Camp Morton was converted into one of the Union's largest prisons for captured Confederate soldiers.
Camp Morton's first Confederate prisoners arrived on February 22–23, 1862. Many of the 2,398 Confederates in the first group were sick, ill fed, and without sufficient clothing for the cold, northern winters. The citizens of Indianapolis rallied to provide humanitarian aid for the prisoners, which included additional food, clothing, and supplies. Local doctors aided the sick and local women provided nursing care.Leary, p, 100.Dunn, Greater Indianapolis, v. 1, pp. 226–27. The Athenaeum, at the corner of East Michigan Street and Massachusetts Avenue, and another local building were converted into hospitals to treat the Confederate prisoners.Bodenhamer and Barrows, eds., pp. 382, 441. For the remainder of the war, Camp Morton typically housed between 3,000 and 6,000 prisoners.Sulgrove, p. 313.