Loved Ones at Home
In February 1862, Indiana Governor Oliver P. Morton formed the Indiana Sanitary Commission to help provide clothing, additional food, bedding, books and other items to soldiers serving in the Civil War from Indiana. Auxiliary societies were established in communities around the state, including Putnam County. Women played significant roles in the work of local aid societies. In Greencastle, women organized the Soldiers' Aid Society, which provided needed clothes and food to soldiers. E.E. Edwards depicted these women in his diary.
As soon as husbands and sons went to war, communities throughout Putnam County arranged to care for and support the families. The local newspaper solicited contributions, money, meals and other commodities were provided as assistance. A Board of Control was established in Putnam County, which provided for the needs of soldiers' families and others whose businesses suffered financially. Distribution sites were established in various townships for these goods, and landlords provided assistance by reducing rent costs to residents. Home Guards were also formed throughout the county. Comprised of patriotic men who remained at home because they were too old for service or unable to leave, they drilled and equipped themselves to serve if they were needed to protect the county or reinforce its soldiers. Gov. Oliver P. Morton is pictured below.
Although most people of Putnam County supported the Union cause and the Union army, there was a vocal group of Confederate sympathizers in the county which most Hoosiers called "Butternuts." In Putnam County, Butternuts were radical supporters of the peace faction of the Democratic Party, the dominant local political party. Daniel Voorhees, an 1849 Indiana Asbury graduate, represented the county in Congress as a Democrat and Greencastle also had a Democratic mayor. Democrats supported individual freedom and limited government in social and economic matters and feared that a powerful national government would threaten individual and states rights. War Democrats were loyal to the Union cause, although questioning management of the war, but Confederate sympathizers found the Democratic party much more appealing that the Republicans, who opposed slavery. Local opposition groups organized themselves throughout the county as the "Knights of the Golden Circle" and later as the "Sons of Liberty" and were active in Madison, Monroe, Clinton and many other townships. Uprisings against the Union occurred throughout the county during the war, but largely dissipated with Lincoln's re-election to the Presidency in 1864. The following map depicts Putnam County in the year 1864.
Opposed to the execution of the Civil War and Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, Putnam County Democrats convened and produced an anti-war resolution in February 1863. A great deal of the opposition to the war revolved around the resistance towards conscription. Opponents of the war sought to destroy conscription lists possessed by township commissioners around the county and a number of incidents were recorded. One memorable confrontation occurred on June 18th, 1863 at the home of James Sill in Marion Township in which armed members of the Knights of the Golden Circle violently demanded Sill's enrollment book. A more dramatic opposition incident occurred on the square in downtown Greencastle in front of the county courthouse on July 20th, 1864. The Putnam County Courthouse from 1848-1905 is pictured below.
At a Democratic party political rally, 43rd Indiana Regiment Lt. Cooper gave a cheer for Lincoln and incited an opposition mob. Members of the Knights of the Golden Circle chased Cooper from the square to the Putnam House Hotel on the corner of Vine and Washington streets where he was rescued by Miss Lou Walls. The mob proceeded to throw stones at the inn and was eventually dispensed, although the incident created political fodder for county Republicans in the upcoming election of 1864. In the 1864 Presidential Election, Indiana was carried by Lincoln and the Republicans although Putnam County gave McClellan, the Democratic candidate, a majority of votes. McClellan beat Lincoln by 189 votes in Putnam County.
During the war, attendance at Indiana Asbury decreased significantly although the university remained open. President Thomas Bowman served through the Civil War. There was another large exodus in 1864 when Lincoln called for more volunteers. Most students from the South returned home, with only eight to ten choosing to remain at Indiana Asbury during the war. Only four students graduated from the university in 1864, although the end of the war brought the highest attendance in Indiana Asbury's History.
Three Indiana Asbury Graduates served in Congress during the war: Daniel W. Voorhees, Rep.-IN (1849), Albert G. Porter, Rep.- IN (1843) and James Harlan, Sen.- IA (1845). Voorhees (right), Porter (middle) and Harlan (right) are pictured below.
The Civil War also prevented the admission of women from happening sooner at Indiana Asbury. Women were eventually admitted beginning in 1867, but plans which began to admit women in 1857 were stalled by the war. Some of the first women on Indiana Asbury's campus are pictured below.
