Remembering the Civil War

The years following the Civil War were a time of celebration, remembrance and transformation in Putnam County. Union victory was greeted with much celebration, but quickly gave way to grief for the nation’s fallen President, Abraham Lincoln. Putnam County’s sacrifice was significant. Two thousand men left to battle and more than three hundred never returned. Within a decade after the Civil War’s end the county preserved the memory of their lost soldiers with a monument in Forest Hill Cemetery. They continued to honor living veterans who found community in reunions and veterans’ associations.

The end of the war also brought demographic changes, as more than five hundred formerly enslaved African Americans migrated to the county during the Exoduster movement of the late 1870s.

Into the twentieth century, Putnam County preserved the Civil War’s legacy for the nation with connections to prominent Lincoln biographers. DePauw history Professor A.W. Crandall became noteworthy for his annual lecture on the Battle of Gettysburg.

Like other places throughout Indiana, the Civil War took a devastating toll on Putnam County. Sacrifices made by residents at home and on the battlefield were Putnam County’s contribution to saving the Union, abolishing slavery, and restoring national unity. More