Indiana, state, United States: The Civil War and Its Aftermath

The Civil War and Its Aftermath

The Civil War brought great changes in the state. In the elections of 1860, Indiana voted for Lincoln, who had spent his boyhood in the Hoosier state. Although there was some proslavery sentiment in Indiana, represented by the Knights of the Golden Circle, Oliver P. Morton, governor during the war, held the state unswervingly to the Union cause even after constitutional government broke down in 1862. General John Hunt Morgan led a Confederate raid into Indiana in 1863, but otherwise little action occurred in the state.

Manufacturing, which had been stimulated in Indiana by the needs of the war, developed rapidly after the war. Factories sprang up, and the old rustic pattern was broken. However, Indiana's farmers continued to be an important force in the state, and in the hard times following the Panic of 1873 indebted farmers expressed their discontent by supporting the Granger movement and later the Greenback party in 1876 and the Populist party in the 1890s.

Sections in this article:

Introduction
Industrialization and the Labor Movement
The Civil War and Its Aftermath
Indiana Territory and Statehood
From the Mound Builders to Tippecanoe
Government, Politics, and Higher Education
Economy
Geography
Facts and Figures

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