In a letter of January 1863, Major
Charles Fessenden Morse of the 2nd
Massachusetts Infantry wrote of the
apathy in the North in the war’s middle
period: “What we need is to feel that
we are fighting for our lives and liberties;
that is the way the Rebels feel ... Our
people seem to be in an indifferent
state.” Civilian war weariness and lack
of interest were increasingly among
President Lincoln’s greatest enemies.
“Copperhead” Democrats
Some states of the Union, such as
Minnesota and Iowa, were more
concerned about Indian uprisings
than the Southern rebellion. Others
were so remote from the effects
of the war and its sacrifices that
Confederate independence did not
seem like a terrible prospect. Still
other sections, such as southern Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Illinois, at
times outrightly resisted the Federal
war effort, not only by protesting the
draft laws, but also by electing antiwar
or “Copperhead” Democrats to the state
and national legislatures.
The Copperheads earned their
nickname from the copper pennies they
supposedly wore on their coat lapels as
identification. They controlled a strongminority in the national Democratic
Party, and enjoyed a majority, for brief
periods, in certain statehouses. The draft
laws and the Emancipation Proclamation
threw fuel on their fire, attracting
thousands of followers to their cause.
Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio,
one of the most outspoken Copperheads,
claimed the war was being fought “for
the purpose of crushing our liberty and
erecting a despotism ... a war for the
freedom of the blacks and enslavement
of the whites.” Arrested for treason,
Vallandigham reveled in the attention he
received. Had it not been for the Union
victories in summer 1863, he might
have created serious political trouble
for Lincoln. As it was, after a brief
incarceration, he was banished to
the Confederacy in the fall of 1863.By the summer of 1864, Gettysburg and
the other Union victories of the previous
July had faded in the Northern public’s
memory and were replaced by stalemate,
immense bloodshed, and defeat.MORALE EBBS AND FLOWS
President Lincoln needed victories as much as,
if not more than, his Confederate counterpart,
Jefferson Davis. Lincoln’s reelection in November
1864 depended on Northern civilian perceptions
of the war. General William T. Sherman’s
capture of Atlanta 292–93 ❯❯ in September
helped turn the tide of Northern feeling. By year’s
end, Sherman had reached Savannah—the March
to the Sea 296–97 ❯❯—while in Virginia
Confederate General Robert E. Lee was stuck
in a siege at Petersburg 274–75 ❯❯. Now
Southern morale plummeted, encouraging
desertion from already depleted armies.AFTER
Democratic Party candidate
A Republican cartoon from the 1864 presidential
campaign portrays Democrat candidate
George McClellan as a Peace Democrat or
“Copperhead”—also a venomous snake.After the battle
Events like the Union bombardment of Fredericksburg in
1862 inevitably took their toll on morale. A painting by
David E. Henderson shows a family amid the devastation.