DOCUMENT PROJECT 13

Home-Front Protest during the Civil War

The Civil War aroused considerable dissent on the home front. In the North, criticism came from many sides. Many whites resented fighting what they saw as a war to free blacks, who they believed would move to the North and drive down wages. The passage of a conscription law in 1863 drove whites in a number of cities, most notably New York, to violence (Document 13.2). Democrats tried to take political advantage of the antiwar impulse, arguing that President Lincoln and his party were waging a war that produced a catastrophic casualty rate and would ultimately do far more harm than good. Democrats who opposed the war, known by their opponents as Copperheads, found a receptive audience in many parts of the North. Ohio congressman Clement L. Vallandigham (Document 13.3) became their chief spokesman.

The northern working classes and the poor saw few economic benefits from the war, and Northerners generally suffered from rising prices. But Southerners suffered from even worse inflation, and by 1863 civilians had to deal as well with shortages of food, clothing, and other necessities of life. In the South, white women took the lead in protesting the scarcities created by the war, highlighted by the Richmond Bread Riot of 1863 (Document 13.1). As in the North, Southerners bristled at the Confederate draft law, which seemed to contradict the region’s professed ideal of each state’s right to self-government. Many angry Confederates even called for peace (Document 13.4), although these peace advocates proposed only limited concessions to the North in order to reunite the nation. As casualties mounted, many Southerners, including Confederate women (Document 13.5), began to wonder whether the war was worth it.

The following documents offer examples of the dissent expressed throughout the nation during the war years. As you read these sources, consider how the Civil War penetrated every aspect of Northerners’ and Southerners’ lives and shaped their politics.