Theodore J. Karamanski is a professor of history at Loyola University Chicago, where he founded and directs the Public History Program. He is the author of seven books, including Rally ’Round the Flag: Chicago and the Civil War, Schooner Passage: Sailing Ships and the Lake Michigan Frontier, and most recently Blackbird’s Song: Andrew J. Blackbird and the Odawa People.
Listed in: American Civil War · American History, Midwest · Chicago
Civil War Chicago
Eyewitness to History
Edited by Theodore J. Karamanski and Eileen M. McMahon
The American Civil War was a crucial event in the development of Chicago as the metropolis of the heartland. Not only did Chicagoans play an important role in the politics of the conflict, encouraging emancipation and promoting a “hard war” policy against Southern civilians, but they supported the troops materially through production of military supplies and foodstuffs as well as morally and spiritually through patriotic publications and songs.