Bonus online story, April 14, 2025
By Michael Swanger
April marks the anniversaries of three significant 19th century events that shaped our nation and its history: the beginning and end of the American Civil War (April 12, 1861—April 9, 1865) and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, who was shot at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865, and who died the following morning. All three events affected our state in ways that are still resonate today.
Iowa was quick to muster men into service at the start of the Civil War thanks in part to Lincoln’s relationship with Iowa’s Civil War-era governors Samuel Kirkwood and William Stone. Both men supported Lincoln’s policies during the war and were active in raising and equipping dozens of regiments for the Union Army as more than 76,000 Iowans were mustered into service (out of a total population of 674,913 in 1860) with more than 13,000 of them paying the ultimate sacrifice, and another 8,500 being wounded. Cyrus West of Mahaska County was the very first Iowan to fall. He was killed at the Battle of Monroe Station in Missouri, on July 11, 1861.
Iowa contributed 48 regiments of state infantry, one regiment of black infantry, 9 regiments of cavalry and 4 artillery batteries to the Union cause. It also raised a number of home guard or militia units to defend its northern and southern borders from Confederates and American Indian raiders. Iowa soldiers fought mainly in the western Confederate states—Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee. They also fought with Gen. William Sherman in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. Their participation was key in the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, Battle of Shiloh and Siege of Vicksburg, among others.
On the home-front, Iowa women played critical roles during the war by maintaining their family’s businesses and farms. They sent food and medicine to wounded soldiers. Annie Wittenmeyer of Keokuk helped to improve hospitals for injured Union soldiers. She organized shipments of supplies and demanded better medical treatment from army doctors. After the war, she established two orphanages to care for the children of Union soldiers.
Some of Iowa’s deep connections to Lincoln and the Civil War—as chronicled in stories published by Iowa History Journal—also included the heartbreaking tale of the Littleton brothers, all six of whom from Louisa County died in the Civil War; Sen. James Harlan’s friendship with Lincoln; Grenville Dodge’s work with the president to build the transcontinental railroad; the legend of Lincoln’s previously undocumented trip to Dubuque in 1859; Lincoln’s magician and Civil War spy Harry Cooke; and letters by Iowa soldiers from the front lines, the subject of our current issue’s cover story and two-part series (“Why we fight,” March/April 2025).
Lincoln’s ties to the Hawkeye State began before the outbreak of the Civil War. As a young man, Lincoln’s brief military experience included serving with the Illinois militia that assisted the U.S. Army in tracking and defeating American Indians in the Black Hawk War of 1832. Later, Lincoln was given two tracts of Iowa land in Crawford and Tama counties. Reportedly, he never visited them. (The official land grants marking property that Lincoln owned in Iowa are now located in a new climate-controlled case that also houses the Iowa Constitution inside the Secretary of State Office at the Iowa State Capitol.)
Lincoln, however, made a bigger impression on our state as a lawyer and politician.
He played a key role in a lawsuit between riverboat interests and the railroads regarding a dispute about the first bridge to be built across the Mississippi River. Built in 1856, it connected Davenport and Rock Island, Ill., and was hailed as an important advancement for western travel and commerce. Lincoln, who was already an experienced railroad lawyer, defended the bridge company in the case, which was dismissed and solidified his reputation as a great trial lawyer.
During the legendary Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, Lincoln traveled to Burlington to make a political speech, and the following spring he ventured to Dubuque.
In August 1859, Lincoln journeyed to Council Bluffs to meet with railroad engineer Grenville M. Dodge, who convinced him that the transcontinental railroad should be routed through western Iowa. Lincoln spent three days in Iowa, but made a lasting mark on the state and its economy as a result of his determination to connect the Mississippi and Missouri River Railroad with the proposed Union Pacific Railroad.
After being elected president in 1861, Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Enabling Act into law on July 1, 1862. Every town from Sioux City to Kansas City located along the Missouri River wanted to be the initial point for the Union Pacific Railroad, but Lincoln chose the township that included Council Bluffs. Construction of the railroad began at Council Bluffs in December 1863 and upon its completion by the end of the decade, Council Bluffs became a major railroad center.
Abraham Lincoln and Grenville Dodge.
As president, Lincoln also appointed Samuel F. Miller of Keokuk to the U.S. Supreme Court and James Harlan of Mount Pleasant as U.S. Secretary of Interior. Harlan, perhaps more than any Iowan, benefitted the most from his relationship with the president. He served as an occasional advisor to Lincoln and led his fundraising efforts for reelection in 1864.
Yet it was the romantic relationship between their oldest children that drew the Lincoln and Harlan families closer. At Lincoln’s second inauguration celebration, Robert Todd Lincoln escorted Mary Harlan, a match approved by the First Family. They wed in 1868 and Lincoln’s widow wrote, “A charming daughter will be my portion and one whom my idolized husband loved and admired.”
The couple and their children spent considerable time at Harlan’s house in Mount Pleasant. It was placed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and contains a collection of Harlan and Lincoln memorabilia, including a collar fragment from the coat believed to be worn by Lincoln when he was assassinated.
Iowa Gov. William Milo Stone, lower left, and the Petersen Boarding House, lower right, where President Abraham Lincoln died on April 15, 1865.
Last, but not least, we are reminded of how Iowa Gov. William Milo Stone, who helped carry Lincoln’s body from Ford’s Theater to the Petersen Boarding House across the street where he died, rode the train that transported Lincoln’s body to Springfield, Ill., and was a pallbearer at the president’s funeral.
As we mark the 160th anniversaries of Lincoln’s tragic death and the end of the American Civil War, we are reminded of the indelible imprints the war and the former president made on Iowa.
(Michael Swanger is the owner and publisher of Iowa History Journal. Copies of Iowa History Journal’s current issue and previous issues are available in our online store.)
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