Like many states of the union of the time Iowa had men and women sign up to fight in the Civil War. As with other northern states that bordered states who supported and had people who fought for the south, Iowa had men who joined the Confederate Army. Some of these men and women who fought for both sides were likely members of the same families, towns and communities, especially along the Iowa and Missouri border.
Many think the Civil War was just about slavery and the northern states putting an end to it or the southern states keeping it going. That is incorrect, the war was not
just about slavery. Slavery was on its way to being abolished by the time the war started. It would have eventually been fazed out. One reason is it was no longer as profitable as it was 100 years before the 1860's. For example on a cotton plantation it was costing to more money to purchase, own and maintain a slave than the profit a slave could generate in the cotton fields. The Civil War did help hasten the end of slavery, but was not the only reason the war had been fought.
It was about so much more. President Lincoln wanted to keep the country unified as the United States of America, not let it separate into 2 broken countries because of the differences. He wanted both sides to come to an agreeable compromise. The south wanted to continue to live their way of life, which included slavery, along with so much more. Unfortunately it took the American Civil War to cause this to happen.
It took some time but the people in the southern states figured out they should swallow their pride, can still live their lives as they see fit, use modern technology and machinery to operate their plantations and farms without having to own another human being to do so.
On display at the State Historical Museum of Iowa in Des Moines, Iowa is the Iowa And The Civil War Nothing But Victory exhibit. It will be on display from April of 2012 to April of 2013. It tells a lot of the story of Iowa's involvement in the American Civil War.
