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Series Editors’ Preface “The Civil War in the Great Interior” series focuses on the Middle West, as the complex region has come to be known, during the most critical era of American history. In his Annual Message to Congress in December of , Abraham Lincoln identified “the great interior region” as the area between the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains, south of Canada and north of the “culture of cotton.” Lincoln included in this region the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois , Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and Kentucky; the area that would become West Virginia; and parts of Tennessee and the Dakota, Nebraska, and Colorado territories. This area, Lincoln maintained, was critical to the “great body of the republic” not only because it bound together the North, South, and West but also because its people would not assent to the division of the Union. This series examines what was, to Lincoln and other Americans in the midnineteenth century, the most powerful, influential, and critical area of the country . It considers how the people of the Middle West experienced the Civil War and the role they played in preserving and redefining the nation. These collections of historical sources—many of which have never been published—explore significant issues raised by the sectional conflict, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. The series underscores what was unique to particular states and their residents while recognizing the values and experiences that individuals in the Middle West shared with other Northerners and, in some cases, with Southerners. Within these volumes are the voices of a diverse cross-section of nineteenthcentury Americans. These include African Americans, European immigrants, Native Americans, and women. Editors have gathered evidence from farms and factories , rural and urban areas, and communities throughout each state to examine the relationships of individuals, their communities, the political culture, and events on the battlefields. The volumes present readers with layers of evidence that can be combined in a multitude of patterns to yield new conclusions and raise questions about prevailing interpretations of the past. The editor of each volume provides a narrative framework through brief chapter introductions and background information for each document, as well as a timeline. As these volumes cannot address all aspects of the Civil War experience for each state, they include selected bibliographies to guide readers in further research . Documents were chosen for what they reveal about the past, but each also speaks to the subjective nature of history and the decisions that historians face when weighing the merits and limits of each piece of evidence they uncover. The diverse documents included in these volumes also expose readers to the craft xiii of history and to the variety of source materials historians utilize as they explore the past. Much of the material in these works will raise questions, spark debates, and generate discussion. Whether read with an eye toward the history of the Union war effort, a particular state or region, or the Civil War’s implications for race, class, and gender in America, the volumes in The Civil War in the Great Interior help us consider—and reconsider—the evidence from the past. Martin J. Hershock Christine Dee xiv Series Editors’ Preface ...

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