"Between Two Fires": War and Reunion in Middle America, 1860-1899
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University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK
2013
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ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-ucin13829510952021-08-03T06:20:07Z "Between Two Fires": War and Reunion in Middle America, 1860-1899 Stanley, Matthew E. History From its post-Revolutionary position as the First West to its current status as a political bellwether, the Ohio Valley has always been a liminal space in American history. This dissertation centers on the Civil War, Reconstruction, and sectional reconciliation in the Lower Middle West, with particular emphases on identity, memory, and race. Indeed, if the antebellum West acted as balance between North and South, then the Lower Middle West, a nominally free region dominated by conservative upland Southern political culture, represented a median with the median. The Lower Middle West—part of a vast border area stretching from southern Pennsylvania and northern Virginia along the Ohio River Valley and into Missouri and Kansas that I term `Middle America’—was a political and cultural middle space typified by white conservative Unionism. Wartime conservative Unionists—those whites who supported compromise measures, desired only the political restoration of the Union, and who persisted rather than embraced emancipation—are central to understanding the dissent (Copperhead) movement, the Northern white backlash against liberalizing war measures, the Northern rejection of Congressional Reconstruction, the national movement toward sectional reconciliation among whites, and the legacies of white supremacy in the Middle West (labor violence, exclusion laws, sundown towns, lynching, the second incarnation of the KKK). This conservative and Unionist wartime coalition had immense postwar political and commemorative ramifications as third vein of memory arose. Scholars have overlooked this “Loyal West” narrative, which was rooted in animus toward both Southern “traitors” and the Eastern “Yankees” and was based on the belief that Western armies and leaders had won the war. The Loyal West was also a way to reconcile antebellum regionalism with postwar sectionalism and balance the revolutionary aspects of emancipation and the Union cause with the political and cultural conservatism of the white Middle West. Focusing on the Lost Cause, the Union Cause, and the Emancipationist Cause, historians have neglected this alternate Civil War narrative. In short, an imagined West existed prior to the Civil War, Westerners fought their own war (and divided over it), and that white Western veterans constructed their own memory during the postwar period. The adoption of a new understanding of Western identity during the war era—one synonymous with “loyalty”—set the stage for postwar political and commemorative divisions in the Ohio Valley, influencing, eventually, how Americans came to construct both the Midwest and a North-South duality, with the Ohio River as its dividing line. 2013 English text University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1382951095 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1382951095 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws. |
| collection |
NDLTD |
| language |
English |
| sources |
NDLTD |
| topic |
History |
| spellingShingle |
History Stanley, Matthew E. "Between Two Fires": War and Reunion in Middle America, 1860-1899 |
| author |
Stanley, Matthew E. |
| author_facet |
Stanley, Matthew E. |
| author_sort |
Stanley, Matthew E. |
| title |
"Between Two Fires": War and Reunion in Middle America, 1860-1899 |
| title_short |
"Between Two Fires": War and Reunion in Middle America, 1860-1899 |
| title_full |
"Between Two Fires": War and Reunion in Middle America, 1860-1899 |
| title_fullStr |
"Between Two Fires": War and Reunion in Middle America, 1860-1899 |
| title_full_unstemmed |
"Between Two Fires": War and Reunion in Middle America, 1860-1899 |
| title_sort |
"between two fires": war and reunion in middle america, 1860-1899 |
| publisher |
University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK |
| publishDate |
2013 |
| url |
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1382951095 |
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AT stanleymatthewe betweentwofireswarandreunioninmiddleamerica18601899 |
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