At 4:30 am on April 12, 1861 the bombardment of Fort Sumter at Charleston, South Caroline signaled the formal beginning of what has come to be known as the Civil War in America. Beginning on December 20, 1860 states began seceding from the Union beginning with South Carolina followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. On February 9, 1861 the Confederate Army was formed. Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of the Union on March 4, 1861. A confrontation over maintaining the Union and dealing with the issue of slavery had been long brewing. On April 12 the military conflict began.
Wisconsin was a free state and a center of the abolitionist movement. The Supreme Court ruling on the Dred Scott case had generated strong public opinion among many people of Wisconsin. The ruling ordered Federal officers to return freed slaves from free states and return them to owners in slave states. Slaves were seen as property and the constitutional right to own property was to be enforced. There had been intense debate over the issue of slavery since 1854 among the people of Wisconsin.
Our maternal family of origin had arrived in Wisconsin in 1859 from Pomerania and Prussia in Northern Germany, a region now included in Poland. The Pooch family was restless as war swept over and again through the relatively flat land area along the Vistula River just south of the Baltic Sea. Crossing the Atlantic by sailing ships that brought many immigrants, they landed at New York City and made their way west to the Wisconsin Territory which became a state on May 11, 1858.
We can assume that they were affected by the mood of other people in Wisconsin as the Federal government moved to enforce slave ownership in the free state of Wisconsin where slavery was forbidden. Some Wisconsin citizens were of the opinion that secession was a divine right. When President Lincoln asked for 75,000 volunteers there was slow response. It was a tense time as the Union and Confederacy moved into what would involve the loss of more people than in all the other wars fought by Americans since that time.
It would be summer time before the Pooch boys joined the Union ranks
Written by Delton Krueger
Note: This weblog is presented by Delton and Arlin Krueger, grandsons of Charles Pooch Ford who would be in the Union Army of the Potomac for nearly the entire war from 1861-1865. Comments from readers will be used to add information over the next four years. We will attempt to present information related to grandfather and his brothers who were all in the Civil War at some point. Thanks for following this historical adventure. We welcome comments and suggestions.
Wisconsin was a free state and a center of the abolitionist movement. The Supreme Court ruling on the Dred Scott case had generated strong public opinion among many people of Wisconsin. The ruling ordered Federal officers to return freed slaves from free states and return them to owners in slave states. Slaves were seen as property and the constitutional right to own property was to be enforced. There had been intense debate over the issue of slavery since 1854 among the people of Wisconsin.
Our maternal family of origin had arrived in Wisconsin in 1859 from Pomerania and Prussia in Northern Germany, a region now included in Poland. The Pooch family was restless as war swept over and again through the relatively flat land area along the Vistula River just south of the Baltic Sea. Crossing the Atlantic by sailing ships that brought many immigrants, they landed at New York City and made their way west to the Wisconsin Territory which became a state on May 11, 1858.
We can assume that they were affected by the mood of other people in Wisconsin as the Federal government moved to enforce slave ownership in the free state of Wisconsin where slavery was forbidden. Some Wisconsin citizens were of the opinion that secession was a divine right. When President Lincoln asked for 75,000 volunteers there was slow response. It was a tense time as the Union and Confederacy moved into what would involve the loss of more people than in all the other wars fought by Americans since that time.
It would be summer time before the Pooch boys joined the Union ranks
Written by Delton Krueger
Note: This weblog is presented by Delton and Arlin Krueger, grandsons of Charles Pooch Ford who would be in the Union Army of the Potomac for nearly the entire war from 1861-1865. Comments from readers will be used to add information over the next four years. We will attempt to present information related to grandfather and his brothers who were all in the Civil War at some point. Thanks for following this historical adventure. We welcome comments and suggestions.
A very good start. I am certainly game to follow the paths of the Pooch boys 150 years ago. We can do this very well for Charles because he was in the Iron Brigade, which was noted for its critical role in the battles in the eastern states around Washington, DC. The many books about the Brigade give a complete picture of their locations and activities. The other brothers joined the Union army later and were sent to combat in the central states.
ReplyDeleteVery nice! I was thinking about this yesterday, and after watching most of the PBS civil war series again last week. They do give the I.B. a pretty short shrift but then I guess it was a big war.
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