Introduction

Michigan was admitted into the Union on January 26, 1837, as the 26th state.

(About) The combined red and blue areas form the Michigan Territory at its maximum extent.

Michigan is a state located in the Great Lakes region of the Midwestern United States. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake". Initially, in 1787, present-day Michigan composed a fraction of the Northwest Territory, then it was part of the Indiana Territory in 1800, and it was declared as Michigan Territory in 1805. The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan.

Michigan is the only state to consist of two peninsulas. The Lower Peninsula, to which the name Michigan was originally applied, is often noted to be shaped like a mitten. The Upper Peninsula (often referred to as "the U.P.") is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, a five-mile channel that joins Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. The two peninsulas are connected by the Mackinac Bridge. While sparsely populated, the Upper Peninsula is economically important due to its status as a tourist destination as well as its abundance of natural resources.

Thousands of years before the arrival of the first Europeans, eight indigenous tribes lived in what is today the state of Michigan. They included the Ojibwa, Menominee, Chippawa, Miami, Ottawa, and Potawatomi, who were part of the Algonquian family of Amerindians, as well as the Wyandot, who were from the Iroquoian family and lived in the area of present-day Detroit. It is estimated that the native population at the time the first European arrived was 15,000.

The first white explorer to visit Michigan was the Frenchman Étienne Brûlé in 1620, who began his expedition from Quebec City on the orders of Samuel de Champlain and traveled as far as the Upper Peninsula. Afterward, the area became part of Louisiana, one of the large colonial provinces of New France. The first permanent European settlement in Michigan was founded in 1668 at Sault Ste. Marie by Jacques Marquette, a French missionary.

The French built several trading posts, forts, and villages in Michigan during the late 17th century. The most important was Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, established by Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac, which is present-day Detroit. During this time, French activities in the region were limited to hunting, trapping, sparse agriculture, and trading with local Indians. By 1760, the Michigan countryside had only a few hundred white inhabitants.

During the American Revolutionary War, the local European population, who were primarily American colonists that supported independence, rebelled against Britain. The British, in 1776, with the assistance of local tribes, continually attacked American settlements and even conquered Detroit. In 1781, Spanish raiders led by a French Captain Eugene Poure traveled by river and overland from St Louis, liberated British-held Fort St Joseph, and relinquished authority of the settlement to the Americans the following day. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Michigan was now controlled by the newly formed United States of America. In 1787, the region became part of the Northwest Territory. The British, however, continued to occupy Detroit and other fortifications and did not definitively leave the area until after the implementation of the Jay Treaty in 1796.

Rising settlement prompted the elevation of Michigan Territory to that of the present-day state. In 1835, the federal government enacted a law that would have created a State of Michigan. A territorial dispute with Ohio over the Toledo Strip, a stretch of land including the city of Toledo, delayed the final accession of statehood. The disputed zone became part of Ohio by the order of a revised bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Andrew Jackson which also gave compensation to Michigan in the form of control of the Upper Peninsula. On January 26, 1837, Michigan became the 26th state of the Union.

During the early 1840s, large deposits of copper and iron ores were discovered on the Upper Peninsula, with Michigan the leading U.S. source by the end of the century. The influx of Cornish miners to the area left a lasting cultural impact.

Michigan actively participated in the American Civil War (1861-1865) sending thousands of volunteers, and several Union generals hailed from the state, including George Armstrong Custer. After the war, the local economy became more varied and began to prosper. During the 1870s, the lumber industry, dairy farming and diversified industry grew rapidly in the state. The population doubled between 1870 and 1890.

Slavery

An estimated 12 million Africans were forced across the Atlantic Ocean between 1450 and 1808, the year the United States outlawed "importing slaves" from Africa. The men who drafted the United States Constitution debated about slavery and the legal status of enslaved people. The Constitution they wrote viewed enslaved people as property. But there were people—enslaved and free Africans, African Americans and European Americans—who challenged the idea that anyone could be considered property. They sought either to keep slavery from growing or to end it entirely.

Slavery was legal in the territory that would become Michigan until the adoption of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787. Michigan prohibited slavery when it adopted its first state constitution in 1835. The people who resisted slavery by escaping to Michigan, or assisted those people who had escaped, shaped communities and lives in a state that would soon send thousands of its citizens into the bloodiest conflict in American history, in part, to determine whether or not any person could be considered property, a slave.

Civil War

According to the 1860 U.S. census, Michigan had a population of 749,113. Although Michigan did not fight any battles on its soil, its soldiers fought in practically every major battle and campaign during the American Civil War.

Michigan made a substantial contribution to the Union during the Civil War. While far removed from the fighting in the war, Michigan supplied a large number of troops and several generals, including George Armstrong Custer. When, at the beginning of the war, Michigan was asked to supply no more than four regiments, Governor Austin Blair (January 2, 1861 - January 5, 1865) sent seven. Upon the arrival of Michigan's 1st volunteers in Washington D.C. (known as Washington City at the time), May 16, 1861, they were the first to arrive from a western state, prompting President Lincoln to remark, "Thank God for Michigan!"

Colonel Willcox (later promoted to brevet major-general) soon led the 1st Michigan Volunteers at the First Battle of Bull Run (aka Manassas), Virginia, on July 21, 1861. During the conflict's initial major engagement, WIllcox, while leading the 1st Michigan, was wounded and captured during the repeated charges against the enemy's position. Because of Willcox's action at Bull Run, he was awarded the Medal of Honor (in 1895), with the following citation: At Bull Run, Va., 21 July 1861, "led repeated charges until wounded and taken prisoner."

More than 90,000 Michigan men, nearly a quarter of the state's male population in 1860, served in the war. In addition to the approximately 600 men who joined the Union Navy, Michigan raised 36 regiments and 7 companies infantry volunteers (including 1 regiment of Colored troops), 1 regiment of sharpshooters, 12 regiments and 2 companies of cavalry, 1 heavy artillery regiment, 14 light artillery batteries, 1 engineer regiment, and numerous small independent units. During the war, 4,007 officers were commissioned; 2,067 left the state with regiments; 1,940 were promoted from the ranks, except 10, who were appointed from the regular army, and a small number were commissioned to recruit within the state.

Among the more celebrated units was the 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry, which, as a part of the famed Iron Brigade, suffered considerable losses at the Battle of Gettysburg while defending McPherson's Ridge. George Armstrong Custer's "Michigan Wolverine" Cavalry effectively battled J.E.B. Stuart at Gettysburg on the East Cavalry Field. The 4th Michigan Cavalry, however, was ordered to capture Confederate President Jefferson Davis in May of 1865.

Several Union generals hailed from Michigan, including George Armstrong Custer (graduated last in his class of 34 cadets at West Point, but was soon considered one of the greatest Civil War cavalry generals), Elon J. Farnsworth, Byron Root Pierce, Orlando Metcalfe Poe (who also oversaw the burning of Atlanta, for which action he was honored by Sherman), Israel Bush Richardson (mortally wounded at Battle of Antietam), and Orlando B. Willcox.

(Right) Fox, William F. Regimental Losses in the American Civil War (1889). Fox, highly acclaimed Civil War statistician and most quoted source for the conflict's statistics, is often cited by historians and authors for his work on the "300 Fighting Regiments."  While units etched in the pages of the Fighting 300 was a tribute to the heroic men on the 300 regimental rolls, Fox reserved another list that included only eleven brigades. Although Fox listed eleven "famous brigades" during the Civil War, ten belonged to infantry and only one was of cavalry. The Michigan Cavalry Brigade, aka Custer's Brigade, was the most famous cavalry brigade of the Civil War. Fox, not being remiss of other cavalry brigades, had indicated a common theme in the selection of famous brigades: the brigade had to have fought in several major battles; had to have been pivotal in the outcome of at least one major battle; and each of the eleven brigades on the list suffered monumental casualties. Custer's Cavalry Brigade, which fought in every major battle in the Army of the Potomac, suffered the highest casualties of any Union cavalry brigade during the Civil War. A household name because of "Custer's Last Stand," George Armstrong Custer, who graduated last in the encore West Point class of 1861, was an academic failure by most standards, but he was an indisputable genius on the battlefield. Only when Civil War commenced in 1861, was the potential of the young 22 year old Michigander realized. What Custer had lacked with pen and paper in the classroom setting, he compensated for it with  prowess and mastery of cavalry tactics in battle. At age 23, Custer, one of the youngest generals in the Union military, among his many exploits, had checked the Confederate's finest cavalry units, led by JEB Stuart, during the Gettysburg Campaign. Custer, known for his recurrent antics at West Point, was now well-known  for unleashing punitive cavalry strikes against Confederate forces during his four year combat classroom. Recognized also for his brashness and overtures of rhetoric, the now mature Custer, reinforcing said reputation, never disappointed on the field of battle. When pen met paper at the cessation of hostilities, this time, when it was most noteworthy, it was Custer who graduated first in his Civil War cavalry class of 1865. Custer's Cavalry Brigade had lost more men in killed and mortally wounded than any other Union cavalry brigade. Reason for the high casualties was elementary: Custer fought, and he fought often. The totals  listed from Fox on this page appear to be misleading, because the numbers include only those cavalrymen who were killed or mortally wounded. Absent were those who died as prisoners of war, died by disease, and died from causes other than battle. The wounded were also not tabulated. Nevertheless, total casualties, including dead and wounded, for Custer's Brigade exceeded 2,000: 1,509 total fatalities (all causes) and more than 500 wounded. See also Civil War Cavalry and Mounted Forces.

The Union Army (1908) was vague in its totals for Custer's Brigade, but Dyer was concise, and so was Fox in chapter XII, Regimental Losses.

(Above) Fox, p. 510, chapt. XII, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War (1889), indicates the total casualties by category for each regiment, 1st, 5th, 6th, and 7th, that formed Custer's Brigade. Categories indicate killed, mortally wounded, died of disease, died as prisoners of war, died of accidents, and died from all causes other than battle. Wounded, on the other hand, was defined as unfit for battle or combat. Soldiers who were slightly wounded but continued to engage in battle, however, were not counted as wounded; although some of the soldiers were missing fingers and even toes. When the totals are referenced with Dyer's numbers, they concur. Although the Union Army, 1908, was vague and offered no specifics, just a single total for killed in each regiment, the collective totals, nevertheless, still closely resemble those from Fox and Dyer who specified 1,509 in total killed and more than 500 as seriously wounded. Grand total was more than 2,000 casualties. Wounded numbers, added to the following totals (excluding the 7th Michigan that was not listed by Fox among the 300), are derived from Fox, chapt. X, Three Hundred Fighting Regiments:

1st Michigan Cavalry: killed, mortally wounded, died of disease, died while prisoner of war, died from all causes other than battle. Total 414. Casualties, including killed, mortally wounded, all deaths other than battle, and wounded (not mortally). Grand Total 584.
5th Michigan Cavalry: killed, mortally wounded, died of disease, died as prisoner, died from all causes other than battle. Total 366. Dead and wounded. Grand Total 502.
6th Michigan Cavalry: killed, mortally wounded, died from all causes other than battle. Total 386. Fatalities and casualties. Grand Total 496.
7th Michigan Cavalry: Killed, mortally wounded (85 total, Fox), died of disease, died as POW, all deaths other than battle (258 total, Fox). Total 343. Dyer, Fox, and The Union Army did not indicate wounded. While Fox has 1st, 5th, and 6th also among the "Fighting 300," the 7th, with 85 combat deaths, was not included.

Prior to Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, Michigan Governor Austin Blair had already committed Michigan's support to the Union cause. Blair, an ardent abolitionist and supporter of the Union, pledged his state's commitment in his first inaugural address in January of 1861:

"Secession is revolution, and revolution in the overt act is treason and must be treated as such. It is a question of war that the seceding states have to look in the face. They who think that this powerful government can be disrupted peacefully have read history to no purpose. The sons of the men who carried arms in the seven years war with the most powerful nation in the world, to establish this government, will not hesitate to make equal sacrifices to maintain it." See also Michigan and the American Civil War (1861-1865).

No definite action was taken until word was received of the firing on Sumter, followed by the first call for troops. The news was as a trumpet call "to arms." Gov. Blair issued a proclamation April 16, calling for ten companies of volunteers, and proceeded to Detroit to attend a meeting held there that afternoon. Michigan's quota was one regiment of infantry, to be fully clothed, armed and equipped, and it was estimated that $100,000 would be necessary for this purpose. The treasury was comparatively empty and the state was in no condition to meet the requirements promptly. This being made known, a resolution was passed at the Detroit meeting, pledging the city to a loan of $50,000 to the state, and calling upon the state for a like amount. Those present pledged $23,000, and in a very short time $81,020 had been subscribed. This enabled the state treasurer, "Hon. John Owen, to negotiate a loan, chiefly from the state's own citizens, sufficient for the needs of the hour, and this, together with all subsequent indebtedness of a like nature, was assumed by the state."

The success of the Union army during the fall of 1864 and the winter and spring of 1865 brought the war to a close and orders were at once issued to cease recruiting and drafting. The adjutant-general's department showed that Michigan had enlisted and drafted 90,747 men, though the provost marshal-general gave credit for only 90,048. Of these, 1,661 were colored, 145 were Indians, and 14,393 were foreign-born, "representing nearly all countries of Northern Europe, France and French dominions, Spain and Spanish-America. The amount paid by drafted citizens of Michigan as commutation money was $594,600."

14,753 Michigan soldiers died in service (including 623 at Andersonville Prison in Georgia). 4,448 of these deaths were combat deaths while the majority, more than 9000, were from disease, a constant fear in crowded army camps with poor food, sanitation and exposure issues and pre-modern medicine. This put Michigan's loss at sixth highest among the Union states (the non-state U.S. Colored Troops losses also exceeded Michigan's).

In 1865, Governor Austin Blair, in one of his final gestures as acting governor, established the Michigan Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument Association in order to collect funds for a monument commemorating Michigan's sailors and soldiers killed during the Civil War. Voluntary subscriptions from citizens were collected and sculptor Randolph Rogers, who had created similar Civil War commemorative monuments in Ohio and Rhode Island, was chosen as the artist for the monument. The state's foremost Civil War monument was unveiled on April 9, 1872. Attending the dedication were Generals George Armstrong Custer, Philip H. Sheridan and Ambrose E. Burnside.

(Right) Michigan Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in 1888 with the old Detroit City Hall in the background. Photograph courtesy National Park Service and Manning Brothers Commercial Photographers, Detroit, MI.

Early in June, 1865, arrangements were made for the reception of the returning troops and as they entered the state they were taken in hand and substantially entertained. The use of the upper story of a large freight house at Detroit was donated by the Michigan Central railroad and fitted up as a dining room with a seating capacity of 2,000. From that time until June 10, 1866, 19,510 Michigan and 3,506 Wisconsin troops were cared for at that place. Similar arrangements had been made at Jackson and in the same period of time 10,659 soldiers received the cordial, substantial reception accorded those who rendezvoused at Detroit.

Gov. Henry Crapo (January 3, 1865 - January 6, 1869), who succeeded Blair, issued a proclamation on June 14, 1865, welcoming and thanking the returning Michigan troops. In conclusion he said:

"We are proud in believing that when the history of this rebellion shall have been written, where all have done so well, none will stand higher on the roll of fame than the officers and soldiers sent to the field from the loyal and patriotic state of Michigan."

Care of the Wounded and Sick

Michigan's part in the care of suffering soldiers was a creditable one. Her surgeons were ready at all times to meet the exigencies of the times and many of her own soldiers, as well as those of other states, owed their lives to the promptness and solicitude shown by her medical men and the agents appointed by the governor. The legislature of 1863 appropriated $20,000 for the work, and in 1865 an additional sum of $25,000. Gen. Joseph K. Barnes was appointed surgeon-general, and his selection proved to be a happy one. After the battle of Gettysburg, the surgeons, with their assistants, left for the scene, with a quantity of sanitary stores, prepared in large part by the women of the state. No distinction was made in treating the wounded, the wounded Confederate also receiving careful attention. After the engagement at Perryville in 1862, several thousand sick and wounded Confederates were in the hospitals at Harrodsburg, Ky. Surgeon William H. DeCamp of the Mich, engineers and mechanics was detailed as medical director, in charge of all the hospitals at that point, and his attitude was such as to elicit the voluntary written thanks of the surgeons of the Confederacy in attendance.

The Michigan Soldiers' Relief Association of Washington, D.C, is said to have been the first to commence its work in the field at the east and the last to cease, beginning as it did in the autumn of 1861 and continuing until Sept., 1866. This association was formed by Michigan people at the capital, with Hon. James M. Edmunds president, Dr. H. J. Alvord, secretary, and Z. Moses, treasurer. Membership assessments were necessary at first, but as soon as its organization and aims became known to the people of the state, contributions began to pour in until they had aggregated $24,902.24. In the trying period of Grant's great battles, when sickness and wounds were the greatest, the association established the famous Michigan soup house at City Point, which relieved the suffering of thousands, regardless of state. It followed closely in the wake of the Army of the Potomac in its Peninsular Campaign, found plenty to command its attention after the second Bull Run and the various engagements which filled the hospitals at Washington, Baltimore and Fortress Monroe, and later at Alexandria, Frederick City, Annapolis, New York and Philadelphia In 1863, after the campaign in Maryland and Pennsylvania, including bloody Gettysburg, and in 1864, following the battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, and the operations about Richmond and Petersburg, the hospitals were filled. The necessities were great, but the association met them with the aid of the Christian and U.S. sanitary commissions. In the later days of the war a home was established in Washington, where the wounded and sick, passing through the city, were given shelter. For many days the bread consumed averaged over 300 loaves daily, and imperfect records showed over 8,000 names of those furnished one or more meals. At the conclusion of the active campaign of Sherman's army, Michigan regiments, quartered at and near Washington, were supplied with vegetables, pickles, bread and tobacco. See also Michigan and the American Civil War (1861-1865).

Aftermath

After the conflict, Lansing, the capital, was so designed as to give a special military museum, and in a large, commodious room may be found Michigan's battleflags, in regimental order, in vertical cases of novel construction in the center of the apartment, reaching almost to the ceiling and of heavy plate glass. Other cases ranged about the walls contain many interesting relics, including Confederate flags captured by the regiments. A Roll of Honor was prepared under a resolution of the state legislature in 1869. It was completed in 1872 and contains the names of all citizens of Michigan who had fallen in battle, or died in consequence of wounds received during the war, or who had died in southern prisons or hospitals. The roll shows 14,855 names, engrossed on English parchment and required two years time on the part of John Radiger. It is in two volumes, bound in Russia leather, with ornamental brass trimmings and fastenings.

Michigan's timber and mining industries were expanded under the control of large Eastern corporations and their output rose dramatically during Reconstruction.

After the war, the local economy became more varied and began to prosper. The Upper Peninsula proved to be a rich source of lumber, iron, and copper. Michigan led the nation in lumber production from the 1850s to the 1880s. Railroads became a major engine of growth from the 1850s onward, with Detroit the chief hub. During the 1870s, the lumber industry, dairy farming and diversified industry grew rapidly in the state. Michigan's population, consequently, doubled between 1870 and 1890.

Sources: National Park Service; Library of Congress; National Archives; Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; US Census Bureau; The Union Army (1908); Fox, William F. Regimental Losses in the American Civil War (1889); Phisterer, Frederick. Statistical record of the armies of the United States (1883); Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (1908); Hardesty, Jesse. Killed and died of wounds in the Union army during the Civil War (1915) Wright-Eley Co.; Bratt, Peter. "A Great Revolution in Feeling: The American Civil War in Niles and Grand Rapids, Michigan," Michigan Historical Review vol. 31#2 (2005);  Hershock, Martin J. "Copperheads and Radicals: Michigan Partisan Politics during the Civil War Era, 1860-1865," Michigan Historical Review 18 (Spring 1992); Michigan, State of. Michigan Manual (annual);  Michigan Historical Review Central Michigan University (quarterly); Michigan Department of Natural Resources;  Nolan, Alan T. The Iron Brigade: A Military History (1994);  Press, Charles et al., Michigan Political Atlas (1984);  Public Sector Consultants. Michigan in Brief. An Issues Handbook (annual);  Rich, Wilbur. Coleman Young and Detroit Politics: From Social Activist to Power Broker (Wayne State University Press, 1988); Rubenstein, Bruce A. and Lawrence E. Ziewacz. Michigan: A History of the Great Lakes State. (2002); Sisson, Richard, Ed. The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia (2006); Larry J. Wagenaar and Izzi Bendall. Michigan History Directory of Historical Societies, Museums, Archives, Historic Sites, Agencies and Commissions (13th Ed. 2011); Weeks, George, Stewards of the State: The Governors of Michigan (Historical Society of Michigan, 1987).

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