The Civil War

When Abraham Lincoln, an Illinois native and slavery opponent, became the 16^th U.S. President in early 1861, the South seceded from the nation thus launching the civil War.[1]    The seceded states, known as the Confederacy, attacked and captured Fort Sumter on April 14, 1861.  In response to this attack, the following day, President Lincoln issued a formal Proclamation of War against the Confederacy.  He also issued a call for 75,000 volunteers to enlist for a period of three months to quell the rebellion.[2] 

Thousands of volunteers responded to this call.  During the war, 257,420 Illinois citizens served in the Union army, more than any other state except for New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.[3]  The Higgins boys did not respond to President Lincoln’s call.  However, the 1861 and 1862 Militia Roll Census for Schuyler County, recording all able-bodied male citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five did include John and Jackson Higgins.[4]

The “Rebellion” lasted longer than the expected three months; it drug on for years.  By March 1863, the Union, needing more soldiers, passed the Conscription Act, which made all men between the ages of twenty and forty-five liable for military service. Paying a $300 fee or finding a substitute exempted eligible men from serving. This act seemed unfair to the poor and working class resulting in riots in New York.  It was not popular in Illinois either.[5]

Central Illinois residents lived in small, agrarian communities, Brooklyn being a typical community.  Both Northerners and Southerners populated the farming communities of central Illinois.  “The Yankee brought with him the Puritan ideas of the East, while the Southerner was of that jovial, generous disposition, with a fondness for fun and frolic.”[6]  The two groups generally worked well together socially but politics tended to be more divisive. During the decade preceding the civil war, intense political elections had fostered an atmosphere of political suspicions and violence between local party members.  Neighbors split over political issues making election time a hotbed for emotions and rhetoric.[7] 

Copperheads (generally Democrats) were a group of men with antiwar sentiments.  The Copperheads were not happy with the Conscription Act, feeling it was unfair and infringed on their rights and antiwar convictions.  In May 1863, a prominent copperhead, from Macon County about 100 miles east of Brooklyn, threatened to murder all the Republicans, intending to make the state a battleground and drive out all “pro-war” individuals.  Copperheads meet in community meetings to organize themselves and publish resolutions condemning the Conscription Act stating, “We will resist to the death all attempts to draft any of our citizens into the army.”[8]  Copperhead activity was prevalent in Schuyler County, and in counties to the north, east and south, even to the point of starting up their own militia to resist the draft.

To facilitate the Conscription Act, in March 1863, Congress created the Provost Marshal General’s Bureau.  The new Bureau operating on a predominantly state level oversaw army enlistments for state regiments, enrolled men for the draft and arrested deserters.[9]  Colonel James B. Fry became the head of Provost Marshal General Bureau.  He expanded the bureau by recruiting local farmers to work on the project, bringing a constant presence of federal authority into the Central Illinois communities.  In May 1863,  Army Captain B.F.  Westlake became the Provost Marshall for the ninth Congressional District, which included Schuyler, Pike, Brown, McDonough and Fulton Counties.

The local Copperheads created trouble for Captain Westlake and his team of enrollment officers.  Luke Elliot, a forty-eight year old farmer recruited to the enrollment work, reported to Captain Westlake of abuse, threats and being barred from completing his work by armed men while trying to conduct the military enrollment in a strong democratic region of Fulton County.

An enrollment officer, working under the direction of Captain Westlake canvassed Brooklyn to record “all persons subject to do military duty between the ages of twenty and thirty-five years, and all unmarried persons subject to do military duty above the age of thirty-five and under the age of forty-five.”[10]  Three of Daniel’s sons made the list, John W., Jackson, and Henry Higgins.  From these lists, Government agents drafted and examined eligible men to determine their fitness for service.  The Higgins brothers did not make the selection from the draft registration records to fight in the Civil War.  The Higgins family claimed to be democrats, which may have caused them to be more sympathetic to the Copperhead cause.

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[1] Joanne Freeman, Time Line of The Civil War, 1861, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/tl1861.html (accessed May 8, 2013)

[2] Timeline: The Civil War, National Park Service,  http://www.nps.gov/civilwar/customcf/timeline.html (accessed May 9)

[3] H. H. Lloyd & Co’s, Campaign Military Charts showing the Principal Strategic Places of Interest, Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, www.fold3.com/image/260557643/ (accessed May 10)

[4] 1861 Militia Roll Census  Schuyler County , http://genealogytrails.com/ill/schuyler/CivilWar-1861MilitiaRollCensus2.html#H (accessed April 10, 2013)

[5] Freeman, Time Line

[6] Mansberger and Stratton, Archaeological Investigations, 2

[7] Jason Miller. “To Stop these Wolves’ Forays: Provost Marshals, Desertion, the Draft and Political violence on the Central Illinois Home Front,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 105, no. 2-3 (Summer-Fall 2012): 202-224 http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.5406/jillistathistsoc.105.2-3.0202 (accessed June 10, 2013).

[8] Miller, Jason To Stop these Wolves

[9] Jake Ersland “A Snapshot in Time; Civil War Provost Marshal Records”,  National Archives at Kansas City, http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/know-your-records/genealogy-fair/2011/handouts/civil-war-provost-marshal-records.pdf (accessed June 10, 2013)

[10] National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; “Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registration Records (Provost Marshal General's Bureau; Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865).” Ancestry.com. (accessed April 10, 2013)