Cities At War: Union Army Mobilization in the Urban Northeast, 1861-1865
Open Access
- Author:
- Orr, Timothy Justin
- Graduate Program:
- History
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 05, 2010
- Committee Members:
- Carol A Reardon, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Carol A Reardon, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Mark E Neely Jr., Committee Member
Matthew Bennett Restall, Committee Member
Carla Mulford, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Baltimore
Philadelphia
New York City
Mobilization
Civil War Cities
Boston - Abstract:
- During the four years of the American Civil War, the twenty-three states that comprised the Union initiated one of the most unprecedented social transformations in U.S. History, mobilizing the Union Army. Strangely, scholars have yet to explore Civil War mobilization in a comprehensive way. Mobilization was a multi-tiered process whereby local communities organized, officered, armed, equipped, and fed soldiers before sending them to the front. It was a four-year progression that required the simultaneous participation of legislative action, military administration, benevolent voluntarism, and industrial productivity to function properly. Perhaps more than any other area of the North, cities most dramatically felt the affects of this transition to war. Generally, scholars have given areas of the urban North low marks. Statistics refute pessimistic conclusions; northern cities appeared to provide a higher percentage than the North as a whole. Out of a population of twenty million, the North sent two million, or ten percent of its total population to war. Three of the largest cities—New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston—numbering over 1,592,000 people altogether—alone sent 260,000 men to the seat of war, or sixteen percent of their combined populations. Thus, urban military history of the war offers a strange paradox: were northeastern cities the most important wellsprings of the war effort or were they thorns in the side of Union mobilization? This dissertation explores this question by examining Union army mobilization in four cities—New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore—explaining how each city came to raise and equip Union army regiments during all four years of the conflict. My study combines a variety of historical approaches, including urban history, military history, economic history, labor history, and political history, explaining how these metropolises mobilized for war in their own unique way. Contrary to the belief that cities offered the North a decisive advantage, this dissertation demonstrates how urban residents faced difficulties in extracting resources from their communities. Indeed, it suggests that the forces of urbanism and war ran counter to each other, placing northeastern city residents at tremendous disadvantage.