Product Description

If Civil War battlefields saw vast carnage, the Northern home-front was itself far from tranquil. Fierce political debates set communities on edge, spurred secret plots against the Union, and triggered widespread violence, such as the New York City draft riots. And at the heart of all this turmoil stood Northern anti-war Democrats, nicknamed "Copperheads."
Now, Jennifer L. Weber offers the first full-length portrait of this powerful faction to appear in almost half a century. Weber reveals how the Copperheads came perilously close to defeating Lincoln and ending the war in the South's favor. Indeed, by the summer of 1864, they had grown so strong that Lincoln himself thought his defeat was "exceedingly likely." Passionate defenders of civil liberties and states' rights--and often virulent racists--the Copperheads deplored Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus, his liberal interpretation of the Constitution, and, most vehemently, his moves toward emancipation. Weber reveals how the battle over these issues grew so heated, particularly in the Midwest, that Northerners feared their neighbors would destroy their livestock, burn their homes, even kill them. Indeed, some Copperheads went so far as to conspire with Confederate forces and plan armed insurrections, including an attempt to launch an uprising during the Democratic convention in Chicago. Finally, Weber illuminates the role of Union soldiers, who, furious at Copperhead attacks on the war effort, moved firmly behind Lincoln. The soldiers' support for the embattled president kept him alive politically in his darkest times, and their victories on the battlefield secured his re-election.
Disgraced after the war, the Copperheads melted into the shadows of history. Here, Jennifer L. Weber illuminates their dramatic story. Packed with sharp observation and fresh interpretations, Copperheads is a gripping account of the fierce dissent that Lincoln called "the fire in the rear."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #224119 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Review

"Combining meticulous research in military, political, and social history with an engaging narrative, Weber's excellent book challenges the prevailing views of historians."--Joseph R. Fornieri, Indiana Magazine of History
"A fine narrative history."--Phillip Shaw Paludan, Journal of Military History
"Weber's account offers an excellent starting point for specialists and nonspecialists alike who want to understand the very real challenges to the Licoln administration."--Sean Nalty, The Virginia Quarterly Review
"Weber has written a compelling, well-researched, and persuasive account of what the Copperheards believed, their emergence as a significant force during the war, and the role military events played in their historyThis is an essential work for anyone seeking to better understand the politics of the Civil War."--The Civil War News
"A good book. Logically structured and eminently readable."--H-Net Reviews
"Jennifer Weber has written a wonderful and timely book that explores the nature and value of wartime dissent. Copperheads describes a genuine, thoughtful opposition to war and the concentration of governmental power. In a well-crafted study, she explains how individuals could perceive a war to create civil rights by destroying slavery as a war that trampled civil liberties in the process." --Joseph Glatthaar, author of Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers
"This excellent study of the most conservative element of the Democratic Party during the Civil War offers a powerful reminder that the North, even as it sought to put down the Confederate rebellion, suffered from deep political divisions. It fruitfully argues that Copperheads more than once threatened the Union war effort before ending the conflict as a group despised only slightly less in the North than the vanquished rebels. Weber's study supersedes older works and is now the obvious place to begin any study of the Copperhead movement." --Gary W. Gallagher, author of The Confederate War
"Jennifer Weber's Copperheads dispels outworn myths in her compelling narrative of Abraham Lincoln's all too real opponents in the North. Her fresh research has established a new baseline for all future interpretations of an often overlooked movement." --Ronald C. White Jr., author of Lincoln's Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural and The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words
"Historians of the Civil War era will raise a joyful hymn to Jennifer Weber for this fine study of Copperhead dissenters. Combining deep research, assured judgment, shrewd insights, and energetic writing, Copperheads challenges the prevailing orthodoxy, showing how anti-war northerners constituted a very real threat to the Union administration's effective conduct of the war. It is a compelling case, engagingly and persuasively made." --Richard Carwardine, author of Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power, winner of the Lincoln Prize
"Perhaps the greatest contribution that this book will make is to encourage historians to reevaluate their comfortable notion that dissenters were marginal and that the 'peace wing' of the Democratic Party not a real threat. Weber has rendered magnificent service to Civil War historians by reminding us of that fact."-Adam I. P. Smith American Historical Review

About the Author

Jennifer L. Weber was a newspaper journalist before becoming an academic historian. She is now Assistant Professor of History at the University of Kansas.

Customer Reviews

An excellent book, a very good read
I remember reading in the Sixties that the Viet Nam War was not the most unpopular war in our history. The article stated that the American Revolution and the Civil War were less popular than Viet Nam. Caught in that maelstrom with Dad and I on one side and my younger brother on the other, I had difficulty accepting the idea that things could be worse. Almost forty years later, this book more than proves how correct that statement was.

Civil war is the most heart wrenching type of war. The combatants are much closer and have no national or natural boundaries to separate them. Nor do these boundaries limit the differences that caused the war. This results in divisions' based not on national boundaries or state lines but within families, making the conflict and the dissent personal and very real. This fragmentation of families, communities, states and the nation is not on the clean crisp line we see on a map. Thousands of people start the war feeling trapped on the wrong side of an invisible line, not of their making.

Jennifer Weber has written a very impressive history of the Copperhead movement from development to destruction. This is a scholarly history, documented with footnotes and she clearly states her position and where it differs with prior histories. However, she has produced a very readable book that is both instructive and fun to read. This is not a small accomplishment and one that both the historian and casual reader will appreciate.

In 1861 the Democratic Party contained a number of members who were either pro-Southern and/or anti-abolitionists. They never agreed with going to war, choosing to ignore the South firing on Fort Sumter. Their position was that the Union of States should not be maintained by force and the war was wrong. Named the "Peace Democrats", they were the first opposition to the war. Public pressure largely silenced their voice but they were strong enough to force several "War Democrats" into the rank of political generals. Lincoln to ensure bi-partisan support appointed "War Democrats" to counter the voice of the "Peace Democrats" within the party.

At this point, the war was expected to be short, somewhat bloodless and a great adventure. The battle of Bull Run in August 1861 raised questions about these assumptions. Additional demands for men to build the armies, money to pay for the war, the disruption of trade routs, shortages and government measures to protect itself from "traitors' all contributed to destroying these assumptions. The nail in the coffin was the dead and maimed. 1862 opened with Shiloh and the list of dead grew longer each week. Battles seemed to vie for the title of bloodiest, each battle worse than the last. Antietam, took the title in one horrible day that left the country reeling and weeping.

The Copperheads rise to power coincided with the public's perception of the war. While a nation wide movement, they were strongest in what was then the mid-west and North-west. 1862 was a building year for them and they did well in the elections electing several of their number governor and to the House of Representatives. Emancipation was a boon to the Copperheads, allowing them to exploit the racism of nineteenth century America. Taking the position that Abolitionists forced war on America to free an inferior race that would supplant the white workers, they scored impressive gains with the Irish labors in the large Eastern cities. Emancipation coupled with the draft created serious armed resistance that produces real problems for the government. Counties divided and fear gripped many as neighbor turned against neighbor. Violence toward federal Officials became common and many resigned or refused positions out of fear.

With the war stalled in 1864 and the causality lists getting longer each day, the Copperhead movement crested. They managed to capture the Democratic National Convention, inserted a peace at any price plank in the platform and put one of their own on the ticket as vice-president. The fall of Atlanta, Union victories in the Shenandoah Valley and the soldiers standing firm defeated them. Just as the public's perception that the war was not being won, helped the Copperheads. The perception that the war was being won turned them into traitors and defeated them at the ballot box.

The Democrats paid a high price for identification with the Copperhead movement. Grover Cleveland's election as president in 1885 was the next time they would occupy the White House. After Cleveland, they would have to wait until 1913 when Woodrow Wilson was elected. The Union soldiers extracted revenge for what they saw as "fire from the rear" and refused to vote Democrat.

The Copperhead movement suffered excess that were as damaging as winning the war. Excesses in rhetoric, refusal to comprise and working with the enemy all damaged them in the public eyes. Even the Confederacy came to distrust them. Several Copperhead cells made plans to launch attacks on government installations, free Confederate POWs or even take their state out of the Union. All failed, the major reasons being the lack real leadership and members unwilling to risk their lives. After spending a great deal of money, the CSA listened, encouraged but expected and gave nothing.

The author makes no comparisons between the Civil War, Viet Nam or now. She has written a very good history of the first major anti-war movement and left it there. I was unable to read this book and not make comparisons between my family's experiences during the Viet Nam War and what is happening now. The lack of comparison in the book, is its' strongest point. This allows the reader to draw on their experiences and place them in the history of the Copperhead movement and the American Civil War. In doing so, we can see how history will repeat itself.

Lincoln's Opposition: Revisited, Reborn and Revitalized
"It was Lincoln's greatest moment."
This is how Jennifer Weber in her excellent book "Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln's Opponents in the North." singles out a decision Lincoln made during the Civil War.
But it's not what the reader might expect. It's not his inaugural or his Gettysburg address or his pick of Ulysses Grant to take over in the East. I'd never heard of the event before this book. But there is a lot I'd never heard of before I got caught up in the story.
I won't say what that "moment" is. But it reflects how formidable at times Lincoln's opposition was--or appeared. Weber writes an exhaustive chronicle in what seems like an effortless historical narrative. How often does a history make a subject almost new again with a style that draws the reader in to think they're going to find out the results of events like the 1864 presidential election for the first time--and with the Union in the balance? Now that is a good history book.
Ms. Weber is in part so effective in her telling because she makes the opposition come alive from numerous and varied sources: a New Jersey railroad manager; The Pilot, a newspaper geared towards Irish Americans; the governor of New York; a wife of judge in New York; Penn Yan Democrat newspaper; an Ohio Congressman; or a frightened local in Clark County, Illinois. She repopulates the period with so many different voices and perspectives and does so with such easy transitions that I felt myself surrounded by a crowd of contemporaries whose sheer numbers made me feel the strength of the anti-Lincoln views.
It's difficult to pick a favorite chapter. Each brings new material to the floor. But the chapters on the troubled summer of 1864 bring to a head the drama that reflected the unknowns, the hopes and the doubts of a political process with as much potential impact on the wars outcome as several, perhaps more famous, military campaigns. More familiar material about the military campaigns as well as her political analyses are also adeptly interspersed.
For readers who have relegated anti-Lincoln opposition to small, insignificant and powerless characters in the historical imagination, Copperheads resurrects them all, makes them bigger and gives them a life that makes you appreciate much more the moment Weber picks as Lincoln's greatest.




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A spellbinding story
Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln's Opponents in the North

In her highly readable, carefully and intelligently researched history, Jennifer Weber spins a tale that would be almost unbelievable if it weren't true. She tells who the Copperheads were, how they came into being, what they stood for, and why they were so important, and how they finally disappeared into the mists of history. As she spins her tale, she makes it so very meaningful because she compares and contrasts it with today's political scene. But it is stuff in between the opening and closing lines that grips the reader by the throat, by explaining how the politics of the Union were not only as (perhaps more) interesting, but of as much import than the blood-soaked battles between the boys in blue and grey.
She explains how our nation came so close to splitting, not only North by South, but Northeast by Midwest (where the Copperheads were so strong), thus creating a third nation in the pre-1861 United States. (And would Texas have seceeded from the Confederacy? Would the West Coast create its own empire separate from the Union?)
But it was the Presidential Election of 1864, Weber tells us, that was the crucial event of the war - asking how could a nation, divided north by south, in strife in congress and the newspapers, possibly hold a free election - and with enemy armies camped within sight of the nation's capital, no less.
If we think that we are badly divided today, and think that we "know all about the Civil War," then we are badly mistaken. The war's true meaning for then and now, may lie, not in military tactics and all that, but in Weber's fast-paced tale of political discord, intrigue, and skullduggery. Copperheads is possibly the last word on the subject of the Civil War's not-so-loyal-opposition - the peace Domocrats. Guaranteed to be a spellbinder.

Don Brittain - Author of The Spanish Centuries: Texas and New Mexico from the Sabine to the Río Grande.