Michigan and the Civil War

Between the years 1961 and 1966 the Michigan Civil War Centennial Observance Commission issued a number of reports on Michigan’s involvement, a century earlier, in the Civil War and the effects of that war on Michigan. Report copies listed below are stapled pamphlets de-acquisitioned from the holdings of the Mark & Helen Osterlin Library at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City, Michigan. Other than library stamps on top edges, light pencil on a couple of front covers, and Commission stamps on some of the lower front covers, these pamphlets are in nearly pristine condition. Most, in fact, appear unread. Crisp and clean!

I am offering a reduced price of $150 for all eleven items purchased together as a collection. Otherwise, prices below (totaling $195) are for undiscounted individual items.

1. Materials on the Civil War Recommended for Schools - $10

2. Michigan Civil War Monuments - $30

3. Effects of the Civil War on Farming in Michigan - $20

4. Effects of the Civil War on Manufacturing in Michigan - $10 

5. Civil War Tri-State Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Encampments 1889-1918 - $10

6. A Wartime Chronicle - $15

7. Michigan Women in the Civil War - $20

8. Baptists of Michigan in the Civil War - $20

9. Congregationalism, Slavery and the Civil War - $20

10. Michigan Labor & The Civil War - $30

11. Effects of the Civil War on Music in Michigan - $10

Civil War Again, for Young and Old

Sally M. Walker's new book on Michigan's Anishinaabe Sharpshooters, the legendary Company K, is written for a young audience, especially ages 10 to 14, but like so many well-done treatments of history for young people (right away I think of The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik Van Loon, the very first Newbery winner, so popular with adults that a mass market paperback edition was issued), this one can serve as an introduction to the subject for anyone of any age, joining other new Civil War titles with Michigan themes that have come out this year. 

Deadly Aim: The Civil War Story of Michigan's Anishinaabe Sharpshooters is a narrative account of Company K, while Warriors in Mr. Lincoln's Army, by Quita V. Shier (see here), gives documentary detail on individual soldiers. A couple of more general parallel Civil War books are John Mitchell's Grand Traverse: the Civil War Era (narrative) and Michigan's War: The Civil War in Documents (archival detail) edited by John W. Quist. 

The author, who makes her home in Illinois, is a winner of the Sibert Medal for a previous book, Secrets of a Civil War Submarine. She makes clear to young readers that this particular group of Civil War soldiers joined the fight to end slavery and preserve the union even though they themselves were not citizens and despite years of broken treaties and harsh treatment (to put it mildly) of their people by the American government. 

Deadly Aim: The Civil War Story of Michigan's Anishinaabe Sharpshooters
by Sally M. Walker
Hardcover, 288pp w/ index
$19.99

A New Civil War Book Comes to Town

Warriors in Mr. Lincoln’s Army, by Quita V. Shier, to quote from the book’s dust jacket, “offers a comprehensive profile study of each officer and enlisted American Indian soldier in Company K, First Michigan Sharpshooters, who served in the Civil War from 1863 to 1865.” Many Native Americans served in the military during the Civil War, on both sides and in various companies, but Company K from Michigan was the only company with all and only indigenous enlisted men on its roster. 

The author of this book has gathered together information from military service records, medical files, pension files, and personal interviews with descendants of some of the men profiled. A scrupulous researcher, she offers a detailed index, as well. 

Sample pages from index

Since several of the men in Company K came from Leelanau County, Warriors in Mr. Lincoln’s Army is an important addition to local Leelanau history, as well as to Native American history, Anishnabe history, and the history of the State of Michigan. A large format, with generous typeface, line spacing, and margins also make for very readable text in the physical sense.

Detail from cover: Payson Wolf from Northport

Sample text pages

Warriors in Mr. Lincoln’s Army: 

Native American Soldiers Who

Fought in the Civil War

by Quita V. Shier

Hardcover with dust jacket

555pp w/ index

$39.99