– Photo by Steve Thorpe
By Steve Thorpe
Legal News
Michigan’s role in preserving the Union during the Civil War is underappreciated, an author contends, and he hopes his recent book will help raise the profile of that contribution.
Jack Dempsey visited Cooley Law School’s Auburn Hills campus recently to talk about “Michigan and the Civil War: A Great and Bloody Sacrifice” as part of the 2012 Michigan Notable Books Program. Dempsey is vice-president of the Michigan Historical Commission and chairman of the Michigan History Foundation. He also belongs to the Ann Arbor Civil War Roundtable, the Civil War Trust and is chairman of the Michigan Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee.
Much like a soldier, Dempsey was drafted rather than enlisted.
“I was contacted by the History Press to see if I would be interested,” he said.
But it didn’t take much persuasion for him to sign up.
“I said, oh yeah, definitely!”
Dempsey said he wasn’t sure what to expect, but found the writing process enjoyable.
“Since this is something I’m passionate about, it was easy to write,” he says.
Although Michigan was ill-prepared, like most states, to contribute men and resources to the conflict, it already had a strong anti-slavery heritage when war broke out. Lincoln’s Republican Party, with a strong abolitionist element, was born in Michigan in 1854. The state quickly assembled 28 militia companies who were among the first to fight the Confederacy.
Among the “firsts” Michigan can proudly claim is providing the first regiment to arrive from the west to help protect the nation’s capital, situated precariously between seceded Virginia and hostile Maryland.
“Lincoln is reputed to have said ‘Thank God for Michigan,’ Dempsey said. “No one has been able to document where and when he said it, but it’s part of our mythology as a state, and let’s make someone disprove it.”
The same unit was part of a force that was the first to invade the new Confederacy and fought at the First Battle of Bull Run. Two Michigan regiments were involved and one of them made the deepest incursion into the rebel lines.
Michigan units also played a key role in the war’s western theater, participating in the major battle at Shiloh in Tennessee.
“It was the 12th Michigan Infantry, on that Sunday morning when the battle began, when, hearing some noise in the woods in front of their position, they investigated and became the first unit engaged at the Battle of Shiloh,” Dempsey said.
By the end of the war, nearly 15,000 soldiers from Michigan had died, with disease and exposure claiming large numbers as well as combat. No state, proportional to its population suffered more losses. If these numbers were transferred to Michigan’s current population, the death toll would be hundreds of thousands.
The Michigan Notable Books list each year features 20 books published during the previous calendar year that are about Michigan or the Great Lakes region or are written by a native or resident of Michigan.
Depending on how sales are measured, the American Civil War continues to have more books written about it than any other subject. And now Michigan has one of its own.
“It’s a subject people continue to be fascinated by,” Dempsey said.
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