Family War Stories

The Densmores' Fight to Save the Union and Destroy Slavery

Keith P. Wilson

• Publisher: Fordham University Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN:
  9781531505400
  9781531505394
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781531505417
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: History

Based on an extensive collection of letters written from the home front and the battlefront, Family War Stories offers fresh insights into how the reciprocal nature of family correspondence can shape a family's understanding of the war.

Family War Stories examines the contribution of the Densmore family to the Northern Civil War effort. It extends the boundaries of research in two directions. First, by describing how members of this white family from Minnesota were mobilized to fight a family war on the home front and the battlefront, and second, by exploring how the war challenged the family's abolitionist beliefs and racial attitudes. Family War Stories argues that the totality of the family's Civil War experience was intricately shaped by the dynamics of family life and the reciprocal nature of family corre­spondence. Further, it argues that the serving sons' understanding of the war was shaped by their direct military experiences in the army camps and battlefields and how their loved ones at home interpreted these experiences.

With two sons serving as officers in the United States Colored Troops' regiments fighting in the Mississippi Valley, the Densmore family was heavily involved in destroying slavery. Family War Stories analyses how the sons' military experiences tested the family's abolitionist ideology and its commitment to white racial superiority. It also explains how the family sought to accommodate the presence of a refugee from slavery working in the family kitchen. In some ways, the presence of this worker in the household posed an even greater range of challenges to the family's racial beliefs than the sons' military service.

By examining one family's deep involvement in the war against slavery, Wilson analyses how the Civil War posed particular challenges to Northerners committed to abolitionism and white supremacy.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1. “May his ‘soldier life’ be as good as the cause he will represent”: Orrin Densmore and the Beginning of the Civil War
• 2. “I wish Old Abe had a son or some kin or kine up here in danger”: The Brothers’ War against the Dakota
• 3. “Dont give up my Son”: Benjamin on Duty at Fort Halleck
• 4. “The glorious, new temple of Liberty”: Daniel Joins the United States Colored Troops at Benton Barracks
• 5. “Kind acts went directly to their hearts”: Martha Serves on the Home Front in Red Wing
• 6. “Faces of flint”: Campaigning against Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest
• 7. “The child was ‘right glad’ to get home”: Young Orrin’s Military Adventure
• 8. “Move the camp down to the grave yard”: Camp Life in Memphis
• 9. “Christmas with us here promises to be quite a season”: Rejoicing and Celebrating
• 10. “She walks off with the work”: Service and Friendship: Elizabeth, Mary, and Martha
• 11. “Do come up Martha”: Anna and Martha
• 12. “They all fought like Minnesotians”: The Mobile Campaign
• 13. “The curse of slavery”: Occupation Duty in Alabama
• 14. “They’ve got money, let them buy their own biscuit”: Departure and Homecoming
• Conclusion
• Characters
• Genealogical Tables
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author