Casey Baumeister
Professor Coronado
English 226
9 December 2014
Quiner Scrapbooks:
Correspondence of the Wisconsin Volunteers
The title of the book that this
paper is based on is “Quiner Scrapbooks: Correspondence of the Wisconsin Volunteers,
1861-1865, Volume 2,” and was produced by Edwin Bentley Quiner. The interesting
thing about this book is that it is full of newspaper clippings from soldiers
fighting on the front lines during the Civil War in Wisconsin, essentially
making it a scrapbook about our past. Quiner also included some letters from
journalists that were with the troops and also some articles and letters from
civilians that were selected to go along with each regiment. The focus in this specific
scrapbook is on the years spanning from 1861 to 1865, and it has a page range
of 379 with an average of three letters per page. The main locations of the
articles differ depending on where the specific regiment is located, and mainly
focusing on the different infantries, cavalries, sharpshooters, and volunteers
who are initially from Wisconsin. The reason I want to focus on these texts is
not only because they are a part of Wisconsin’s history, but also America’s
history. In order to add as much detail as I can, I will be focusing on the first
26 pages of the scrapbook, documenting the life of the soldiers and their
regiments during the year 1861–1862. Doing this will give insight to the
beginning years of the Civil War, the lives that were effected by war, and the
reasons they went to war at all—showing the reader the truth of war and how it
helped make America the nation it is today.
During my search for information
about the writer who created these scrapbooks, I was not able to find a lot. I
learned that the scrapbooks begin in 1861, when the Civil War first began, and
documents the letters from the people “who were serving at the front” (Wisconsin Historical Society). The type
of people who were writing were mainly soldiers but Quiner also made sure to pay
attention to anyone in the action, anyone who would know what was happening. Doing
this would allow for him to document the war itself from the view of the people
witnessing it firsthand. He did this to help form the foundation of his book
titled “Military History of Wisconsin: a record of the civil and military
patriotism of the state, in the war for the Union…” (Wisconsin Historical Society), which would span into a thousand
pages. The scrapbooks themselves, of which there are ten, totaled to 3,793
pages. Quiner organized the scrapbooks into a chronological order and attempted
to keep the volumes separated by sections that were dedicated to each distinct
regiment. The letters themselves are organized in linear order as well, and (as
stated in the paragraph above) has about three letters per page, allowing the
reader to follow along with the undertakings of the Civil War in the order that
they actually happened. All of this was done, yes to help Quiner create his
book, but also to document the bravery and patriotism that Wisconsin proved
itself to have.
The first entry that is shown in
the scrapbook is dated April 21st, 1862 and is from the Forth Army
Corp and shows the dedication the men had towards their country and their
beliefs. It states that “the men…await patiently for the approaching battle,
when our General will find willing hearts and ready hands willing to do or die
in defense of our glorious Union, and ready for the word fight, which all are
confident will result in a Federal victory” (Quiner 1). This shows the men of Wisconsin
willingness to fight for what they believe in. It shows that the men were not
drafted but instead offered their service for their country, for their beliefs,
with “willing hearts.” It also shows right off the bat that Wisconsin, like
most Northern states, allied with the Union fighters and their Federal beliefs.
This willingness and togetherness is one of the main reasons the union won the
war. There have been “…many scholars [that] have argued that the key to
sustaining modern social order is to develop mediating institutions that
connect individuals together into a larger social whole” (Neem 592). Meaning that
the feeling of fighting and possibly dying together for a common belief helped
form the modern social order that took place after the war. The people that
joined together were not all the same. They were more than likely from
different stations, but that was not what mattered. What was important was that
they all held common ideals for how this nation should be shaped. These ideals
are what made America into what it is today and helped form the nation that
offered freedom to all that stood on its soil.
It was not only the men that
volunteered to help their country though, women stepped up as well. It was the “[p]atriotism
and love for her kindred [that] may induce a woman to surrender the comforts
and quiet of home for the privations and hardships of the camp” (Quiner 6). Women
would be the ones in the background, helping the men with laundry and food, or
helping the injured recover. This was not just a man’s battle, it was a nations.
This was a war over America and how she should be shaped and everyone had a say
in what the outcome would be. Even if there were men in the camps that believed
the woman would be “more an inconvenience than an advantage, either as a nurse
or a ‘laundress’” (Quiner 6). Yes, this feeling shows that women still were not viewed
as equals to men, but we know that will come with time. More importantly, it
shows that there were women who wanted to risk their lives next to the men,
ones that wanted to help no matter the harm that could come to them. It shows a
woman’s desire to be more than she is told to be. This is documented proof that
even if they were not wanted, the women made the decision for themselves that
they were going to help make a nation that they would want to live in. There were
even women who expanded past the idea of helping out in the camps to helping
out on the battlefield. There were “…hundreds of women who passed as men to fight
on the front lines, refusing to be left behind with weeping mothers and sweethearts
or limited to the domestic (although extremely important and difficult) roles
of nurse and cook in the army camps” (Teorey 74). Even if the men did not know
it, some of them might have put all their faith and trust onto a woman. They protected
the men around them. They protected their families and loved ones. But more
importantly we see women taking more steps to becoming free and independent. This
type of idea, this passion is what helped make America into what it is today. What
women do today, the freedom that we have, was something that was fought for all
the way back in the Civil War. This was something that was earned outright and
can’t be taken away.
The war was not something that only
brought around the outcome of freedom though, it also helped produce capital
during the war itself. In a letter sent back home, a soldier explains that
every year the war makes “…nearly a million of dollars” (Quiner 8). He goes on
to explain that the common belief is that the soldier does not “produce” wealth like
a farmer or minor might but he “puts money in circulation” (Quiner 8). This
shows that there was a common held belief that a soldier has no use like a
farmer who puts food on the table or a minor who warms the homes. But the
soldier goes on to say that they, the ones fighting for a nation they could
believe in, “better the institutions of a people, [and] enhance a nation’s
wealth. The revolutionary war paid for itself because it established
institutions at least in all the free States” (Quiner 8). In other words, the
war helped pay for itself because it made the quality of life better for the
people. The Civil War helped build closer societies, bringing individual businesses,
such as farming or mining, closer together to help rise the way of living
everywhere else and promoting more circulation of wealth. Close-knit
institutions, “especially voluntary associations, are vital to modern
democratic social orders because they encourage the production of social
capital which, in turn, produces social trust” (Neem 592). By bringing society
closer together, the war promoted social capital which then allowed the
citizens to form trust among each other. Doing this helped them build the
social and political institutions that helped form America into the nation it
is today and allowed her to grow into something we can be proud of.
The state of the nation was not the
only thing to change, but also the state of religion. In an article labelled “Camp
Randall Items” there is references to how religion was played out in the camps.
It is explained that “Religious services were held at camp for the regiments [with
sermons preaching] “’Be thou strong, therefore, and show thyself a man.’ The
sermon was a very good one on the qualities essential to true manliness and
strength, and was listened to apparently with great interest and attention by
the soldiers” (Quiner 11). This shows how exactly religion was playing a part
in the war and how it was affecting the soldiers. It shows a devotion that is
still there, just because the men were at war does not mean they lost their
faith. It shows the recognition that strength is required for what they are
undertaking and also the idea that because they are showing this type of
strength, the soldiers are validating their manliness and showing how strong
they can be. Almost as if they most fight even harder to prove their faith as
well. There have been “Several historians [that] have identified the Civil War
as marking the initial stages of a transition from a primarily religious
understanding of death to a more secular approach to dying” (Scott 844). They would
have had to make this change of view point because of the sheer amount of
dying. Final words were not always able to be heard. Men were not dying in
their beds, some were being buried where they fell (Scott 844). The men needed
to have faith that they could fight like men ‘should’ without worrying that it
would jeopardize their place in heaven. This marks the change of America’s view
of religion, not so much because of a relaxing of morals but out of necessity
for change. This shows another change brought on by the Civil War that can
still be seen by the people of today.
There was so much faith and
dedication to the war that it changed a lot of families and their dynamics,
allowing young ones to find a life of their own without necessarily following
in their family’s footsteps. In one letter labeled “Going to help Uncle Sam
first,” there was a young man who was underage that enlisted himself into the
army without his father’s consent. When his father told the boy to come home to
help him on the farm because he was not able to pay for someone else to come in
and help, “the young man replied: ‘Dear Father:—I can’t go home at present. I
should be very glad to help you, but Uncle Sam has got a d—d sight bigger job
of thrashing on hand than you have, and I’m bound to see him out of the woods
first’” (Quiner 15). This reply shows first the dedication that young men had
for their nation and the Union army, so much so that they were volunteering
themselves before they were of age and without the consent of their family. While
it does show passion for the ideals of the Federal beliefs, it also documents
the struggle and need for people to fight in the army. It shows that while the
army did have standards and requirements, they did not have the luxury to turn
anyone away. It also shows the need for the farmers back home. So many people
were off fighting the war, so many family members, that the work force left
behind to keep things running were left short-handed. Compromises had to be
made. The Civil War wasn’t about the battle between the North and South. It was
a battle between different viewpoints and beliefs, it was about what the people
wanted America to be and how they wanted to live. This passion is what made
America, it’s what drives it still today. Without these men and women fighting,
without the will and courage that they had, nothing would be what it is today.
The documents that Quiner collected
are not important because they helped write a book. They are important because
they show us a past that is real. Those letters are not glorified to make the
readers feel comfortable, they are not there to validate choices made or to
sucker more people into volunteering. They are there to document the truth. They
show the guts and gore laying on the street. They show women and children
running for safety when the fighting spreads to their town. These articles tell
us how the war allowed the nation to prosper, how it started to change into
something that we recognize today. Women had started stepping up, testing their
limited freedom. Young men branched away from their families to see what they
could do for themselves. The way that religion was viewed changed, relaxing
into more individualistic terms. More than anything else the Civil War is what
created America. It’s how freedom was earned and how a new society was born. These
documentations show us an unedited version of how it happened. We get the view
points of the fighters and the also the people left back home. These letters
allow the reader to look into their lives and see what they saw and read what
it was they were thinking. These letters make the experience personal and make
the reader proud of the people who believed in something so strongly that they
made the change happen. They show how America was formed and were we came from,
and these things can never be taken away.
Works Cited
Neem, Johann N. "Taking Modernity's Wager: Tocqueville, Social Capital, and the American Civil War." Journal of Interdisciplinary History 41.4 (2011): 591-618. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.
Quiner, Edwin Bentley. “Quiner Scrapbooks: Correspondence of the Wisconsin Volunteers, 1861-1865, Volume 2.” Wisconsin Historical Society (2010): 1-26. Wisconsin Historical Society. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.
“Quiner Scrapbooks: Correspondence of the Wisconsin Volunteers, 1861-1865, Volume 2.” Wisconsin Historical Society. Wisconsin Historical Society, 2010. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.
Scott, Sean A. "'Earth Has No Sorrow That Heaven Cannot Cure': Northern Civilian Perspectives On Death And Eternity During The Civil War." Journal of Social History 41.4 (2008): 843-866. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.
Teorey, Matthew.
"Unmasking the Gentleman Soldier in the Memoirs of Two Cross-Dressing
Female US Civil War Soldiers." War, Literature, and the Arts: An
International Journal of the Humanities 20.1-2 (2008): 74-93. MLA
International Bibliography. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.
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