April 2011 marked the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. The war was in the making for years, but it was the firing on Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina on April 15, 1861 that gave rise to the bloodshed. Nearly four years after the surrender of the fort, Union forces recaptured it.
Following the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, resolutions passed by South Carolina’s legislature focused on what it felt was the state' duty to withdraw from the federal union. On December 20, 1860, the legislators unanimously voted for secession.
It was Lincoln’s election that brought North-South controversies to a head. Kewaunee County's residents spent an anxious winter at a time when weekly mail was the only connection with the outside world and the mails brought stories of a war that seemed almost certain.
Historian George Wing wrote that settlers and woodsmen gathered nightly at the Tremont, now Stebbins Hotel, the Kenosha House or Boalt’s store to discuss news or a letter or a newspaper from Manitowoc. They heard about “secesh” and wondered if one “secesh” could really lick ten Yankees as they boasted.
On February 1, South Carolina’s ultimatum was delivered to President James Buchanan, not President Lincoln who would take office in March. Tensions were high in Kewaunee County. Suspicions of loyalty lurked within the Democrat Party in 1861 and some Democrats even abandoned the name to support a Union ticket, largely endorsed by Republicans.
Ahnapee was predominantly a Democratic community. Older residents were reluctant to see war come, but when it did, there were slogans such as “Save the Union at all costs,” or “Save the Country.” Feelings of patriotism ran high prompting 75 year old Major Joseph McCormick to declare he would fight if necessary. McCormick was a veteran of the War of 1812. He and other residents of Kewaunee County were gearing up for war.
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