Timeline:

August 21, 1858: Abraham Lincoln begins anti-abolition rhetoric during debates with Stephen Douglas.

April 12, 1861: American Civil War begins.

Jan. 1, 1863: Emancipation Proclamation is signed by Lincoln

March 28,1864: The Charleston Riot leaves nine dead and 12 wounded. Lincoln soon becomes personally involved in prosecution of rioters.

April 15, 1865: Lincoln shot and killed by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C.

Behind Charleston’s seemingly quaint exterior lies a bloody, divided past.

The Charleston Riot erupted on March 28, 1864 in the Charleston Square, when a Mattoon-based contingent of Union soldiers clashed with southern Illinois secessionists nicknamed “Copperheads.”

According to eyewitness accounts, the riot lasted only moments, but when the dust settled, at least nine people were dead and Charleston was forever changed.

Many of the families of the rioters who were arrested, and then later pardoned by President Abraham Lincoln, still live in the Charleston/Mattoon area.

This familial connection is what lead Peter Barry to chronicle the riot through the perspective of Copperheads involved in the riot.

Barry, professor emeritus of agricultural finance at the University of Illinois, thought the book needed to be written because of the impact it had on the town.

“The riot is an important part of Charleston’s history,” he said.

Charleston divided

Illinois was a divided state during the Civil War.

The issue of slavery in Illinois had been hotly contested even before the Civil War. The southern part of the state strongly supported slavery, while the northern part was in favor of stopping slavery.

Southern Democrats, then called Copperheads, began many protests throughout Illinois as soon as the state sided with the Union. Tensions between north and south Illinois rose to a boiling point when the Civil War began.

Martin Hardeman, professor of Civil War history at Eastern, said these tensions were a result of how Illinois was settled.

He said most of the northern citizens had come from northern states where slavery had not been a set way of life for many years, while the southern part of the state came from southern states where slavery was the norm.

Due to this clash in cultures, Hardeman said, the southern part of Illinois had considered seceding from the Union and either joining the Confederacy or possibly creating their own new Confederacy with other states in the Union that sympathized with the South.

He said at least one southern Illinois army regiment was sent to the Confederacy to aid in the fight against the Union.

This virtual cold war between the north and south of Illinois created grave problems for areas like Charleston who were right on the border between the two sides and had many citizens from both living in their area.

The times were ripe for violence, and one day in March 1864 on the Charleston Square that violence erupted.

Many reports and accounts differ over what caused the riot. Some sources say the riot was a spontaneous event that occurred as a result of inebriation and of too many Union soldiers and Copperheads in the same place. Others say local resident Nelson Wells, who was one of only two Copperheads killed in the incident, instigated the conflict.

Either way, the riot was over almost as soon as it had begun. At least nine were dead – six soldiers and three civilians – and 12 were wounded.

This short conflict is considered by some to be the among the bloodiest riots to occur in the North during the Civil War.

William Furry, executive director of the Illinois State Historical Society, said other protests and smaller riots arose, but the Charleston Riot was the largest in the state.

He said both the scope of the conflict and the death toll are the main reasons why so many historians have written about the riot.

Furry said the overriding cause of the conflict, the clashing of northern and southern ideologies, was the inspiration for the book “Across the Five Aprils,” by Irene Hunt.

Barry’s ancestors were among those charged with murder as a result of the riot. Although he the riot was horrific, he said something positive came out of it.

“It was a very costly way to resolve that conflict,” he said. “But now it’s become a common bond between the citizenry.”

Barry said the bloody results of the riot showed the citizens of Coles County the cost of their division and made them reevaluate their feelings for one another.

He said the vehemence that once existed between area residents was slowly erased as a result of the riot, and many of these families who once despised one another are now either friends or related.

The riot may have been a bittersweet victory for Coles County, but it created a great deal of concern throughout the Union.

“At the time, the riot got a lot of national visibility,” Barry said.

He said many government officials believed the riot to be a prelude to a general uprising among southern sympathizers in the north. However, this belief was soon proven wrong.

The fear of general insurrection was not the only aspect of the riot that got national attention.

Arguably the most important figure during the Civil War era, Abraham Lincoln, was directly involved in the events before and after the riot in Charleston.

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Lincoln’s involvement

Lincoln made several speeches during his debates with Stephen Douglas while running for U.S. senator in 1858. Some of these speeched rallied southern Illinois voters around Lincoln because of his seemingly anti-abolitionist rhetoric.

Matthew Mittelstaedt, site manager of the Lincoln Log Cabin outside of Charleston, said Lincoln made many comments during the debates that were disparaging towards blacks.

One comment he made apparently made it very clear that he did not support the abolition of slavery.

Mittelstaedt said Lincoln made the comments because he was trying to win the election and needed the support of southern Illinois residents to do so.

“You can make the assumption that he was trying to curry some favor with voters,” Mittelstaedt said.

Even years after the release of the Emancipation Proclamation and outbreak of the Civil, Lincoln did come to the aid of southern Illinoisans once more after the Charleston Riot.

Barry said Lincoln pardoned all of the Copperheads who were arrested for their role in the riot and granted amnesty to rioters who escaped before being prosecuted for murder.

He said Lincoln’s involvement in the aftermath of the riot was a result of his familial connections to the area and to the rioters.

Barry said since Lincoln’s father and stepmother lived in Coles County and because some of the Copperhead rioters were related to him, the president felt the need to get involved.

Lincoln’s need to become involved because of his family’s involvement in the riot mirrors Barry’s need to write a book about the riot.

Concept to publication

Barry said he grew up hearing about his ancestors’ involvement in the riot and found himself wanting to know more about them and the riot.

“I heard stories about it from my grandparents,” Barry said. “As I got older, I got more interested in the history of the riot.”

Of the estimated 100 Copperheads involved in the riot, Barry’s relatives were from the Fraizer, O’Hare, Swango and Hicks families.

Judging by what he found while doing research, Barry said these relatives ranged from young to old and described some of them as “ruffians.”

Barry said he was first inspired to write the book five years ago when he was nearing his retirement as a professor at the University of Illinois.

He said it seemed like a good way to combine the extra time he would have in retirement with his passion for history.

“I have a lot of interest in history, especially the mystery of what happened in the riot,” Barry said. “The book was a labor of love more than anything else.”

Before writing the book, Barry had three articles published in several historical journals, including the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association and the Journal of Illinois History.

Barry, whose academic field is agriculture and finance, said writing the book was “both exhilarating and nerve-racking.”

In order to become more comfortable with writing about history, Barry said he spoke with several history professors at the University of Illinois as well as at Eastern.

These discussions improved his confidence in his writing abilities and left him ready to make his mark on history.

“It made me feel more interested in writing and better about contributing something like this to Coles and Edgar County,” he said.

In order to write the book, Barry consulted several local, state and national resources for information about the riot and his family’s involvement.

He spoke with several different historical societies from around the area to get a better idea about the exact details of the riot. He also examined the work of the late Charles Coleman, a history professor at Eastern who wrote extensively on the history of Coles County and the riot.

Barry also consulted the National Archives in Washington D.C. to learn more about the national attention the riot received at the time.

Once all of his work culminated in a published book, the Coles County community received it well.

Barry visited several historical societies in Coles and Edgar counties when the book was first released to help garner some attention for the book.

As a result, he said, the book has gained a good deal of attention throughout the area.

“It’s amazing how word of mouth gets around,” Barry said.

Interest in the book has not waned since its publication, and Barry is still in the area.

He attributes this continued interest in the riot to the integral part it played in Charleston’s past.

Copies of Barry’s book can be found at either the Mary J. Booth Library on campus or at the Charleston Carnegie Public Library.

Anyone wishing to purchase a copy of the book should contact Barry directly either by phone at 217-356-8060 or by email at p-barry1@uiuc.edu.

Jordan Crook can be reached at 581-7945 or at jscrook@eiu.edu.