Although these men were very prominent in Ohio during the Civil War, the book For the Union: Ohio leaders in the Civil War focuses on individuals that were known beyond the Ohio borders. Individuals discussed within the book provided leadership and were associated with the state of Ohio throughout their lives.

Clement L. Vallandigham was the most notorious domestic foe of President Lincoln’s war policies during the Civil War. He urged that the war be ended by negotiation. Clement Vallandigham was born in Lisbon, Ohio and attended Jefferson College and the Union Academy. He ran for Congress in 1856 and contended that Negro votes had deprived him of his just desserts.# He believed that the Negro votes which were cast in violation of the Ohio constitution prohibited h

During this time, the North wanted to restore the Union without interfering in the “established institutions of the States.”# Garfield believed that the eradication of slavery and destruction of the planter class were necessary before the Union could be restored.#

Ben Wade’s battle against “executive usurpation” reached its grand climax with the publication of the Wade-Davis manifesto against the Presidential plan for restoring the seceded states.# The Radicals squabbled with Lincoln over whether the President or Congress should determine policies toward the South.

In 1862, when Union military victories had been few, he successfully led a brigade in eastern Kentucky, against Confederate troops. On the strength of the victory, he was promoted to brigadier general and major general two years later.

John Sherman played an important role in Ohio politics and shaped the finances of the United States during this time. The issues were all confused and entangled, but Sherman was clear that secession must not succeed.# A member of the Republican party, Sherman was elected to the House of representatives and served as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. He rose to prominence in the House of Representatives very quickly. In 1861, he was elected to the Senate and remained in Congress for the next sixteen years until he became Secretary of the Treasury.

Ben Wade was one of the most radical politicians in the United States. He had many enemies and was too extreme. Many of his attacks on Lincoln were too well remembered.# He supported votes for women, trade union rights and equal civil rights for African Americans. He was highly critical of capitalism. Wade pitted his strength against the President on issues of military strategy and restoration of the seceded states.#

In May of 1863, he was accused of treason and found guilty by a military commission. He was sentenced to imprisonment, but Lincoln intervened and commuted his sentence to banishment behind the Confederate Army lines. After the war, Vallandigham returned to Ohio and became a leading critic of the Radical Republications. He gained a reputation as a critic and obstructionist, Republican congressmen paid less attention to his speeches and comments.# Vallandigham was dubbed a traitor by many of his counterparts, but he was actually a constitutionalist and a conservative who opposed the changes that the Civil War was bringing to America.#

In 1867, Sherman became chairman of the Senate finance committee and played a leading role in government finance in the Reconstruction Period. He had supported t

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