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Civil War
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Description
The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of AmeThe American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America. The Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U.S. history.
Among the 34 U.S. states in February 1861, seven Southern slave states individually declared their secession from the U.S. to form the Confederate States of America. War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U.S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to include eleven states; it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona and New Mexico (called Confederate Arizona). The Confederacy was never diplomatically recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North. The war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865.
The war had its origin in the factious issue of slavery, especially the extension of slavery into the western territories. Four years of intense combat left 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers dead, a higher number than the number of American military deaths in World War I and World War II combined, and much of the South's infrastructure was destroyed. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed (most of them by Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation). The Reconstruction Era (1863–1877) overlapped and followed the war, with the process of restoring national unity, strengthening the national government, and granting civil rights to freed slaves throughout the country.... More
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Memories
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With the outbreak of the Civil War, John Mason Loomis was commissioned as a Colonel and became the commander of the 26th Illinois Infantry Regiment. Under his command they were mustered into federal service August 31, 1861, fulfilling his dream as a young man in Windsor. After finally receiving arms and equipment, they departed February 19, 1862, for New Madrid, MO, joining General John Pope's Corps. Of note is that Colonel Loomis' wife mary accompanied her husband to the front and became head of the company of nurses.
He and his Regiment participated in most of the important battles in the Western Theater. During the Vicksburg Campaign, Colonel Loomis commanded the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 16th Corps of which the 26th Illinois was a part.
Colonel Loomis resigned April 30, 1864 having sought a promotion to Brigadier General which was not forthcoming. He returned to Chicago and became a large real estate owner and was very active in supporting veteran affairs.
In 1874, Colonel Loomis joined his three brothers and a sister to incorporate for the purpose oChaffee School, to help the education of boys and girls in Windsor, CT.
Colonel Loomis died on August 2, 1900. When his wife Mary died October 9, 1910, she left an endowment of $1,120,000 to the "Loomis Institute".