by John Christgau
While elated Northerners were celebrating victory at
Gettysburg and toasting Abraham Lincoln as the Great Emancipator, Missourian
Charles W. Walker was rousing his thirteen slaves in the dark of night. In
defiance of a standing Union order prohibiting the transfer of slaves among
states, he intended to ship his slaves by train to Kentucky, where they would
be sold at auction. What ensued was one of the most gripping—and until now,
mostly forgotten—events of the Civil War.
In Incident at the Otterville Station, John Christgau
relates the true story of the rescue of Walker’s thirteen slaves by soldiers of
the Ninth Minnesota Regiment and the soldiers’ subsequent arrest for mutiny.
The controversial incident became national news, with President Lincoln
ultimately sending Secretary of War Edward Stanton to investigate. Christgau’s
compelling narrative of the Otterville Station rescue and its aftermath
illustrates the complex process of emancipation during the American Civil War,
particularly in border states such as Missouri. The end of slavery was the product
of many actors, from Union soldiers to the president and Congress to
abolitionists and the enslaved themselves. This detailed account examines the
critical role that individuals played in determining the outcome of
emancipation and the war.
ISBN 978-0803246447, University of Nebraska Press, © 2013, Paperback,
168 Pages, and End Notes. $16.95. To Purchase the book click HERE.
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