Peace Amongst the Citrus Groves: Southern California’s Civil War Veterans from 1865-1930

The experiences of Civil War veterans in the latter half of the 19th century represents a understudied, yet important avenue for the study of not only the impact of war on these men and their families, but the role that veterans played in the broader nation-building process that occurred during this period. At least three million men served in Union and Confederate armies during America’s bloodiest conflict, and they were a visible part of the post-war landscape as they transitioned back to civilian life. Studies of Civil War veterans typically focus on two distinct areas. One, top down political histories of prominent veterans who became important political or social figures after the war, and second, local studies which focus on veterans homes as a means of inferring the physical implications of military service on veterans. Our research is different in that we constructed a database of over 400 Union veterans with extremely diverse backgrounds who made San Bernardino County their home in the years after the Civil War. Working primarily at the Lincoln Memorial Shrine at the A.K. Smiley Library in Redlands, we focused on tracing the lives of these veterans before, during, and after the war in an attempt to better understand the post-war experiences of the men who fought in America’s bloodiest conflict.