Homestead Act: Who Were the Settlers?
 19 of 29

The Civil War Connection

U.S. Capitol Building, 1861
U.S. Capitol Building, 1861.
National Archives and Records Administration.

When the 37th Congress convened on July 1, 1861, members returned to an unfinished capitol building, several pieces of unfinished legislation, and news of the first battles of the Civil War. Federal troops were stationed just outside the Capitol. Yet, despite the dire times, three major pieces of domestic legislation passed that fundamentally affected the history of Nebraska. Why did Congress and President Abraham Lincoln turn their attention to homesteading, the creation of land grant colleges, and the transcontinental railroad in time of war?

For one thing, the political timing was right. Before the Civil War, Northern states had wanted to open up the West to settlement, and they saw homesteads, the transcontinental railroad, and land grant colleges as critical to that process.
  • The Homestead Act would provide settlers to occupy the new lands.

  • The Transcontinental Railroad would provide transportation to get them there.

  • And Morrill Act would authorize land grant colleges to provide knowledge and information — particularly to help farmers farm.

Northern lawmakers believed that all of these factors were necessary for successful settlement and the creation of new states.
Civil War & the Union Pacific
An explanation
of the influence of the Civil War
on the Union Pacific
Southern representatives had opposed all three acts because they knew if new states were created, they would be non-slave states. When these conflicts resulted in the secession of the southern states from the Union, opposition in Congress dissolved. The Homestead Act was passed by Congress in May, 1862. The Union Pacific Railroad was chartered on July 1, 1862 when President Lincoln selected a route that would pass through Nebraska. And the Morrill Act was signed into law on July 2, 1862.

In addition, one of the major provisions for the Homestead Act provided special treatment for veterans of the Civil War. After the war, a soldier would be allowed to deduct the number of years that he served in the Union Army from the five-year residency requirement. Any person who had borne arms against the Union was not eligible. So the Homestead Act was passed, in small part, as a recruiting inducement for the Army.

But there is little evidence that Union soldiers thought much about homesteading during the Civil War. For instance, Uriah Oblinger was a veteran and did later homestead in Nebraska. But none of his letters that survive from the Civil War talk about his plans to take advantage of the Homestead Act. Instead Uriah's letters are mostly concerned with survival. Historians say this is common for Civil War letters.

All three acts would eventually result in a vast expansion of the Nebraska population. In 1854, before the Civil War, there were only 2,732 settlers clustered in towns like Omaha and Brownville along the Missouri River. By 1870, there were over 122,000 settlers in towns and on farms as far west as Grand Island and Kearney.

Some Civil War Medal of Honor recipients
are in the Nebraska Hall of Fame.
Click below to find out about all its members.