Civil War | The Fires at Home | 4
American History Tellers
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The History of the Copperheads
The most notorious Copperhead was Clement Velandigham, a brash congressman from Ohio. He had family roots in Virginia and was married to the daughter of a Maryland planter. Many Butternut residents were descended from southern settlers who resented that the war threatened their trade routes along the Mississippi. Their biggest complaint was the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by Lincoln in January 1863. After the proclamation, many Butternut soldiers deserted the Union army, refusing to go to battle against slavery.
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