Cleveland and the Civil War

Although removed from the frontlines, Cleveland played an active role in national events before, during and after the Civil War. President Lincoln visited this abolitionist hotbed after his 1860 election. Following the president's assassination five years later, his funeral train made a stop here. Cleveland and Cuyahoga County sent more than 9,000 troops to war. More than 1,700 never returned. Born just outside Cleveland, James Garfield emerged from the war to become president of the United States. Most vitally, the economic prosperity of the war years began the transformation of this small but thriving village into a future manufacturing powerhouse.