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. Author W. Dennis Keating, member and past president of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable, creates a panoramic view of the city through one of the nation’s most troubled times

W. Dennis Keating is an Emeritus Professor who taught in the Levin College of Urban Affairs and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University. He has written widely about urban planning, urban policy, neighborhoods and housing. His publications about Cleveland include the 2016 History Press book A Brief History of Tremont: Cleveland’s Neighborhood on a Hill. He is a past president of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable and has written numerous articles for its newsletter, The Charger. Two of his ancestors served in the 168th and the 206th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry regiments during the Civil War.