Reprint of the original, first published in 1881.

As much as the Civil War was a battle over the survival of the United States, for the men of Company K of the First Michigan Sharpshooters, it was also one battle in a longer struggle for the survival of Anishinaabewaki, the homelands of the Anishinaabeg—Ojibwe, Odawa, and Boodewaadamii peoples . The men who served in what was often called ‘the Indian Company’ chose to enlist in the Union army to contribute to their peoples’ ongoing struggle with the state and federal governments over status, rights, resources, and land in the Great Lakes. This meticulously researched history begins in 1763 with Pontiac’s War, a key moment in Anishinaabe history. It then explores the multiple strategies the Anishinaabeg deployed to remain in Michigan despite federal pressure to leave. Anishinaabe men claimed the rights and responsibilities associated with male citizenship—voting, owning land, and serving in the army—while actively preserving their status as ‘Indians’ and Anishinaabe peoples. Indigenous expectations of the federal government, as well as religious and social networks, shaped individuals’ decisions to join the U.S. military. The stories of Company K men also broaden our understanding of the complex experiences of Civil War soldiers. In their fight against removal, dispossession, political marginalization, and loss of resources in the Great Lakes, the Anishinaabeg participated in state and national debates over citizenship, allegiance, military service, and the government’s responsibilities to veterans and their families.

Powerful ideas have the capacity to inspire great good. They also have the capacity to prompt unspeakable acts of evil. The ideas of "America" and "the gospel" have been used for both. The situation was no different when the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) brought these two ideas together in its evangelistic work from 1860 to 1920, including during the Civil War and the First World War. Methodist Evangelism, American Salvation traces the MEC's home missions among African Americans and whites in the South; among Native Americans, Mexicans, and white settlers in the West; and among newly arrived immigrants, their children, the poor, and the rich in the East's burgeoning cities. It shows the innovative and courageous work of the MEC to improve the quality of life for these most marginalized populations in the United States. It also shows the fear the MEC had that these populations would overthrow American civilization if they did not conform to the values held by white, middle-class, native-born Americans.