Bonds of War

Blog overview

How does one package and sell confidence in the stability of a nation riven by civil strife? This was the question that loomed before the US government with an unprecedented sale of bonds to finance the Union war effort in the early days of the American Civil War. How the government and its agents marketed these bonds revealed a version of the war the public was willing to buy and buy into. The following five-part blog series by David K. Thomson looks at the importance of bond sales during the American Civil War on a domestic and international level.

International Bond Sales After the American Civil War

By David K. Thomson

September 29, 2022

In the aftermath of a war that took the lives of 750,000 Americans and wounded more than a million others, there emerged a new chapter for American finance. New York City and investment banking entered a new era following the war and in part foreshadowed the world it would become by the end of the …...

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The Most Democratic Bond Issue of the War

By David K. Thomson

September 22, 2022

  Following on the wild success of the 5-20 loan drive, the federal government attempted to maintain that success, but without one key person—Jay Cooke. When the question of an exclusive agency for the next major drive (the “10-40” loan, a 5% loan callable in ten years by the government that matured in forty), Jay …...

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International Bond Sales During the American Civil War

By David K. Thomson

September 15, 2022

  It is a mistake to talk about the American Civil War in a vacuum. While by definition a war that was not against a foreign power, the conflict still proved of great consequence and interest around the world, but especially on the other side of the Atlantic. The power of southern cotton to fuel …...

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The Rise of Jay Cooke

By David K. Thomson

September 8, 2022

  In October 1862 the federal government found itself in dire straits on virtually every front. Militarily, 1862 had been a year of mixed results. While General Ulysses S. Grant had made some headway in the Western Theater, the more high-profile Eastern Theater saw the armies of the United States government struggling. Despite being within …...

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The Threat of a Thousand Dollar Breakfast

By David K. Thomson

September 1, 2022

  Slavery stood at the center of the American experience prior to the Civil War. From the arrival of the first enslaved individuals in colonial Virginia in 1619, the issue of slavery gradually tore the nation apart. In particular, the nineteenth century witnessed increasing hostility between North and South over the “peculiar institution.” The volatile …...

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