The American politician Oliver Hazard Perry Throck Morton (1823-1877), as governor of Indiana during the Civil War, ably organized support for the Union.

Oliver Perry Morton was born on Aug. 4, 1823, in Salisbury, Ind., but grew up in Ohio. After 2 years at Miami University in Ohio, he left in 1845 to read law in Centreville, Ind. He served briefly as a circuit judge in 1852. Although a strongly partisan Democrat, Morton broke with his party over the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, which allowed the further extension of slavery into new territories, and he was expelled for disloyalty. Finding reconciliation impossible, he helped found the Indiana Republican party. In 1860 he was elected lieutenant governor and became governor when the incumbent went to the Senate.

Morton zealously favored the Civil War and energetically threw the resources of his state behind the national government. He quickly and effectively raised troops, money, and supplies. But the...