Understandably, most histories of the American Civil War focus on the conflict between the United States and the self-proclaimed Confederacy, and the military engagements that came out of that. While a good history will spend some time on the internal conflicts both sides suffered, and the important role that a willingness to pursue the war from the Northern States played in determining the war’s outcome, the full depth of that political conflict is often neglected. This isn’t for any nefarious purpose, though. Ultimately, the peace party within the north, known at the time as “copperheads” after the venomous snake, was unsuccessful and so most historians have judged their influence to have been no more than a novelty and with so much else to cover they summarize the copperhead issue in a few pages and move on.