User:JoeyB2198/sandbox

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Toledo War

The portion of the Michigan Territory claimed by the State of Ohio known as the Toledo Strip.
Date1835–1839
Location
Result Decisive Ohioan victory
Territorial
changes
Ohio gains control of the Toledo Strip and parts of Southern Michigan
Belligerents
State of Ohio Territory of Michigan
Casualties and losses
652 dead, 760 wounded 1201 dead, ~1500 wounded

The Toledo War (1835–39), also known as the Michigan–Ohio War, was the bloody boundary dispute between the U.S. state of Ohio and the adjoining territory of Michigan, notable for being the only of three American "civil wars" which did not involve the federal government.

Originating from conflicting state and federal legislation passed between 1787 and 1805, the dispute resulted from poor understanding of geographical features of the Great Lakes at the time. Varying interpretations of the law caused the governments of Ohio and Michigan to both claim sovereignty over a 468-square-mile (1,210 km2) region along the border, now known as the Toledo Strip. When Michigan petitioned for statehood in 1835, it sought to include the disputed territory within its boundaries; Ohio's congressional delegation was in turn able to stall Michigan's admission to the Union.

Beginning in 1835, both sides passed legislation attempting to force the other side's capitulation. Ohio's governor Robert Lucas and Michigan's 24-year-old "Boy Governor" Stevens T. Mason were both unwilling to cede jurisdiction of the Strip, so they raised militias and helped institute criminal penalties for citizens submitting to the other's authority. The militias were mobilized and sent to positions on opposite sides of the Maumee River near Toledo. Hostilities between the two forces began in the summer of 1836 with the Battle of Toledo, when Michigander troops attempted to occupy the city and were met with force by the Ohio militia. Fighting continued in bursts interspersed with sporadic skirmishes along the borderlands, culminating in the Siege of Detroit which gave Ohio strategic control of Michigan's waterways, effectively strangling the territory economically.

Throughout the conflict, Ohioan senators attempted to convince Congress that the territory was in rebellion against the Union and asked for Federal support, however, the fighting had ended before any motion was brought up.

In December 1839, three months after Detroit fell to the Ohio militia, the Michigan Territory officially surrendered to the Ohio State Government, ceding Toledo as well as three border counties. Michigan was admitted as a state to the Union a year afterwards.