Excerpt:

Almost 5,000 miles and half an ocean away from the killing fields of Gettysburg, Chickamauga, or Spotsylvania, Hawaii and Hawaiians might be assumed to have not played a role in the Civil War. Yet regardless of proud protestations of neutrality by the Hawaiian monarchy – the islands were not American territory at the time – many of the islands’ residents participated in the conflict, on both sides.

And for good reason: though they lived on one of the most geographically isolated island chains in the world, Hawaiians kept abreast of international events, knowing that the outcome of the war could greatly affect Hawaii as well.

The presidential election of Abraham Lincoln received a positive response in Hawaii, with the Hawaiian-language newspaper Ka Hoku Loa writing that America was “blessed” to have him at such a problematic time. Nevertheless, the Lincoln administration was worried about Hawaiian neutrality and what it saw to be growing British influence in the islands. …

Photo: Civil War depiction. (Owen Byrne)

—Chad Blair