The Civil War Museum focuses on the Civil War from the perspective of the people of the six states of the upper middle west: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin that sent over 750,000 men to serve in the Union army while providing much of the food and raw materials necessary for the northern states to carry on the war. Through the use of personal stories and narratives, the Museum explores how the Civil War impacted the people on the Western home front before, during, and after the war by connecting the prewar causes to the postwar effects.