Biography
Edson Baldwin Olds was a physician and former Democratic U.S. Representative from Ohio who became a leader of the anti-war 'Copperhead' movement during the Civil War. On August 12, 1862, on the recommendation of Ohio Governor David Tod, federal authorities arrested him for allegedly discouraging enlistments in the Union army. He was imprisoned at Fort Lafayette in New York Harbor for roughly four months, including a period of solitary confinement, and was never formally charged or brought to trial. While he remained imprisoned, voters in Fairfield and Hocking counties elected him to the Ohio House of Representatives — an act widely seen as a protest against his arbitrary detention. He was released in December 1862 and returned to Lancaster, Ohio, to take his seat in the legislature. His case became a notable example of military detention used against political dissenters in the North.
