{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.03277886497064579, 'fraction_numerical': 0.022504892367906065, 'mean_word_length': 5.492063492063492, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Civil War Historic Sites in Illinois

Abraham Lincoln casts a long shadow over all things historical in Illinois. “Land of Lincoln” is imprinted on Illinois license plates and plastered on Illinois billboards. Lincoln’s prominence in historical tourism is reflected in the Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition’s success in obtaining congressional designation of an Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area that spreads across forty-two Illinois counties. The “Civil War Traveler” internet site confirms Lincoln’s preeminence; eight of the fifteen Illinois Civil War sites highlighted are largely Lincoln themed. Even calendar chronology conspires in Lincoln’s favor. The Lincoln centennial, sesquicentennial, and bicentennial (1909, 1959, and 2009) taxed the energy, interest, and resources of the community members and officials most inclined to support and lead Civil War anniversaries (1911-15, 1961-65, and 2011-15) that always follow in the wake of a Lincoln anniversary. Lincoln is indeed the colossus astride Illinois’s historical landscape. Nevertheless, the Civil War lurks in the state’s Lincoln story. For instance, the war looms in the background at the seven historic sites where Lincoln and the Democratic incumbent, Senator Stephen A. Douglas, famously debated during their 1858 U.S. Senate campaign. All seven Lincoln-Douglas Debate Communities—Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton— refurbished their debate sites with new interpretive storyboards and other improvements for the 2008 sesquicentennial commemoration. In addition to these wayside exhibits, visitors encounter at each site dramatic statuary or bronze basreliefs commissioned especially for that locale. Knox College’s Old Main in Galesburg is the only debate-site building that still survives. Visitors can sit in the “Lincoln chair” and look out the window that he and Douglas climbed through to mount the outdoor platform in front of Old Main. Two sites— those at Charleston and Quincy—have excellent Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865).