Sidney, Ohio had two weekly newspapers during the war. The "Sidney Journal," which catered to the Republican persuasion and supported the war, and the "Shelby County Democrat," which took an editorial position against the war. Thomas Young (pictured at right — who years after the war would become the Governor of Ohio), resided in Sidney at the beginning of the conflict and served as editor of the "Democrat." "Hitchcock's History of Shelby County" reports that Young printed a violent anti-war editorial, and was forced to leave town. He eventually enlisted and served with the 118th Ohio, "rising by meritorious service to the rank of brevet brigadier-general at the close of the war." Biographies on Young later in his life interestingly deny the "Hitchcock" account.

A hotbed of anti-war sentiment nationally was in Dayton, the home of anti-war activist Clement Vallandigham (shown at right). As a member of Congress, he led a group of fellow members of the House of Representatives that grew in size as the war dragged on. The Union soldiers were aware of Vallandigham and his beliefs. When he was nominated for governor of Ohio in the summer of 1863, a soldier of the 99th Ohio wrote a Letter to the Editor of the "Journal" on July 3, 1863, which said in part: "The good and true men of this army feel that the foolish men of Ohio, who nominated Vallandigham for governor, have offered a gross insult to their patriotism. Is the Democratic party so short of good men that they were compelled to take up a man justly banished for his treasonable practices?"

The soldiers were allowed to vote for governor by absentee ballot in the fall of 1863. Peter Morgan, a member of the 118th Ohio (shown at right), recorded in his diary on October 13, 1863, that Vallandigham received four votes out of at least several hundred cast for governor of Ohio.  The "Shelby County Democrat," which supported Vallandigham, was the target of bitter attacks by the editor of the "Sidney Journal." A "Journal" editorial of February 27, 1863, quoted a Union officer as saying, after reading a copy of the "Democrat," "Seventy-one articles were in opposition to the war. Who is this man Grimes that edits it? Some of my boys...wondered what kind of people we had in Shelby County, that they allowed such men to live there."