A fresh look at the 1864 Soldiers' vote

Andersonh1

Brigadier General
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I found this interview and discussion about voting patterns of Union soldiers in the 1864 election to be very interesting, and a few facts jumped out at me that contradict the notion that the vast majority of the army were solidly behind Lincoln. There was apparently more dissent than is commonly stated, and plenty of voter suppression.

Historians commonly claim that 80 percent of Union soldiers voted for Abraham Lincoln in the 1864 election, but Jonathan W. White, a professor of American Studies at Virginia’s Christopher Newport University, has delved into archives of soldiers’ letters and court-martial case files and found more nuanced support for the president. In his new book Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln he presents evidence of widespread intimidation in favor of Lincoln as well as suppression of Democratic voters—though not enough to have swayed election results. Nonetheless, White notes that enfranchising soldiers in the field—granted by 19 Northern states during the war—marked a milestone in voter rights and helped expand the franchise in the United States.

What is new about your research?

Scholars often point out that 78 percent of the Army vote went for Lincoln, and they use that number to support claims that the soldiers had become Republicans by 1864. But the “78 percent” statistic is deceiving. Yes, of the soldiers who voted in the field, 78 percent voted for Lincoln. But that doesn’t take into account soldiers who chose not to vote, nor soldiers who had been intimidated into voting for Lincoln.

What did you find?

I estimate that at least 20 percent of the soldiers chose not to vote for either candidate in the presidential election of 1864—a conservative estimate. What is even more remarkable, though, is that historians have never systematically looked at how soldiers voted in the state and congressional elections in September and October 1864. Soldiers could vote in those elections, but very few chose to do so.

What makes that fact significant?

I think it reveals that soldiers in the field were not as tied to their political parties as the voters at home were. Democratic soldiers had come to doubt their party’s loyalty. The Democratic platform, after all, called the war a “failure.” Still, some Democratic soldiers were willing to vote for George McClellan because they believed he would restore the Union. But many chose not to vote in the various elections that fall.


Read the rest at http://www.historynet.com/fresh-look-1864-soldiers-vote-interview-jonathan-w-white.htm
 
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