Hubbell Prize Awarded

Jonathan W. White has won the John T. Hubbell Prize for work published in Civil War History during 2004. His article, "Canvassing the Troops: the Federal Government and the Soldiers' Right to Vote," was selected by a three-judge panel as the best one published in the journal for volume year fifty. The prize earns the recipient a $1,000 cash award.

fihite's article is one of the first to take readers deep into the intricacies of political mobilization within the ranks of the Union Army. Using New York as a case study, White traced the evolution of absentee voting by soldiers, which was a new phenomenon for most states. Both parties vigorously sought to control that vote, with states sending agents into the Weld to court the vote of the soldiers. The federal government, in the hands of a Republican administration, began to regulate the behavior of these agents, even prosecuting ones who appeared to step over the line. While suffrage remained clearly in the hands of state authorities to administer even in these precedent-setting times, Republicans had altered the landscape by using federal authority to regulate and prosecute activities by state agents canvassing troops in the Weld. As White concluded: "During the Civil War politicians of both parties—but particularly the Republicans, because they controlled the federal government—were willing to alter traditional federal-state roles and condemn party competition to win elections."

fihite is a doctoral student in U.S. history at the University of Maryland, College Park. His dissertation, "To Aid Their Rebel Friends," is a study of party competition and treason in the North during the Civil War.  White also has published articles on Civil War politics in American Nineteenth Century History and The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography.  He originally wrote "Canvassing the Troops" as a seminar paper supervised by Leslie S. Rowland and later revised it into a chapter of his master's thesis, which was directed by Herman Belz.

Awarded annually and funded by a donor through the Richards Civil War Era Center at the Pennsylvania State University, the John T. Hubbell Prize recognizes the extraordinary contribution of its namesake to the Weld, who served as editor of Civil War History for thirty-five years.