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>> 143 6 ”The Sky of Our Political Horizon” Soldiers, Civilians, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln There were few ”real” soldiers in the Union Army during the Civil War. “Real” soldiers meant the Regular Army, with the standing army numbering only a few thousand at the start of the conflict, led by their largely West Point–educated officers. The majority of soldiers were, instead, citizen/soldiers, volunteers in state-organized regiments who served their country temporarily, in new incarnations of Minute Men. These volunteers went off to war expecting to fight as soldiers,buttheyalsoretainedtheirexpectationsandtraditionsascivilians.Volunteer soldiers demanded to come and go as they pleased, criticize their superiors , and speak their minds when they wished. They also expected to maintain their right to vote. One of the first political battles fought by the soldiers of the Union Army, however, was simply to maintain universal male suffrage. But the men who went away to war were not the same men who voted months and years later. Their experience created in them a different perspective on national politics, wartime goals, and the ability of President Abraham Lincoln to lead the country than that possessed by civilians. The difference in opinion led to extensive debates, persuasion, and pleading on the part of soldiers for their families and communities to support Lincoln’s reelection bid and, by extension, support the army as well. The debate was not a minor one. Many of Lincoln’s policies were unpopular, the Democrats effectively attacked Lincoln’s political choices, and the outcome of the war was still uncertain in 1864. Soldiers realized, far more than civilians, the extent to which the political outcome of the election would have an important influence upon the military battlefield, and the majority of men in the field used all of their powers of persuasion to convince the civilians at home to stand with them. * * * Soldiers became aware of the connection between politics and military success in 1862, when congressional elections demonstrated a growing dissent 144 > 145 especially prohibited from so doing by laws which they have positively sworn to obey, and I am determined hereafter to prefer charges against man or officer in the service who I hear so denouncing the President.”4 For those opposed to Lincoln, 1864 was an especially crucial year because it gave them the opportunity to remove him from office, and most were convinced that Lincoln’s days in the White House were numbered. Indeed, as 1864 progressed, Lincoln himself was uncertain of his own reelection. The seeming failure of major military campaigns that summer only fueled the optimism amongst Lincoln’s critics, both within the army and without. “I believe the Democratic Party will win this time,” wrote a weary Union soldier ; “Abraham is getting very unpopular among the soldiers, he . . . can prepare for an evacuation of the White House the 4th Day of March next. . . . I hope we will get a President that will end the war quickly and honorably. I do not want to see this war last another twelve months longer. Lives enough have been lost, and treasure enough has been expended for a century to come.”5 Another soldier was even more graphic in his depiction of Lincoln’s shortcomings. “Mr. Lincoln . . . has become a vampire that gnaws into the very bowels of the country,” he wrote dramatically to a New York newspaper. “Give us any man but Abraham Lincoln and we will support him, if he be true to the cardinal principles which ought to actuate an Executive in these disastrous times. . . . We want a man for the Presidency. Let us light our lanterns and, Diogenes-like, go and seek one.”6 Dismayed by the erosion of political support, soldiers began to pay closer attention to state and local politics between 1862 and 1864, viewing the local elections as an opportunity to bolster Lincoln’s cause and gauge the loyalty of families and communities back home. Election victories in 1863 helped to redress some of Lincoln’s political losses from the previous year and encouraged soldiers regarding Lincoln’s chances in 1864. Private Henry Kauffman was pleased that John Brough won the Ohio governor’s race against anti-war Democrat Clement Vallandigham, declaring “the news of his election was a great pleasure to a true union soldier, and I think it was a great victory won.”7 William M. Clark of the 147th Pennsylvania was pleased that Governor Andrew Curtin’s reelection campaign was going well. “I am glad to hear the...

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