Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln

by Jonathan W. White

Overview

The Union army's overwhelming vote for Abraham Lincoln's reelection in 1864 has led many Civil War scholars to conclude that the soldiers supported the Republican Party and its effort to abolish slavery. In Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln Jonathan W. White challenges this reigning paradigm in Civil War historiography, arguing instead that the soldier vote in the presidential election of 1864 is not a reliable index of the army's ideological motivation or political sentiment. Although 78 percent of the soldiers' votes were cast for Lincoln, White contends that this was not wholly due to a political or social conversion to the Republican Party. Rather, he argues, historians have ignored mitigating factors such as voter turnout, intimidation at the polls, and how soldiers voted in nonpresidential elections in 1864.
While recognizing that many soldiers changed their views on slavery and emancipation during the war, White suggests that a considerable number still rejected the Republican platform, and that many who voted for Lincoln disagreed with his views on slavery. He likewise explains that many northerners considered a vote for the Democratic ticket as treasonous and an admission of defeat.
Using previously untapped court-martial records from the National Archives, as well as manuscript collections from across the country, White convincingly revises many commonly held assumptions about the Civil War era and provides a deeper understanding of the Union Army.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807154571
Publisher:	Louisiana State University Press
Publication date:	06/09/2014
Series:	Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War
Pages:	296
Sales rank:	547,385
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

JONATHAN W. WHITE is assistant professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University and the author of Abraham Lincoln and Treason in the Civil War: The Trials of John Merryman.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

1 "That the Purity and Sanctity of the Ballot Box Shall Be Preserved": Civil War Politics and the Troops 13

2 "You Must Have Learned … Of My Official Decapitation": Emancipation and Intimidation in the Union Ranks 38

3 "I Am Afraid I Am Something of a 'Copperhead'": Resignations and Desertions in the Union Army Following Emancipation 69

4 "For My Part I Dont Care Who Is Elected President": The Union Army and the Elections of 1864 98

5 "Not Fit to be a Citizen": The Disfranchisement of Deserters in the Postwar Period 129

Epilogue: "A Vote in the Democracy for Which They are Fighting and Dying": 153

Appendix 167

Tables 171

Notes 177

Bibliography 231

Index 271

Editorial Reviews

In this provocative volume, White takes aim at what he claims passes for conventional wisdom about how soldiers in the Union army viewed emancipation and electoral politics, especially during the presidential contest of 1864. The result will spark discussion, and in some cases controversy.

Journal of Southern History