"How Lincoln Won the Soldier Vote" Topic

"Francis Lieber, the famed German-born Columbia University professor, was amazed that America would hold a presidential election during the Civil War. "If we come triumphantly out of this war, with a presidential election in the midst of it," he wrote in August 1864, "I shall call it the greatest miracle in all the historic course of events."
The miracle happened. On Nov. 8, 1864, Lincoln stood for re-election, and a majority of voters endorsed him for a second term.
The presidential election of 1864 stands out as one of the most remarkable events in American history. Never before or since had the nation held a popular, national referendum in the midst of a vast war at home. But Lincoln believed that holding the election was a "necessity." After all, he was fighting to prove to the world that ordinary citizens could govern themselves as a free people under a system of laws. A year before his re-election, he had famously proclaimed at Gettysburg that the war was being waged so "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Two days after his re-election — on Nov. 10, 1864 — Lincoln addressed a group of well-wishers outside the White House. "We can not have free government without elections," he told them, "and if the rebellion could force us to forgo, or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us."…"
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Amicalement
Armand

correct title would be how he won some of the soldier vote :p

I am reading a diary of a soldier of the 116th PV and he mentions the election his company held (ending with Rebel fire…) in which Lincoln won by only three votes.

Wow!

So, the troops don't LOVE in a whole President Lincoln?

Amicalement
Armand

A lot of them did. However, the popular vote was fairly close and the reelection of Lincoln was not a sure thing. People were getting tired of war but I believe the soldiers' votes carried Lincoln to victory.