Existing comment:
1864: Union Stalemate:
"Monday July 4, 1864 -- Well, today is the 4th but I do not think it will be distinguished by so bright victories as the last war. Oh that something might be done to bring this war to a close is the prayer of every soldier."
-- Diary of Josiah Lewis Hill
While General Ulysses S. Grant won victories in the west in 1863, the war in the east languished. Lincoln sought to change that by bringing Grant east in 1864 and placing him in command of all Union armies. That spring, Grant led the Army of the Potomac into battle -- a campaign meant to grind Lee's army to oblivion. Progress was slow and Union losses soared. Homefront morale sank. Lincoln's re-election was uncertain.
By 1864, Southerners had one great remaining hope: dissatisfaction with the war on the Union homefront. Lee hoped war-weary voters would elect Democratic candidate George B. McClelllan to the presidency. Southerners hoped McClellan would seek a negotiated peace, ensuring Confederate independence.
"We must have no serious defeats next spring. They will be ten fold more injurious then at any other time. I mean politically and in relation to the cause, not in a military point of view."
-- Union Chief of Staff Halleck to Prof. Francis Lieber, January 14th, 1864, Huntington Library
"It appears that the Union cause will lose in the fall election and that the Democrats will elect General McClellan with his peace program. In that event, it will be necessary for me to secure the co-operation of McClellan to bring the war to a close before the inauguration because he will never achieve it afterwards."
-- President Abraham Lincoln in the summer of 1864
Support from Union Soldiers:
In 1864, nineteen states would allow soldiers to vote from the front. These men would vote overwhelmingly for Abraham Lincoln and total victory over the Confederacy.
"I shall give this rebellion another triumph this fall by voting for Old Abe. I cannot afford to give three years of my life to maintaining this nation and then giving them Rebels all they want or by giving them anything."
-- Nathan Buck, Union Soldier |