How the boys voted in the presidential election of 1864

 

Below is an excerpt from a letter to President Abraham Lincoln from Thurlow Weed, a close friend of Secretary of State William Seward and an unofficial envoy to Britain and France during the Civil War. The letter, dated Nov. 2, 1864,  relates how sailors and soldiers voted in the presidential contest.

 

Courtesy Library of Congress

56th N.Y. Morris Island [S.C.] about 600 votes -- not over 30 for [Democrat George B]. McC[lellan, former commander of the Army of the Potomac]. 15 of them for McClellan and [George H.] Pendleton [illegible].

NOTE: Pendleton was McClellan's running mate. Evidently, Lincoln was the overwhelming choice of the 56th New York.

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