GDG- Re: 1864 election

[Biggsk at aol.com]

Fred:

>>>>Lest anyone think that Lincoln had few worries after  the Fall of Atlanta 
and Sheridan in the Valley, look at how close the election  actually was.  NY 
and PA were very close, the soldier vote was probably  decisive, and the 
soldier vote was also key in the Old Northwest.  A  small swing in a 
few states, and it was President George McClellan.   Wasn't it in Ohio a few 
years back that cartons of ballots prepared for the  military were found in a 
state warehouse or  something?>>>>



Fred, I agree - and this reinforces the points that I am Tom have been  
making - and that Lincoln himself even believed.
 
With these victories it was close - and someone else pointed out other  
examples of how close it really was.
Now take them off the table and what do you get??????
 
Laurie mentions the vote of Southerners in the Union Army as a factor, and  
it may well have been.  Kentucky, my neighbor to the north by about a mile,  
became a Confederate state AFTER the Civil War.  Any Kentuckian will tell  you 
this today too.  Why?  The slavery issue was one - they lost their  slaves 
without financial compensation of any type that I am aware of, and, more  
importantly, even though they never seceded and put more men into blue uniforms  than 
gray (although they never hit their state quota for the Union), Kentucky  was 
occupied after the war for a time by Union troops as if they had gone  out.
 
This event really rankled them, and a large number of Union Kentuckians  felt 
VERY betrayed by this.  I am sure had they known this was how it was  going 
to be after the war in November, 1864, their votes would have been  different!
 
Greg Biggs