In the summer of 1864, as Abraham Lincoln’s first term in office drew to a close, the Union Army suffered a series of heavy defeats at the hands of Confederate forces. Seemingly, the conflict had intensified and in just three months the North suffered 65,000 casualties, compared to 108,000 in the first three years of the Civil War. At one point, southern troops led by General Jubal Early came within five miles of the White House. As the death toll rose, the outcome of the upcoming election looked increasingly uncertain. While, today, the defeat of Lincoln seems implausible, it was a very real possibility, and one that the President himself believed likely.

Printed ahead of the vote, this Republican election ticket from San Francisco reads: ‘For President, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. For Vice President, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee’. It also includes the names of elector candidates and congressional hopeful, Donald C. McRuer, while the verso features an illustration of June’s Battle of Cherborg, a decisive naval engagement in which the CSS Alabama was sunk by the Union Navy.

Despite this victory, and those at Gettysburg and Vicksburg a year earlier, northern troops were suffering and political divisions were putting the Union under severe strain. Many radical Republicans opposed the nomination of Lincoln, fearing his plans to restore the rebelling states to the Union in the event of victory; their preferred candidate was Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase. The "Copperhead" faction of the Democratic Party called for peace, yet the Democratic candidate, General George B. McClellan, himself wished to pursue a military course. Southern leaders were well aware of disharmony amongst their enemy and hoped that if they could hold out against the might of the Union until the election, recognition of their sovereignty might be within their grasp. However, fortunes would reverse in early September when General Sherman and his army seized Atlanta.

Victory in Georgia provided a huge boost to Lincoln’s re-election campaign. He was hugely popular with common soldiers in the U.S. Army and secured seventy five per cent of the army vote. These men fought and died for Lincoln, but also recommended him to their friends and family in letters home. Only 25 states participated, yet Lincoln won in a landslide, becoming the first president to be re-elected to a second term since 1832. The Republicans gained three quarters of the seats in Congress, while the President received 55% of the popular vote and 212 electoral votes. Two months after the election, the historic Thirteenth Amendment would pass in the House and after displaying an initial reluctance to discuss slavery, Lincoln used his second inaugural speech to focus on the institution as a cause of the war.

Though Abraham Lincoln would not live to see reunification, his electoral victory sounded the death knell for the Copperhead movement and southern hopes to win the war. Though his life would end prematurely, his election proved that the majority of the Union supported his vision for the future of America.

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