Last updated: September 26, 2023
Article
Voting at Cedar Creek
NPS Photo
“On the 11th we reached camp at Cedar Creek, where we voted for State and County officers in Ohio, under the law authorizing soldiers to vote in the field. No election anywhere was ever conducted more fairly and honestly than this one.”
—Brig. Gen. Thomas F. Wildes, 116th Ohio Infantry
American elections changed during the Civil War. Many states allowed their regiments’ soldiers to vote absentee for the first time. At first only Pennsylvania allowed soldiers to vote while away from home. Soon 20 states would permit absentee voting within the Army ranks. Many of the new voting laws ended with the Civil War. Today's elections still contain absentee voting and expanded voting rights.
Many US soldiers who fought the Battle of Cedar Creek voted absentee for the first time during the fall of 1864. Regimental histories and personal memoirs describe the experience and conditions during these elections. Today, we can identify where these troops voted in their camps or in the towns near Cedar Creek.
Token of Election History
An artifact found at Cedar Creek Battlefield may tell a story about the 1864 election. It is a “Dix Token,” a coin-like disk showing the United States flag and the slogan “If anybody attempts to tear it down Shoot them on the Spot.” The soldier who carried this token while on campaign was carrying the emblem of the United States and a statement about defending the flag. The 1864 election was a referendum on the conduct of the war. Voters could support President Abraham Lincoln and his aim of winning the war or his opponent Gen. George McClellan, whose party adopted a peace platform. This soldier would have been a supporter of the war and a supporter of the Lincoln administration. Perhaps he cast his vote on the battlefield at Cedar Creek.
Early American Election Practices & Restrictions
In the early years of the United States many state constitutions and voting laws referred to physical presence in the community. In Maryland, a citizen was “entitled to vote in the ward or election district where he resides.” Elections in New England were an integral part of town meetings. Voting in a different place was inconceivable. Vermont's constitution required voters to bring their ballots to the town constable. New York outlawed any kind of absentee voting. The New York Constitution required voting in the local election district “and not elsewhere.”
In the Midwest, constitutions were not as specific. Beginning in 1862, Wisconsin and Minnesota both passed laws allowing for voting in the field. Wisconsin directed officers to administer elections in the army camps. Minnesota allowed voters to mail in a ballot, sealed with wax, to election officials back home.
Ohio Troops at Cedar Creek
For the Ohio troops at Cedar Creek, commanders opened polling places at company headquarters. Soldiers not assigned to a company could vote at any company headquarters “most convenient to them.” Soldiers of the artillery, who were not organized into companies, and high-ranking officers voted under this provision. Troops of the 116th Ohio recorded this evidence. On election day “about noon, Generals Philip Sheridan and George Crook rode down to the polls of the 36th Ohio and voted.” This was a Congressional election for Ohio’s 15th Congressional District, held on October 11th, 1864. Voters elected Republican Tobias A. Plants over incumbent Democrat James R. Morris.
Soldiers of the 116th Ohio camped in the area around Thoburn’s Redoubt. The camps of the 36th Ohio were located east of the Morning Attack Trails, where Interstate 81 is now.
New Voting Laws
Ohio’s law was unusual in its wide scope. It allowed absentee voting for surgeons, chaplains, teamsters, quartermasters, and naval personnel. In many states, the laws only referred to organizations within the Army: companies, regiments, and brigades. Thus, many new voting laws did not apply to members of the Navy. While many eligible voters served as soldiers, far fewer voters served in the Navy. Enlisted sailors were likely to be foreign-born, African Americans, or from the lowest classes of White Americans. Volunteers for service in the Navy were often believed to be evading the draft. Ohio and most other states refused to allow soldiers in the regular US Army to vote. Regulars were either denied voting rights in state constitutions or, as in Ohio, they were refused residency within the state.
States designed absentee voting laws to be temporary. Ohio’s law was only in effect during “the existence of the present rebellion.” Missouri, Minnesota, and Connecticut also limited their laws to “the present war” or “present rebellion.” Some states repealed their voter laws outright. Some states left out military voting in new laws or new constitutional drafts. Kansas and Maine kept their laws up through World War II.
Soldiers Preferred Furloughs to Absentee Voting
Soldiers preferred the chance to return home to vote in person. They supported politicians that supported the military vote. But the troops themselves did not advocate for absentee legislation.
According to the history of the 22nd Pennsylvania Cavalry,
“The men who had left home and family and all business interests to join the Union Army and offer their lives to save their country, lost their votes on account of absence, while the bitter enemies of the Union at home, by the ten thousands, walked up to the polls and voted ‘the War a failure’ and ‘all the blood shed, and all the money expended in efforts to save the Union, as lost.’ As many of the soldiers as could be spared were furloughed to go home and vote.”
Clever politicians used the furlough system to their advantage. For example, Indiana never passed an absentee law. The Lincoln administration furloughed all sick and wounded Indiana soldiers. They returned home to vote at the request of the Republican governor.
Other Voting at Cedar Creek
Vermont Brigade
“The presidential election was held, the Brigade again having an opportunity to vote and casting a large majority for Abraham Lincoln, though some of the veterans of the peninsula still had sufficient enthusiasm for McClellan to honor him with their ballots.”
During this election for President and other federal offices, the Vermont Brigade was guarding the town of Strasburg, Virginia, just south of Cedar Creek. The Vermont Constitution required voters to give their ballots to the town constable. So, the election law let Army officers serve as Special Constables. Another Vermont law limited voting rights to “volunteers." The law excluded drafted soldiers.
22nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry
After the Battle of Cedar Creek, the 22nd Pennsylvania Cavalry was in the lower Shenandoah Valley. They escorted supply wagons, scouted for Confederates, and re-equipped after the fighting. According to the regimental history,
“November 7. The Washington County boys, knowing that Colonel Greenfield voted for Stephen A. Douglass in 1860, in the belief that his election would prevent secession and war, wanted to know how he is going to vote at the Presidential election to-morrow he replied, quoting Lincoln's saying, 'It's a bad time to swap horses crossing a stream; I'll vote for Lincoln and Johnson.’”
“November 8. Election passed off quietly. A train of 1,200 wagons came down this evening.”
Pennsylvania’s absentee voting law, on the books since 1813, was rarely, if ever, used. After amending the state constitution, Pennsylvania passed a new law in 1864. The 1864 law allowed voting in each company at the captain’s headquarters. Ten or more soldiers absent from the company could also choose a place to vote. Groups of fewer than 10 voters in “hospitals, navy-yards, vessels, or on provost or other duty” could mail sealed ballots back home in a proxy vote. The Pennsylvania Constitution also required payment of taxes to vote, so all soldiers paid a 10-cent tax.
29th Maine
While camped on the battlefield at Cedar Creek, in the fields near Belle Grove and Meadow Brook, the regimental history recorded,
“Nov. 8th, Tuesday. We chose electors for President, though a number of men would not vote. The Lincoln and Johnson candidates received 175, and the McClellan and Pendleton 41; Cony for Governor 138, Howard 3. The election was without excitement, for no stump orators were permitted to visit the army, and the re-election of Lincoln was conceded. The next day, Nov. 9th, was warm with a little rain. By previous order, the army fell back to near Kernstown, to a place which Gen. Sheridan named Camp Russell.”
Maine’s 1820 Constitution allowed local voting in the “town or plantation” of residence. To allow absentee voting, Maine amended its state constitution and passed new laws in September 1864. Soldiers could vote in both Federal and state elections, as recorded by the history of the 29th. Officers of the unit served as election supervisors, but as the law referred to Army organization (regiments, batteries, companies), it barred Navy personnel from voting.
2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery
Connecticut absentee voting laws required the Governor to appoint commissioners. The commissioners visited soldiers and gave out hard copy ballots. They returned the sealed ballots to local town clerks. Ballots were opened and counted back home in the same manner as traditional votes. When they voted before the battle, the 2nd Connecticut “Heavies” camped with the 6th Corps in the area known as Red Hill, near the present-day limestone mine. The Heavies’ regimental history described the voting:
“There had been beautiful autumn weather and unusual quiet for two or three days. On the afternoon of the 18th, Squire Terry of New Milford, and another gentleman arrived as Commissioners to take the vote of the regiment for President and Vice President. The Companies were brought up to head-quarters, one by one, and addressed by one of the Commissioners as follows: Gentlemen: —we have been instructed by Governor Buckingham, in pursuance of an Act of the Legislature, to receive the votes of such of you as are registered voters in the state of Connecticut. We are not here to electioneer, but simply to take your votes. On that table, (pointing at a hard-tack box that stood bottom upward on four stakes driven into the ground,) you will find a pile of ballots containing the names of presidential electors who, if elected will vote for Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. On that table you will find ballots containing the names of presidential electors who, if elected, will vote for George B. McClellan and George H. Pendleton. On that table you will find envelopes. Examine the tickets as much as you please, and put the one which you desire to vote into an envelope, seal it, and hand it to Squire Terry, giving him at the same time your full name, company, and the town in which you would be entitled to vote if at home. We shall deliver these envelopes to the state canvassers, and they will be opened, and duly counted with the vote of the state. The polls were then opened, and the soldiers enjoyed what was, under the circumstances, a great luxury. Some voted for McClellan and Pendleton, but a large majority went for Lincoln and Johnson.”
At first, state courts found Connecticut absentee voting laws to be unconstitutional. Since colonial times, elections in Connecticut happened as part of town meetings. Connecticut passed a Constitutional amendment in the summer of 1864. A new law allowed voting at Federal and State elections. It did not cover naval personnel and outlawed voting by regular US soldiers.
Rutherford B. Hayes Ran for Congress at Cedar Creek
Col. Rutherford B. Hayes commanded the Second Division of the Army of West Virginia after the Third Battle of Winchester. During the fall elections in 1864, Hayes ran for Congress to represent the 2nd District in Ohio, but refused to leave the army to return home. Hayes said, “I have other business just now. Any man who would leave the army at this time to electioneer for Congress ought to be scalped.” A newspaper reported, “The electioneering that Col. Hayes has done during this political campaign has been at the head of his brigade in the Shenandoah Valley.” Winning a 2,400-vote majority, Hayes took his seat in the 39th Congress in December 1865.
Voter Fraud
Many pre-war state laws forbade absentee voting to deter fraud. These measures included public community voting and residency requirements. Clerks, judges, or constables were employed to supervise elections. States tried to copy these protections for elections held in the field. Some laws required commanding officers to act as election judges or special constables. Connecticut sent commissioners into the field to help. Election judges in Pennsylvania units had to keep copies of polling books for each city and county in which soldiers had voted. Clerks laced counted ballots onto a thread in case a recount was needed. New York allowed soldiers to mail in a sealed ballot and voter affidavit.
New York’s system was open to fraud and corruption. Democratic Governor Horatio Seymour sent dozens of “inspectors” into the field on behalf of the New York Democratic Party. The inspectors collected votes only in support of the Tammany Hall organization.
Nearly 20 conspirators worked throughout New York, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. They forged votes from dead and wounded soldiers. The “crew formed a sort of assembly line, passing blank papers along to one another to be signed with the names of active enlisted men, wounded and dead soldiers, and officers who never existed.” Regarding the votes of soldiers coming from a local hospital, one of the governor’s inspectors joked, “Dead or alive, they all had cast a good vote.”
In one shipment of fake ballots, a note read, “Inclosed in this package you will find tickets, also a list of names of the actual residents of Columbia County, now members of the 128th Regiment. With my best wishes for your success.” Not knowing that fraud was being committed in their name, the troops of the 128th New York fought hard at Cedar Creek. The 128th lost half of their number defending the left of the 19th Corps position. In 1907, veterans of the 128th returned to Cedar Creek. They dedicated a monument on the battlefield to their fallen comrades. A military tribunal convicted the ringleaders of the election scam and sent them to prison.
References
Voting in the Field: A Forgotten Chapter of the Civil War, by Josiah Henry
Benton
Absentee Soldier Voting in Civil War Law and Politics, by David A. Collins
The Soldier Vote and Minnesota Politics, 1861-65, by Lynwood G. Downs
The Soldier Vote in the Election Of 1864, by Oscar Osburn Winther
History of the First-Tenth-Twenty-Ninth Maine Regiment, by Maj. John M. Gould
Life and Public Services of Gov. Rutherford B, Hayes, by Russell Herman Conwell
Record of the One Hundred and Sixteenth Regiment Ohio Infantry Volunteers, by Thos. F. Wildes
The Twenty-Second Pennsylvania Cavalry and the Ringgold Battalion 1861-1865, by Samuel Clarke Farrar
History of the Second Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, by Theodore F. Vaill
The Vermont Brigade in The Shenandoah Valley, by Aldace F. Walker
“Mail-in Ballots were part of a Plot to Deny Lincoln Reelection In 1864,” by Dustin Waters in the Washington Post, August 22, 2020
Emancipation, the Union Army, & the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln, by Jonathan W. White