neither fool nor patriot
By 150 years ago today some word of mouth news had trickled into Richmond – Abe Lincoln was re-elected. Confederates had to prepare for four more years of war.
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 11, 1864:
The re-election of Lincoln.
Intelligence, believed to be authentic, was received in this city yesterday of the re-election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States. A well-known citizen of Fredericksburg, who entered the enemy’s lines below Richmond yesterday under flag of truce, was informed by a Yankee officer that Lincoln’s re-election was, beyond a doubt, a fact accomplished. According to this officer’s statement, the States of New Jersey and Missouri alone had gone for McClellan, Kentucky had not been heard from. The State of Maine gave Lincoln a majority of thirty thousand. New York city went for McClellan by a majority of thirty-eight thousand, which had been overcome by the vote of the whole State. This accords with what the Yankee pickets in front of Petersburg told our men on Wednesday. They said Lincoln had been re- elected, and that we might prepare ourselves for four more years of war. Few of our people will be disappointed by the result of this election, since it is only what we have all expected. Had Lincoln allowed himself to have been beaten, he must have been either a fool or a patriot, neither of which his warmest friend nor bitterest foe has ever suspected him of being.
The political cartoon from the December 3, 1864 edition of London’s Punch (at Project Gutenberg) echoed some of the concerns of Southern rebels and Northern Democrats.
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Veterans arrive for the Gettysburg 50th (June 30, 1913)
“Taps is sounded. Sergeant Frank Witchey, famous bugler of the United States Army sounding taps at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetary, Armistice Day, Nov. 11” (1929)
