VOTER FRAUD 1860s STYLE...
The 1864 re-election of Lincoln “was closer than either the popular or electoral votes” indicated, and without the soldier vote in six crucial States, Lincoln would have lost to George B. McClellan. The slim margins of Republican victory in most States “were probably due largely to the presence of soldiers as guards and as voters at the polls,” and had Illinois, Indiana Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New York’s votes gone to McClellan, “he would have had a majority in the electoral college despite Lincoln’s popular plurality.
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
BAYONETS SECURE THE BALLOT BOX IN 1864
“Throughout the summer [of 1864] the Union prospects were in a decline. Grant’s armies, despite repeated reinforcements, made no headway, and the casualty lists from the Wilderness to Cold Harbor mounted alarmingly. Sherman, maneuvering in the mountains of Georgia, seemed totally useless. July and August saw Republican hopes at rock bottom.
Early in July…..The [Republican] Pennsylvania Governor [Curtin] was “down on things generally,” and on the War Department in particular. Already Curtin had told Lincoln that he would not consider himself responsible for raising troops or for carrying elections. Pennsylvania was 80,000 men behind [its quota] in troops and the Governor believed the draft would meet general opposition from Republicans as well as from Democrats.
At the same time [Massachusetts Governor] John Andrew was disgusted with the situation and was hoping to find some means of getting both Lincoln and [John] Fremont to withdraw in favor of a third [Republican] candidate. The consensus seemed to be that the war languished and Lincoln would not or could not bring peace. War-weariness and a desire for peace was everywhere.
[New York Times editor Henry J.] Raymond asked [Simon] Cameron’s advice….let Lincoln propose to Jeff Davis that both sides disband their armies and stop the war “on the basis of recognizing the supremacy of the constitution” and refer all disputed questions to a convention of all the States! Raymond went to Washington to lay the proposal before the President, but Lincoln did not accept it.
Sherman’s victory before Atlanta reinvigorated the Republican campaign. The President wrote to Sherman to let Indiana’s soldiers, “or any part of them, go home to vote at the State election.” This was, Lincoln explained, in no sense an order. Sherman understood that it was a command. He sent soldiers home, and on election day in October the soldiers gathered at the Indiana polls. The Nineteenth Regiment of Vermont Volunteers voted in Indiana that day, but many a Democrat found his vote challenged. When the votes were counted, [Republican Governor Oliver P.] Morton had been elected by a majority of 22,000.
On that same day the need for Lincoln’s aid was illustrated in Pennsylvania. There it was thought not necessary to send the soldiers home. [Governor] Curtin….determined to appoint some Democratic commissioners to collect the soldiers’ votes. As the commissioners passed through Washington, however, the Democrats among them disappeared, under [Secretary of War Edwin M.] Stanton’s orders, into the Old Capitol Prison.
Lincoln conferred with Cameron and [Alexander] McClure and asked [Generals] Meade and Sherman to send 5,000 men to Pennsylvania for the November election. The generals sent 10,000, and Lincoln carried the State by nearly a 6,000 majority, while the soldiers in the field added 14,000 more.
[Illinois Governor Richard Yates] appealed to Lincoln to send troops to vote. It was essential to elect a [Republican] State Senate, three congressional districts depended on the soldiers, and even the Presidential and the State tickets were unsafe without the uniformed voters. Defeat [for the Republicans] in Illinois, added the Governor, would be worse than defeat in the field. Under such pleas the soldiers came, and Lincoln carried his home State by 189,496 to McClellan’s 158,730.
[Many] soldiers voted Democratic in their camps only to have their votes switched in the post offices. Without the soldiers New York would have remained in the Democratic column. Maryland’s vote was clearly the product of federal bayonets. Ohio was safe for Lincoln, and the election clerks at home merely guessed at the distribution of the army’s vote.”
(Lincoln and the War Governors, William B. Hesseltine, Alfred A. Knopf, 1955, pp. 376-382)
JUBAL CAME OH SO CLOSE...
The Georgetown Pike bridge over the Monocacy River burns around 12 noon on July 9, 1864. Confederate pressure had been relentless all morning. As they closed in, rebel soldiers in captured Yankee uniforms stormed the bridge in an unsuccessful attempt to capture it intact. The Union commander, unable to hold the bridge any longer, ordered it torched. In giving that order, he stranded hundreds of Union soldiers across the river.
The Battle of Monocacy Junction on a stifling hot July 9 in the corn and wheat fields just southeast of Frederick, MD, a few thousand rag tag Union troops slowed a battle-hardened Confederate army led by Jubal Early marching to attack a weakly defended Washington, D.C.
It wasn't a big battle and it didn't last very long. In fact, it was a Confederate victory with Union troops retreating towards Baltimore. But the Northern forces held long enough and fought hard enough to slow down the Confederate advance, buying time to reinforce Washington and stave off a disaster.
Lincoln became the only sitting president to come under enemy fire. Confederate Sharpshooters just outside Washington wounded a Yankee officer standing near him.
CONFEDERATE ANTI-AIRCRAFT…Another Southern 1st...
Standing in the basket of his balloon "Intrepid," Professor Thaddeus S.C. Lowe observes the battle of Seven Pines, Va.
Confederate gunners created history’s first antiaircraft artillery battery, while Lowe was taking an early morning observation” in the balloon “Washington” near Mechanicsville, “12 guns were simultaneously discharged at short range, some of the shells passing through the rigging of the balloon and nearly all bursting not more than 200 feet beyond it, having gotten their range perfectly.
The professor no doubt needed a change of drawers after this incident...
Photo: Professor Lowe at Seven Pines in the balloon Intrepid May 31st 1862…
WHAT WOULD THEY DO WITHOUT US...
In spite of our heritage and culture being continually slandered, Southerners have always taken the lead in the military defense of the reunited country as well as before the War for Southern Independence.
During the Korean war alone thirty two of the seventy eight medals of honor went to Southerners. We recently posted on Southern men like Audy Murphy and Alvin York the most decorated soldiers of the first and second World War respectively.
During the war with Mexico the North provided 23,054 soldiers, while the South provided 43,630.
During the War of 1812, the North provided 58,552 troops while the South gave 96,812. This was accomplished while New Englanders were providing beef to British Soldiers in Canada and threatening secession over the war (peace with England at any price, while Washington DC lay in ashes).
Black and white Southerners fought side by side during the Revolutionary War, at the Battle of New Orleans and again 46 years later for Southern Independence.
“New England, which had been too “conscientious” to defend the national honor in the war with Great Britain, poured out almost her whole population to aid the extermination of a (Southern) people…Edward A. Pollard editor of the Richmond Examiner.
It is a fact that Southern troops numbering several thousand would not cross the Potomac into Maryland during the Gettysburg Campaign. It was of such grave concern for General Lee that he issued strict orders on desertion and straggling, which included execution.
They only wished to protect their own homes, not invade the homes of Northerners…All they wanted was to be left alone.
The USS Columbia (CL-56) flew a Confederate Navy Ensign as a battle flag throughout combat in the South Pacific in World War II. This was done in honor of Columbia, the ship's namesake and the capital city of South Carolina, the first state to secede from the Union. Some soldiers carried Confederate flags into battle. After the Battle of Okinawa a Confederate flag was raised over Shuri Castle by a Marine from the self-styled "Rebel Company" (Company A of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines).
A Japanese Kamikaze hit the ship at 1729 hrs on 6 January 1945, during the Lingayen Gulf operation. The impact, on the main deck by the after gun turret, with the resulting explosion and fire, caused extensive damage and casualties.
Southern men and women have always answered the call, form 1776 to today…who will deny them the right to their heritage and their flag?
CONFEDERATE ALAMO
“Men, the salvation of Lee’s army is in your keeping.”
– Maj. Gen. Cadmus Wilcox to the defenders of Fort Gregg, April 2, 1865
On the afternoon of April 2, 1865, after a morning of bludgeoning attacks all along the Petersburg lines, 5,000 Federals swept forward to attack Fort Gregg. The 300 Confederates here twice drove the Federals back, but finally the attackers reached the fort’s parapet. For twenty minutes a vicious hand-to-hand battle raged.
At fight’s end, the fort belonged to the Federals. Only 44 Confederates survived the battle unscathed. With the fall of Fort Gregg and nearby Fort Whitworth, the Confederates pulled back to their last, innermost line. The two hours gained by Fort Gregg’s defenders allowed Lee to evacuate Petersburg safely that night.
