On November 10, The Republican was confident enough to state that the election assured "the utter destruction of slavery."
In the first week of November 1864, one would have thought the Civil War was over as trains packed with soldiers streamed through the Springfield Depot. Most of the passengers in uniform weren’t finished fighting; they were coming home to cast their votes for president.
On Nov. 3, The Republican reported that the noon express was late because it was slowed down by extra cars. There were 1,400 soldiers on that single train.
The negative ads that have flooded the airwaves during the 2014 election year are tame compared with the election of 1864 pitting President Abraham Lincoln against Gen. George McClellan. Supporters didn’t just argue for their side, they fought in the streets.
On the night of Nov. 1, members of the Jr. Union Club, consisting of supporters of Lincoln who were too young to vote, were marching through the streets of Springfield carrying new transparencies of their candidate. These were cloth-covered boxes with the likeness of Honest Abe carried on a pole and illuminated by a small lantern.
As they snaked their way through the city streets, supporters of McClellan, both young and adult, cut into the procession with their candidate’s transparency. A fight broke out, and one of the Lincoln boys was badly injured by a rock thrown by the opposition and another youth has his nose broken by a club.
For weeks, The Republican had been reporting on straw polls taken at various locations. The students at Mr. Foster’s Grammar School voted 61 for Lincoln and 14 for McClellan, while workers at Smith & Wesson cast 66 votes for Abe and 20 for McClellan. Giant American flags hung over downtown streets emblazoned with either “Union Party” or “Vote for Mac.” And, of course, the betting at favorite saloons was fast and furious.
One bet stipulated that the loser had to push the winner in a wheelbarrow down Main Street from State Street to the Massasoit House near the Depot.
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This "transparency" is similar to those carried by the Jr. Union Club of Springfield in support of Lincoln's re-election in November of 1864. A small lantern illuminated the campaign sign. Among the hundreds of troops arriving daily at the railroad station were two men from the Springfield-based Massachusetts 27th who had escaped while being transferred from the infamous Andersonville Prison in Georgia to Savannah. Henry Remington 2nd, of Springfield, and Eldad E. Moore, of Lee, gave the following account to The Republican:
“They confirmed previous accounts of the cruel treatment of our prisoners at Andersonville. It was so bad that the prisoners soon lost all heart and yielded easy to diseases induced by exposure and bad diet. Of the 230 men of the 27th captured, 60 or 70 had already died.” Many more would follow; eventually 127 died before the war ended.
Among the issues The Republican was covering on the homefront in the week leading up to the election were stories on the new Catholic church which had almost been completed on Pine and Worcester streets in Indian Orchard, the purchase of new desks to accommodate overcrowding at Charles Street School, the creation of a position of school superintendent in Springfield (pay $1,000 annually) and the shipment of 7,000 guns from the Armory to Nashville and the subsequent $150,000 payment to the 2,950 armorers for the month of August.
There was still a lot of fallout and news stories following the Confederate raid on St. Albans, Vt., back in October. Raids were feared in upstate New York, and The Republican ran the following story under the heading, “The Safety of the Armory:”
“There is no immediate cause for a scare with regard to the safety of the Armory, but vigilance is now all important. The commandant has prudently doubled the guard and, we hope, will double it again, for the number of rebel emissaries in the North is too large, and the value of the Armory to the country is too great.…It is well known that the destruction of the Armory has been a pet scheme of the rebels.”
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19th century drawing of Springfield Armory Arsenal Building. The article went on to refer to “strangers in town” who are the objects of suspicion. Many years after the war a story surfaced of an attempt to blow up the arsenal around this time by two rebels using a crude bomb placed in the tower of the arsenal. Allegedly the watchman found the device and the men were never caught. Current Armory historian Richard Colton has researched the claim but found no evidence it ever happened. This 150-year-old story might add some credibility to it.
Election Day arrived on Nov. 8, with the polls opening at 10 a.m. and closing at 4:48 p.m. (sunset). The Republican reported it would be staffing through the night and putting out extra editions as the results came in. The newspaper, run by Samuel Bowles, a founder of the Republican Party, was unabashed in its support of Lincoln.
“The fate of the Union is today to be decided by the ballots of the people,” was the first sentence of a long Election Day editorial. The article went on to point out that the Democrats would negotiate a peace with the South that would negate the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Union soldiers. It was careful to not dwell on the slavery issue, pointing out that the rebels had discussed arming their slaves.
By the next day all that changed.
On Nov. 9, the headline of the Wednesday morning edition read in large bold letters: “THE ELECTION. No Doubt of Lincoln’s Re-Election.”
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Harper's weekly cartoonist view of Lincoln after winning the election. It was titled "Long Lincoln a little longer" Springfield gave Lincoln a 1,550-vote margin. “Pretty good for a city claimed by the McClellan men,” the paper boasted. Lincoln carried 22 of the 25 states voting with McClellan winning only his home state of New Jersey, Kentucky and Delaware. He got 212 electoral; votes to McClellan’s 21.
On Nov. 10, The Republican was confident enough to state that the election assured “the utter destruction of slavery.” On that same day a crowd gathered along Main Street in Springfield to see a McClellan man huffing and puffing as he pushed a wheelbarrow from State Street to the Massasoit house with a Lincoln man as passenger. To add insult to injury, the police gave the man a ticket for pushing a wheelbarrow on the sidewalk.
An eight-inch snowfall delayed the eastbound train in Palmer on Nov. 13. Springfield got mostly rain that helped fill Watershops Pond to the point that within weeks the water would be deep enough to power the Armory and began making guns at the plant that was knocked out of commission by the drought.
On Nov. 16, the newspaper ran a story under the heading “Where’s Sherman.” It was the locals first hint that Gen. William T. Sherman had begun his famous “March to the Sea.” This would result in the destruction of war capabilities in the Deep South and hasten the end of the war.
On the 19th of the month The Republican trumpeted the fact that Main Street was being “Macadamized.” The old muddy road was being paved by a process using stones that pave the street. They were being quarried and crushed in an area near the Westfield and West Springfield line that to this day is still being used for trap rock.
On the 24th a national day of Thanksgiving was held with special emphasis for the soldiers in the field. The Republican reported that “the great demand to send turkeys to the Army has lessened the supply for home consumption.”
On the 26th The Republican reported that the lone victim who was killed in the St. Albans Raid, Elinus J. Morrison, a building contractor from Manchester, N.H., had a life insurance policy with Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance of Springfield. “The company has promptly paid over the money to the family of the deceased, which places them in comfortable circumstances,” the story read.
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Ronald Brace, founder of the 54th Peter Brace Brigade.. Dave Roback On the last day of the month the Battle of Honey Hill took place in Jasper County, S.C., Both the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantry, two regiments of African American soldiers, many from Western Mass., took part in the fight.
The entrenched Confederate troops were victorious, inflicting 746 casualties with 89 Union troops killed, 629 wounded and 28 captured. The rebels had 47 casualties, 8 killed and 39 wounded.
Among the wounded was Peter Brace of St. Albans, Vt., who was a member of the 54th. He was also a great-great uncle of Ron Brace who started the Peter Brace Brigade of Civil War re-enactors to honor the memory of his heroic relative.
Based out of Springfield, the re-enactors have performed at scores of events to help keep the memory of the war alive and cherished especially during the 150th anniversary celebrations.
