Symposium Spotlight: Politics in a Time of War

Welcome back to our spotlight series, highlighting speakers and topics for our upcoming symposium. Over the coming weeks, we will continue previewing of our speaker’s presentations for the 2024 Emerging Civil War Symposium. This week we feature Zachery Fry’s topic.

Politics in a Time of War: The 1864 Election

The presidential election between Abraham Lincoln and George B. McClellan marked one of the great decision points of American history. Would loyal voters maintain the war effort in the face of bloody stalemate, or would they spurn Lincoln in favor of the charismatic young general he had ousted two years earlier? This presentation will focus on how the two candidates’ campaigns reflected the war’s shifting political dynamics as well as how the Union Army participated in the election process.

Find more information and tickets for our 2024 Symposium by clicking here.