Uniformed Absentee Voting in 1864: Don’t Forget the Navy

The 1864 presidential election is celebrated in the United States as a major victory for Abraham Lincoln, whose victory provided the mandate to continue the Civil War to its triumph. Much of that electoral win is thanks to the uniformed servicemen, who convinced many to vote for Lincoln through their combat victories and who voted in throngs to re-elect the president for a second term. There is one element of the story always neglected, however. Yes, many members of the U.S. Army were permitted to vote in the 1864 election, but left out of the story is that members of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps also voted in this election.

Numerous states passed laws leading into the 1864 presidential election allowing for its uniformed servicemen to vote. Some soldiers voted absentee by mail. Others had polling locations established at their camps. Where states did not allow such voting stipulations, President Lincoln encouraged the liberal granting of furloughs to soldiers so they could briefly return home and vote. Soldiers who did vote in 1864 overwhelmingly supported Lincoln, with some estimates being that 80 percent of uniformed voters supported the president. In several critical states, such as New York and Connecticut, soldiers’ votes swung the final tallies in favor of Lincoln.[1]

An overwhelming support of Lincoln by uniformed voters made sense, as these men spent years fighting, suffering, and seeing loved ones killed or maimed. They wanted to ensure these sacrifices were not in vain. However, a significant element of this story remains overlooked. With tens of thousands of voting age men serving afloat, the question quickly arose about whether sailors could vote alongside soldiers. The question was raised in newspapers as the president election of 1864 approached.[2]

The United States Navy was the largest naval force in the world during the 1864 election, but its overall strength of about 50,000 officers and sailors still paled in comparison to the millions enlisted in the army. Nonetheless, many of the rules allowing soldiers to vote absentee paved the way for sailors to likewise case a vote. Navy Secretary Gideon Welles made sure that these sailors’ voices would be counted, even though his initial thought on the matter was that sailors being allowed to vote was unnecessary. “Much is said and done in regard to the soldiers vote,” Welles wrote in his diary, adding “the subject is one that has not struck me favorably.”[3] Nonetheless, with Lincoln’s insistence and many states granting permission, the secretary set to ensuring his sailors could vote in the coming election.

To facilitate counting of sailors’ votes, Welles issued a general circular on October 11, 1864, authorizing all sailors from states allowing such to vote in both state and national elections. “Directed commanders to extend facilities to all voters,” Welles wrote in his diary that day.[4] In describing the 1864 election, the secretary noted “its great national importance” and recognized that many states began “to take extraordinary measures to secure the votes of such of their citizens as are in the public service.”[5] Ships on the blockade and at sea received the circular at different times. A simple telegraphic message was insufficient, and traditional mail carried by other ships to each combatant vessel was needed. USS Lancaster, anchored off Panamá City, Colombia, received it on November 1. Commander Henry Davenport immediately mustered his crew and read the “Genl. Order of Navy Dept. relating to elections” to everyone.[6]

It took time for directives to be properly disseminated, but even then, issues arose. In late October, sailors embarked on USS Brilliant were denied the ability to vote in a state election. Gideon Welles wrote a scathing letter to senior officers on the Mississippi River. “It is proper that all persons, authorized to vote at any state elections, now in the naval service and absent from their respective States, should have an opportunity of voting, and the Department directs that all proper facilities be extended to them by Commanding Officers of vessels for doing so, as well as to the accredited agents collecting the votes.”[7]

Rear Admiral John Dahlgren took Welles’s order seriously. He dispatched one of his warships, USS Harvest Moon, to proceed to the Savannah River to act as the designated ship to receive completed voting ballots from sailors. Acting Master J.K. Crosby, Harvest Moon’s skipper, had orders to “collect the ‘sailors’ votes’” and to bring along blank ballots “in order to enable the men to vote.”[8]

Gideon Welles also issued a directive on November 2, 1864 to the commandants of navy yards at New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Portsmouth, and Norfolk. This order expanded voting systems to include civilian yard workers. While Welles insisted that any civilian worker would receive “no impediment” and that no action would be taken against them “to his disadvantage,” the secretary also insisted that any civilian asking for time off work to vote would not be authorized “any payment for service” during that time.[9]

When it came time for the presidential election, most stations did indeed allow sailors, Marines, and civilian workers to vote as prescribed. USS Narragansett was steaming southeast near Peru’s coastline on November 8, 1864 and was typical for ships allowing sailors to vote. Before lunch, the ship’s crew were mustered and read Welles’s orders permitting sailors to vote. The ship’s log then curtly recorded voting proceedings: “At 1 [pm] opened the Polls for voting. At 3.30 closed the polls.”[10] There was no recording within the ship’s logbook about how many of the ship’s 50 sailors voted that day. Shipyard workers were also allowed to vote, as Welles prescribed. At the Washington Navy Yard, workers “were given leave of absence” on November 3 to return to their home states to vote.[11]

Just as reports were made of successful voting by sailors, there were also instances of sailors being denied their franchise. On the ironclad Roanoke, sailors reported that those supporting George McClellan’s candidacy were prevented from voting. “Two army officers came on board to-day and managed to get ten votes for Lincoln,” one sailor reported. “When the McClellan men went up to vote they were told to go away; that they might as well vote for Jeff Davis.” They were ultimately told by the ballot collectors that “if the men did not like Lincoln ballots they could not vote at all.”[12]

The Mississippi River seemed to generate the most controversy. Reports circulated that sailors supporting Lincoln within ships on the Mississippi were prevented from voting via “partisan and unfair means” taken by polling commissioners.[13] Conversely, there were also claims printed in newspapers that at least one “commissioner sent on board” the principal steamer for collecting completed ballots attempted “shabby electioneering” and “refused to take McClellan votes.”[14] This commissioner, identified as Michael McKeon, was there collecting New York ballots. Reports of fraud amongst the sailors’ votes persisted as far as Utah Territory.[15]

Despite several apparent controversies, sailors and Marines were generally allowed their right to vote in the 1864 presidential election. There are no recorded estimates as to how many voted in the election, and thus we may never know if their numbers swayed any state’s outcomes. Regardless, perhaps it is time to change our vocabulary when it comes to what many call ‘the soldiers’ vote’ in 1864. Maybe instead it should be called ‘the uniformed vote,’ as we cannot leave out the sailors, Marines, and navy department civilians that exercised their franchise in 1864 while on blockade duty, patrolling the Mississippi River, manning shipyards, or while afloat across the globe.

Endnotes:

[1] Michael J. Forsyth, “The Military Provides Lincoln a Mandate,” Army History, No. 53, (Summer/Fall 2001), 15.

[2] “Can Sailors Vote,” Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, September 14, 1864.

[3] October 11, 1864, Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles: Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911), Volume 2, 175.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Welles to Paulding, Stringham, Worden, Montgomery, Bailey, Livingston, and Dornin, November 2, 1864, Gideon Welles Papers, Library of Congress.

[6] November 1, 1864, USS Lancaster Logbook, Logbooks of US Naval Ships, RG 24. US National Archives.

[7] Welles to McRannock, October 24, 1864, Gideon Welles Papers, Library of Congress.

[8] Dahlgren to Crosby, October 19, 1864, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series 1, Vol. 16, 19.

[9] Welles to Paulding, Stringham, Worden, Montgomery, Bailey, Livingston, and Dornin, November 2, 1864, Gideon Welles Papers, Library of Congress.

[10] November 8, 1864, USS Narragansett Logbook, Logbooks of US Naval Ships, RG 24. US National Archives.

[11] Henry B. Hibben, Navy-Yard, Washington: History from Organization, 1799 to Present Date, (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1890), 140-141.

[12] “How the Sailor’s Votes Were Taken on the Iron-Clad Roanoke,” Daily Herald, New York, October 28, 1864.

[13] “Democratic Attempts at Fraud on the Sailors’ Votes,” Daily Evening News, Fall River, MA, November 4, 1864.

[14] “Frauds in the Sailors’ Votes,” Evening Telegraph, Philadelphia, PA, November 4, 1864.

[15] “Frauds Perpetrated on Sailors Votes, but are Timely Detected” Daily Union Vedette, Camp Douglas, UT, November 5, 1864.