Upon reading the results of Ohio's 1863 governor's election, President Abraham Lincoln exclaimed "Glory to God in the highest. Ohio has saved the Union"! These emotional statements reflected the widespread relief felt in the North when it became clear that the pro-war candidate John Brough had defeated the notorious anti-war Copperhead Clement Vallandigham in what was the wildest and most consequential governor's race in Ohio history.
The president was well aware of the crucial role Ohio played in the Civil War. The Buckeye state provided 320,000 fighting men and 100 generals, including the top three - U.S. Grant, William Sherman and Philip Sheridan.The president relied on Ohioans for political leadership. Ohio's farms and factories were incredibly productive. Having a radical like Vallandigham as the state's chief executive was unthinkable.
1863 was a pivotal year in the country's history. The southern states were still in a state of rebellion with no clear winner in sight. Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1 freed some slaves and authorized the recruiting of blacks for the army. The Executive Order angered some Yankee soldiers who felt betrayed by the president's actions. They argued that they went to war to fight for the Union not to free the slaves. Enlisted men deserted, officers resigned their commissions and other officers were court-martialed. Colonel Joseph Hatfield, commander of the 89th Ohio Infantry, was discharged from the army for his strong and public denunciation of the president's order. Hatfield returned to his Clermont County home where he resumed his life as a Baptist minister and grocer.
Morale in the North soared in early July with the tremendous victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. The boost was short-lived, however, after John Hunt Morgan and his raiders streaked across southern Ohio. The raiders caused damage upon both personal and government property, and in the process, alienated potential pro-south Copperhead voters.
Opposition to the Enrollment or Draft Act sparked riots across the country in the spring and summer of 1863. The largest of the protests occurred in New York City when the Irish squared off against Blacks. The ensuing violence took the lives of at least 120 New Yorkers, although some claim as many as 2,000 died. It took veterans from the recently fought battle at Gettysburg to quell the violence. Closer to home, about 1000 residents of Holmes County organized a militia to resist the draft. They melted away when regular troops arrived on the scene.
Northern morale crashed in late September when the Federal Army was clobbered at the Battle of Chickamauga. Ohio residents felt a growing weariness with the war that had little sign of ending. The stage was set for the October 13 Ohio governor's election.
The Democrats chose Clement Vallandigham, a forty-one-year old attorney and former U.S. Representative from New Lisbon, Ohio, as its candidate. Vallandigham was not present to accept his nomination. Remarkably, he was banished from the U.S. after being convicted of treason for calling President Lincoln a "despot". Vallandigham campaigned from Canada.
One week later the National Union Party, a coalition of pro-war Democrats and Republicans, selected fifty-two-year-old former owner of the Cincinnati Enquirer and railroad executive John Brough as its standard bearer. He was a lifelong Democrat who supported the aims of the Union Party .
The only issue of the election was the war. The Copperheads favored a negotiated settlement that preserved slavery. The Unionists wanted a military victory over the South to preserve the Union and abolish slavery.
Lincoln, the astute politician, immediately saw the dangers of a Copperhead victory in the vitally important state of Ohio. He sent spokesmen from the administration, including his Secretary of treasury Salmon P. Chase, the popular former Ohio governor. Money poured into the state.
Brough supporters circulated conspiracy theories blaming the Democrats for much of everything that went wrong. Democrats were accused of stealing missing laundry at Camp Dennison's hospital. The same Copperheads were alleged to have torched a couple of barracks buildings at the camp. Dr. Charles Gatch, a contract surgeon at the same camp was accused of being a Copperhead for allegedly attending a Democrat rally near his home in Milford. He was pressured to resign, but was cleared of the charges when witnesses said that he was treating a patient who happened to live near the rally.
Even with Vallandigham not campaigning, the race was very divisive. Political conversation sometimes escalated into violence. In Clermont County one "conversation" became deadly. Two men were talking about politics. The discussion became heated. One man pulled out a pistol and fired. He missed his target, but hit his opponent's sister, killing her.
Both parties tried to tap into a new and potentially rich source of votes: soldiers. Never before in our state's history had there been so many young men of voting age away from home at election time. Vallandigham had to play catch-up because of his militant anti-Lincoln and anti-military statements made before and after the 1860 Presidential campaign. A story from Camp Dennison illustrates the difficulties he faced with the army vote. Vallandigham visited the camp during the summer of 1861. A member of Ohio's 2nd Infantry recognized him and yelled, "There is that d____d traitor. He's no better than a Rebel!" Vallandigham, never one to pass up a fight, lit into the soldier. The two jawed with each other, until other recruits began throwing onions and old boots at Vallandigham. The Copperhead chief mounted his horse to leave the camp. Just before reaching the gate, he must have noticed a bullet ridden effigy of himself, hanging on a tree.
The government faced a major logistics challenge: How to secure thousands of votes scattered throughout the country to the ballot boxes in Ohio. They couldn't just give the soldiers a furlough to go home to vote, because that would invite a Rebel attack. It was ultimately decided to give a few furloughs and take the rest of the ballots to the men in the field.
A soldier from the 8th Ohio Infantry wrote to his wife about the election. He told her that only about 1/3 of his regiment was eligible to vote because they were too young, foreign nationals or not residents of Ohio. Even though only 30% of soldiers voted, they crushed Vallandigham who received only 2298 votes to Brough's 41,467. When the news of Brough's victory reached the Ohio boys in camps throughout the country, they started cheering.The regimental bands played through the night to celebrate.
Clermont County was a stronghold of the Democrats for decades. Some called it the "Gibraltar of Democracy". Vallandigham expected a bounty of votes from Clermont. Even though the Copperhead received 2147 votes, he lost the county by 1238 votes.The soldiers rejected his anti-war message by giving Brough 594 votes to 68 for Vallandigham.
Statewide, Brough won in a landslide, earning 60% of the vote. President Lincoln had every reason to feel relief at the outcome of the election. But he was probably thinking that in just a year he was going to be on the ballot. Without substantial improvement in the progress of the war the results could be reversed.
John Brough served honorably as governor. Tragically, he died in office from gangrene.
Clement Vallandigham was the inspiration for the short story "Man Without a Country" written by Edward Everet Hale in 1863 as a patriotic pro-war piece. Vallandigham resumed practicing law. He died in a hotel room in Lebanon, Ohio from a self-inflicted, accidental gunshot wound while trying to prove his theory of the case. He was 50 years old.
