Lincoln Wins Re-Election
Atlanta's fall and the soldier vote deliver Lincoln a second term over his own former general
Quick facts
- Date
- November 8, 1864
- Winner
- Abraham Lincoln (Republican/National Union)
- Opponent
- George B. McClellan (Democratic)
- Electoral vote
- 212 to 21
What happened
By the summer of 1864, with the Overland Campaign's staggering casualties and no clear end to the war in sight, even Lincoln privately believed he would lose re-election, and Republican leader Thurlow Weed told Secretary of State William Seward that Lincoln's defeat looked like a certainty. The Democratic Party nominated Lincoln's former general, George McClellan, on a platform calling for a negotiated peace, though McClellan himself rejected the platform's peace terms while running on it. Atlanta's capture in September and Philip Sheridan's victories in the Shenandoah Valley reversed the political momentum. On election day, November 8, 1864, Lincoln defeated McClellan decisively, winning 212 of 233 electoral votes and more than 70 percent of the soldier vote, from men choosing between continuing a war that might kill them and a peace candidate.
Why it matters
Lincoln's victory ended any realistic hope in the Confederacy that a change in Northern leadership would produce a negotiated peace preserving Southern independence, committing the Union to fight the war through to unconditional Confederate surrender.
How we know
The National Park Service's Lincoln Home account of the 1864 election documents the pre-election pessimism and the soldier vote from contemporary correspondence, including Weed's letter to Seward.
Sources
- Lincoln Home National Historic Site, National Park Service. Lincoln, Grant, and the 1864 Election · Reputable sourcenps.gov · The domain "nps.gov" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- National Park Service. The Elections of 1860 and 1864 · Reputable sourcenps.gov · The domain "nps.gov" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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