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In 1863, amid the American Civil War (in which the state of Virginia was disputed between the United States and the breakaway Confederate States of America), two gubernatorial elections were held as a result of this dispute, a Confederate election and a Union election.
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The 1863 Virginia Confederate gubernatorial election was held on May 28, 1863, to elect the Confederate governor of Virginia. At the time, the governorship of the state was disputed as a result of the American Civil War.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | William Smith | 28,613 | 47.77% | |
| Democratic | Thomas Flournoy | 23,453 | 39.16% | |
| Democratic | George W. Munford | 7,478 | 12.49% | |
| Write-ins | 353 | 0.59% | ||
| Total votes | 59,987 | 100.00% | ||
| Democratic hold | ||||
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The 1863 Virginia Union gubernatorial election was held on May 28, 1863, to elect the Union governor of Virginia. At the time, the governorship of the state was disputed as a result of the American Civil War, and disputed incumbent Republican/Unionist Francis Harrison Pierpont ran unopposed.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Francis Harrison Pierpont (incumbent) | 3,755 | 100.00% | |
| Total votes | 3,755 | 100.00% | ||
| Republican gain from Democratic | ||||
Powell Foulk Clayton was an American politician, diplomat, and businessman who served as the 9th governor of Arkansas from 1868 to 1871, as a Republican United States Senator for Arkansas from 1871 to 1877 and as United States Ambassador to Mexico from 1897 to 1905.
Wade Hampton III was the scion of one of the richest families in the ante-bellum South, owning thousands of acres of cotton land in South Carolina and Mississippi, as well as thousands of enslaved workers. He became a senior general in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War. He also had a career as a leading Democratic politician in state and national affairs.
In the American Civil War (1861–65), the border states or the Border South were four, later five, slave states in the Upper South that primarily supported the Union. They were Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, and after 1863, the new state of West Virginia. To their north they bordered free states of the Union, and all but Delaware bordered slave states of the Confederacy to their south.
The Solid South was the electoral voting bloc for the Democratic Party in the Southern United States between the end of the Reconstruction era in 1877 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. During this period, the Democratic Party controlled southern state legislatures and most local, state and federal officeholders in the South were Democrats. During the late 19th century and early 20th century, Southern Democrats disenfranchised nearly all blacks in all the former Confederate states. This resulted in a one-party system, in which a candidate's victory in Democratic primary elections was tantamount to election to the office itself. White primaries were another means that the Democrats used to consolidate their political power, excluding blacks from voting.
William "Extra Billy" Smith was a lawyer, congressman, the 30th and 35th Governor of Virginia, and a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. On his appointment in January 1863, at 65, Smith was the oldest Confederate general to hold field command in the war.
The U.S. state of West Virginia was formed out of western Virginia and added to the Union as a direct result of the American Civil War, in which it became the only modern state to have declared its independence from the Confederacy. In the summer of 1861, Union troops, which included a number of newly formed Western Virginia regiments, under General George McClellan drove off Confederate troops under General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Philippi in Barbour County. This essentially freed Unionists in the northwestern counties of Virginia to form a functioning government of their own as a result of the Wheeling Convention. Before the admission of West Virginia as a state, the government in Wheeling formally claimed jurisdiction over all of Virginia, although from its creation it was firmly committed to the formation of a separate state.
The American state of Virginia became a prominent part of the Confederacy when it joined during the American Civil War. As a Southern slave-holding state, Virginia held the state convention to deal with the secession crisis and voted against secession on April 4, 1861. Opinion shifted after the Battle of Fort Sumter on April 12, and April 15, when U.S. President Abraham Lincoln called for troops from all states still in the Union to put down the rebellion. For all practical purposes, Virginia joined the Confederacy on April 17, though secession was not officially ratified until May 23. A Unionist government was established in Wheeling and the new state of West Virginia was created by an act of Congress from 50 counties of western Virginia, making it the only state to lose territory as a consequence of the war. Unionism was indeed strong also in other parts of the State, and during the war the Restored Government of Virginia was created as rival to the Confederate Government of Virginia, making it one of the states to have 2 governments during the Civil War.
The RestoredGovernment of Virginia was the Unionist government of Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865) in opposition to the government which had approved Virginia's seceding from the United States and joining the new Confederate States of America. Each state government regarded the other as illegitimate. The Restored Government attempted to assume de facto control of the Commonwealth's northwest with the help of the Union Army but was only partly successful. It raised Union regiments from local volunteers but depended upon recruits from Pennsylvania and Ohio to fulfill its commitments. It administered this territory until, with its approval, the area became part of West Virginia in mid-1863.
Elections in Virginia are authorized under Article I of the Virginia State Constitution, sections 5–6, and Article V which establishes elections for the state-level officers, cabinet, and legislature. Article VII section 4 establishes the election of county-level officers. Elections are regulated under state statute 24.2-102. The Virginia State Board of Elections oversees the execution of elections under state law. In a 2020 study, Virginia was ranked as the 12th easiest state for citizens to vote in.
War Democrats in American politics of the 1860s were members of the Democratic Party who supported the Union and rejected the policies of the Copperheads. The War Democrats demanded a more aggressive policy toward the Confederacy and supported the policies of Republican President Abraham Lincoln when the American Civil War broke out a few months after his victory in the 1860 presidential election.
Charles James Faulkner was a politician, planter, and lawyer from Berkeley County, Virginia who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and as a U.S. Congressman.
The 1861 Texas gubernatorial election was held on August 5 1861, to elect the governor of Texas. In a three-way election, former Democratic lieutenant governor Francis Lubbock defeated incumbent Governor Edward Clark and Thomas J. Chambers, a wealthy political gadfly from East Texas. All candidates were staunch secessionists, promising to wage vigorous war upon the North in cooperation with Confederate authorities.
The 1863 Texas gubernatorial election was held on August 3, 1863, to elect the governor of Texas. Harrison County attorney Pendleton Murrah, backed by Incumbent Governor Francis Lubbock who chose not to run for a second term, defeated perennial candidate Thomas J. Chambers, a wealthy political gadfly from East Texas.
The 1863 West Virginia gubernatorial election was the first gubernatorial election, held on Thursday, May 28, 1863. Unionist Arthur I. Boreman was elected virtually without opposition. This was the first of two gubernatorial elections held in West Virginia during the American Civil War; 17 counties were occupied by Confederate military forces on Election Day and did not participate in the balloting.
On June 20, 1863, the U.S. government created a new state from 50 western counties of Virginia to be named "West Virginia". This was done on behalf of a Unionist government in Wheeling, Virginia, approved by Congress and President Lincoln, though it was done with a low participation of the citizens within the new state. There remained a large number of counties and citizens who still considered themselves as part of Virginia and the Confederacy which, in turn, considered the new state as part of Virginia and the Confederacy. In 1861 the 50 counties contained a population of 355,544 whites, 2,782 freemen, 18,371 slaves, 79,515 voters and 67,721 men of military age. West Virginia was the 6th most contested state during the war, with 632 battles, engagements, actions and skirmishes.
The 1861 Maryland gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 1861. It was held amid the early phases of the American Civil War and was contested between the Union Party's Augustus Bradford and the Democratic Party's Benjamin Chew Howard. Bradford supported the maintenance of the Union while Howard advocated for a peace treaty with the Confederacy. Concerned about pro-secession elements in the state, the federal government sent troops to supervise the vote and ordered electors to take an oath of loyalty to the Union. The election was won by Bradford with 68.8% of the votes.
The 1863Mississippi gubernatorial election was held on October 5, 1863, to elect the governor of Mississippi. Charles Clark, a Democrat, won against Democrat A. M. West and Fire-Eater Democrat Reuben Davis.
The 1863 Tennessee gubernatorial election was held on August 6, 1863, to elect the next governor of Tennessee. Incumbent Democratic governor Isham G. Harris was prohibited by the state constitution from seeking a fourth consecutive term. On July 17, 1863, the state's Confederate leaders met in Winchester, Tennessee, and nominated Democrat Robert L. Caruthers for governor. 30 counties, mainly those still under Confederate control, participated in the election. Caruthers won effectively unopposed, with only two of the 30 counties recording votes for Unionist Parson Brownlow.
The 1863 Georgia gubernatorial election was held on October 5, 1863, in order to elect the Governor of Georgia. It was the last gubernatorial election in Georgia under the Confederate States of America and saw Independent Democrat nominee and incumbent Governor Joseph E. Brown win a fourth and final term against Unionist nominee Joshua Hill and Pro-Administration nominee Lt. Col Timothy Furlow.
The 1862 Virginia gubernatorial election was held on May 22, 1862, to elect the governor of the Restored Government of Virginia, whose authority represented the extent of pro–Union control in Virginia. At the time, the governorship of the state was disputed as a result of the American Civil War, and disputed incumbent Republican/Unionist Francis Harrison Pierpont ran unopposed.
| Elections in Virginia |
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