1864 Presidential campaign debate in Fernandina

Submitted by Suanne Z. Thamm
Reporter – News Analyst
September 12, 2016 11:00 a.m.

Members of Fort Clinch’s Union Garrison and their camp followers paid a call on the Gentle Folk of the town of Fernandina to promote and campaign for their preferred candidates in the upcoming Presidential contest of … 1864. The soldiers held their campaign event in Baker Hall at the Amelia Island Museum of History the evening of September 9, 2016. Fort Clinch Park Ranger and Union Sergeant Frank Ofeldt led his band of brothers to cheer — and boo — for the two Presidential candidates: Abraham Lincoln, seeking re-election to his second term; and Gen. George McClellan, Lincoln’s challenger.

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Judging from audience reaction, President Lincoln won in a landslide on a platform calling for unconditional surrender of Confederate troops and abolition of slavery. During his speech Ofeldt was able to announce the fall of both Mobile and Atlantic to Union troops.