Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1864-08-03
The Vote of the Army,

The vote OF the Armys
II 10 our deliberate opinion, formed after hearing
from various points, that not many more than one
third of the North Carolina soldiers voted at the late
.,.c,;on All the Vance men voted. and no doubt
.,orr Who were opposed to him were induced in
u,,ous WAYS to cast their ballots for him; but the
remainder. comprising large majority Of the army
,h.r voted for Holden against Influences never he
fore brought to bear on elections in this country,
or a,a no, vote ALL The army is beyond a1 CUES
Tim oo,;,st Ianee bit unfortunately it was not
in the power of the soldiers so to declare by their
v,tss We give thefoowins extracts showing the
,a,srces that were brought to bear. soldier
whom we know to be gentleman OF undoubted
yerac,ty. writes as follows to the Editor oil the
Proyress:
"uo the day before the election in the army, the
on ~ ,s, cmnanies of a certain Battalion were
r,lad m bv its eonmanding officer, and told that
rhev must either vote for Gov. Vance or no! vote at
I'll, that to vote for Holden was to vote for a
tra;top and torn, and if they voted tor him (Hol-
a.nl thew would be sent to the hottest battlefield
in Tirsina or the West. On the next day, they
we're harancued BY speech Of near two hours
]ength by a certain officer commanding certain
most They were then told that Holden was a
iory. traitor, Yankee spy, and various other
names too hard to be called, and if they voted
for HIM they should he branded as traitors 10 their
country, and their names should DC handed Gown
to posterity with infany and reproach. And that
such men as supported Holden for Governor stou
be watched and mark set upon them. And 'nr'
tbe,more. the poll holders were charged to nun
Der every ticket so that each mans vote might De
known, In consequence of this, out of near two
hundred votes that would have been poled, only
about seventy we're polled; and Vance. got ~ OF
these and Hulien 22-every Vance man voted, but
Holden men were AFRAID to do so, except lew as
above stated Now, sir, this is the way soldiers
are treated, not allowed 10 vote for their choice,
only because they are not disposed to vote as a
few officers wish These men no doubt are as true
10 their country as any soldiers in the Confederate
army, and not wishing themselves called traitors.
and receive the abuse Of their officers, they refused
TO vote at all"
A soldier writes US as follows from Wilmington !:
'The election around Wilmington was as unfair
as it could be- They allowed all the seventeen
year old Soys who were in favor OF Vance to vote.
Inc officers told the men in Maj. Youngs battalion
that if they voted for you they would send them to
Gen. Lees army Men who were known to be for
you were sent off on guard to prevent them from
voting. In my company The vote was Vance rs,
Holden IS, but if the men had been let alone You
would have got two thirds"
We shall not cucumber our columns with the
returns which are paraded in the Destructive pa.
pers with the view of affecting the election. These
papers are publishing the same vote ta,iee in the
same tables, SO as to swell the fictitious majority Of
Gov Vance. For example, the Confederate Of this
City, which claims $4,000 majority for Gov. Vance
in the army. publishes the votes of several brig
AIDES around Petersburg, and also publishes in tht
same table, "vote at Petersburg, four brgades t.
hear from, 1900 majority for Vancel" In addition
to this it publishes Ransom's brigade twics in the
same table. 1t also publishes the Kinston vote and
at Kinston, thus giving the vote Of the battery
tuicc in the same table. Again, the Coyeaerat,
and Conservative of Monday last not content with
publishing the same votes twice. have picked Out
and published those brigades that have given the
largest majorites for Vance, but they have sup
pressed the votes of Kirkand's and Cooks orgades,
which have given very small majorities for him.
In live Of the nine regiments of these brigades
'ances majority in each does not exceed II, while
IN one Of them it is but 50, and in another but So
the largest majority in any one of these regiments
being lS5.
we now say to our readers that we have no ides
,aa' doV Vance's majority in the army is as large
oy one half as it s'claimed to be by his organs.
Inc official vote counted but once will cut it down
very materially, and the real army vote will soon
ofop INTO the County vote as returned by the
soern and vii! be controlled by the County vote
d nome. Let every true Conservative at home but
W MS duty on Thursday next and brilliant
victory will be the result.
ine ssallfederates about Raleigh, who are living
'a the State, and Confederate officers who are ri
N's nhe horses apd living on the farmers tithes
we're unusually busy on Thursday last in inaa.
,"''ns the votes Of the soldi ers for Gov Vance
lucy know if Vance is defeated the searching hand
VI re''rm will reach them and cast them out and