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 County results Curtin: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% Woodward: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% | |||||||||||||||||
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The1863 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election occurred on October 13, 1863. TheUnion incumbent governorAndrew Gregg Curtin defeated the Democratic candidateGeorge Washington Woodward.
Pennsylvania's 15th governor and a strong supporter of PresidentAbraham Lincoln, Curtin was first inaugurated on January 15, 1861, and ultimately became known as "Pennsylvania's War Governor" because he was governor when theAmerican Civil War broke out and then continued to serve as governor for the duration of the war. In April 1861, he had been one of the first state governors to send military units to Washington, D.C. in response to Lincoln's call for help to defend the nation's capital and was theeponym ofCamp Curtin, which became one of the largest staging grounds for theUnion Army after it opened that same month.[1] Following theBattle of Gettysburg, which had been waged on Pennsylvania soil barely three months before Curtin's reelection and helped turn the tide of the war in favor ofpreserving the Union, Curtin led the state and nation in establishing anational cemetery for the Union Army's fallen soldiers. Post-war, he led the commonwealth in building a state-funded system of more than forty soldiers' orphans' schools to educate and care for children across Pennsylvania whose fathers had been killed during the war.[2]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Union | Andrew Gregg Curtin (incumbent) | 269,506 | 51.46 | |
| Democratic | George Washington Woodward | 254,171 | 48.54 | |
| N/A | Others | 2 | 0.00 | |
| Total votes | 523,679 | 100.00 | ||
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