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You might be right, you might be wrong.

In 1864 the 61st Illinois Infantry Regiment was away from home in Murfreesboro Tennessee chasing Confederate Calvary.

The fact that the Illinois Legislature (mostly democrats) had never signed into law a rule to allow their Illinois citizens to vote absentee meant that Regiment couldn’t cast a vote for President that year.

1864 was not a very food year for the Republican Party because most of their voters were in uniform and away from home.

Once again the Democrats tried to suppress the military vote because the knew which way it would go.

Back to the 61st Infantry Regiment: The officers of the 61st thought it would be a good idea to have a mock election for their troopers, as they couldn’t vote in the real election.

The officers of the 61st were mostly Democrats and their choice of candidate was McClelland, who was fired by Lincoln in 1862 because all he did was sit on his ass outside DC and whine about not having enough of everything.

The officers of the 61st Infantry regiment were pretty sure their regular soldiers and non-coms would vote their way, as they (the officers) saw McClelland as a great leader and he was a Democrat.

Well; the Honorable Mr. Abraham Lincoln won that little mock election much to the surprise of the officers.

The point is; Enlisted Personnel are not stupid, nor do they follow orders blindly.

I was an enlisted Marine for 5 years and I knew how to tell the good guys from the bad guys.

I would not ever follow what I believed to be an UNLAWFUL ORDER (after the action, we can let a court decide), and being told to fire upon men and women trying to defend their homes is in my opinion an UNLAWFUL ORDER.