Two Reproduction Civil War Era Ribbons – Lincoln for President and Wide Awake 1880 Reunion

Two Reproduction Civil War Era Ribbons – Lincoln for President and Wide Awake 1880 Reunion

Time to show your patriotism!!We have digitally reproduced these two 1860 Repubican Ribbons – Perfect to wear to today to show your patriotism — also perfect for reenactors to wear to early war events.These are one of a kind ribbons that you will NOT see sold elsewhere and these are the last two that we have! Republican Candidate Abraham Lincoln orange ribbon measures 8″ in length by 3″ in height, Wide Awake 1860 Hartforrd Veterans 1880 ribbon measures 7″ in length by 2 1.4″ in width.

During the four-way race for President in 1860, the six-year-old Republican Party found support from a new generation of voters who helped push Abraham Lincoln to victory. They were known as the “Wide Awakes,” because of their youth, enthusiasm, and torch-lit nighttime marches. “Now the old men are folding their arms and going to sleep,” said William H. Seward while campaigning for Lincoln, “and the young men are Wide Awake.”The Wide Awakes were remarkable for their youthfulness, ranging from males too young to vote to males in their thirties, and for their uniforms. They wore military-style caps and cloaks, which were often enameled to protect them from the oil dripping from their torches. But all the excitement, torches, and uniforms were more about spectacle and socializing than ideology. Some Wide Awakes were avowed abolitionists, but most identified with the Republicans because of a “superficial but evocative sense of political and sectional unity.” They thought the future belonged to them, not the tired and corrupt figures of the previous quarter century—during which no President survived more than one term. Mechanics, clerks, other wage laborers, and farmers predominated in the Wide Awakes.

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