Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation Owes Big $$$

[Steve]

Here's my source for William Waller voting for Douglas in the 1860 election, Elbert Waller mentions it himself in a brief aside in his book on Illinois history:

https://archive.org/stream/wallersbriefh...0/mode/2up

This 1912 book has some more information on William Waller in its biography of Elbert, though its description is somewhat hagiographic:

https://archive.org/stream/historyofsout...8/mode/2up

From what I can gather William Waller was a farmer who was a Democrat who lived just outside Murphysboro in Jackson County, Illinois and who voted for Douglas in the 1860 election. He was also a staunch Unionist opposed to pro-successionist Democrats and joined some unnamed organization opposed to the Knights of the Golden Circle. The Knights or people of similar pro-Confederate leanings threatened him and his family and he switched ties to the Republican party. He never enlisted in the Army. I checked the list of Illinois delegates to the National Union Convention in Baltimore (thinking that he might have gone there and then made a detour to Washington) but he wasn't on the list. I also searched for Waller in DC newspapers printed during the war (hoping maybe he went to Congress to testify on what was happening in southern Illinois?), but alas couldn't find any mention of him in Washington.