What exactly is a "wide awake"

[Eric Burke]

I was reading a few selections out of Ira Blanchard (20th Illinois) memoirs last night and noticed the following passage:

I had trained under Jas. A. Coats as a "wide awake" during the Lincoln campaign, and had formed quite an attachment for the gallant Captain and the crowd that rallied to his support.

In the glossary in back it defines "wide awake" as a probable reference to some type of political "gopher" For Lincoln's 1858 Senatorial campaign, but I was wondering if there were any other more definite interpretations out there?

Thanks!

[tomarch]

Re: What exactly is a "wide awake"

As I remember, the "Wide Awakes" were members of local GOP political clubs that acted as boosters for Lincoln in '60. They did a lot of publicly held campaign events like torchlight parades ect. See "Hardtack and Coffee" for a sketch of one by Chas Reed. One origin I read of in "The Coming Storm" by Bruce Catton says their name derived from the cloth used to make the coats they wore as uniforms. The cloth was called "wide awake" because it had no nap (Groan!) :tounge_sm (Could any of you folks out there with detailed knowlege of cloth add or verify this?). Hope this helps. Getting a bunch of guys together to do a good Wide Awake impression inc. torches would be waycool

[coffee boiler]

Re: What exactly is a "wide awake"

Getting a bunch of guys together to do a good Wide Awake impression inc. torches would be waycool

On a similar but different note, we participated in an 1864 recruiting rally held at Pamplin Park that included inspiring speeches by period politicians. The park employees who acted out the roles of the politicians did a good job. I was surprised by the number of die-heart southern spectators who were moved to enlist in the federal army that day. It was a good event that was enjoyed equally by both living historians and spectators.

[rogue]

No Nap cloth.

Yes, you have it right about the Wide Awakes and the No Nap cloth. The cloth mentioned was similar to poncho material, cutting edge technology for 1860, fashioned into a cape and worn in the aforementioned torch-light parades. The torch-lights shining on the slick rubber must have made some impressive night-time display.
Steve Sullivan
46th Illinois
Co. Mil. Hist.

[Vuhginyuh]

Know Nothings vs Wide Awakes

My favorite Party name was the Know Nothings. From what I recall they were the American party, a native born , white protestant, anti-abolition, anti-Irish Catholic, Republican sect that became Nativism. I think the Wide Awakes were heavily Catholic-immigrant. Someone please jump on this if I am wrong.The name came from their standard reply when asked thier party stand, "I know nothing..."

[Hank Trent]

Re: Know Nothings vs Wide Awakes

The "no nap" joke always sounded like just that to me--a joke that someone came up with after the name was chosen to "explain" it, with the same motivation as all those urban legend etymology jokes that get passed around today like "pluck yew," etc.

"Wide awake" is certainly self-explanatory enough for a group of young politically active men, describing a group that's alert, enthusiastic, aware of what's going on, keeping watch over the political future of the nation while others sleep.

I have no doubt that some people in the 1860s believed the no-nap joke was the actual origin, but is there any evidence it really was? In other words, that someone actually picked the cloth first, came up with the joke, and decided to name the group based on the joke?

Here's one description of the origin of the name, which unfortunately doesn't say exactly how it was chosen, but implies it came from the actual meaning of being aware and alert, as applied to the whole Republican movement.

We condense the following account of the origin of the "Wide Awakes" from memoranda kindly furnished us by Mr. William P. Fuller, one of the editors of the Hartford "Courant" in 1860, Major J. C. Kinney, at present connected with the paper, and General Joseph R. Hawley, the principal editor, now United States Senator from Connecticut, and who in 1860 marched in the ranks of the first "Wide Awake" parades.

The "Wide Awake" organization grew out of the first campaign meeting in Hartford on February 25th, 1860--State election campaign. Hon. Cassius M. Clay was the speaker, and after the meeting was escorted to the Allyn House by a torch-light parade. Two of the young men who were to carry torches, D. G. Francis and H. P. Blair, being dry-goods clerks, in order to protect their clothing from dust and the oil liable to fall from the torches, had prepared capes of black cambric, which they wore in connection with the glazed caps commonly worn at the time. Colonel George P. Bissell, who was marshal, noticing the uniform, put the wearers in front, where the novelty of the rig and its double advantage of utility and show attracted much attention. It was at once proposed to form a campaign club of fifty torch-bearers with glazed caps and oil-cloth capes instead of cambric; the torch-bearing club to be "auxiliary to the Young Men's Republican Union." A meeting to organize formally was appointed for March 6th; but before the new uniforms were all ready, Abraham Lincoln addressed a meeting in Hartford on the evening of March 5th. After his speech, the cape wearers of the previous meeting with a number of others who had secured their uniforms escorted Mr. Lincoln to the hotel.

The club was formally organized on the following night. Mr. William P. Fuller, city editor, had, in noticing this meeting for organization, written in the "Courant" of March 3d: "THE WIDE AWAKES.--The Republican club-room last evening was filled as usual with those who are going to partake in the great Republican triumph in this State in April next," etc., etc. The name "Wide Awakes" was here applied to the Republican Young Men's Union, torch-bearers included; but at the meeting of March 6th, the torch-bearers appropriated it by making it the distinctive title to their own special organization, which almost immediately, there as elsewhere, swallowed up the names and the memberships of other Republican clubs. (From Abraham Lincoln: A History, Nicolay and Hay, The Century, September 1887)

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[dave81276]

Re: What exactly is a "wide awake"

The "Wide Awakes" were not just uniformed, but did receive rudimentary drilling similar to the militia. Although not thugs like the Brownshirts, they provided "security" at Republican rallies and acted as bodyguards for Republican candidates and officials when they received threats. Remember, the Republicans were just as hated in some Northern areas as they were in the South. While we complain about the dirtiness of politics today, it was a whole lot dirtier back then.

Dave Eggleston

[markj]

Re: What exactly is a "wide awake"

You'll enjoy this:

Indianapolis Daily Sentinel, 6 May 1861:

WIDE-AWAKE CAPES.--Persons having Wide-Awake capes in their possession, and who are willing to dispose of them for the benefit of the soldiers to protect them from the wet, will please leave them at the Capital Store, at the Bates House [in Indianapolis]. Mr. Holloway will receive and distribute them.

Various coffee-table books about the Civil War carry images of Republican stalwarts in "Wide-Awake" capes and hats, as well as carrying their "peculiar" torches. There were numerous torch-light parades by Wide-Awakes here in Indiana; here in Lafayette, Indiana several thousand of them congregated for a rally in October 1860. This is what people did before television....

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[PrettyBoyDonovan]

Re: What exactly is a "wide awake"

I thought a "Wide-Awake" was a style of hat! :embaresse

[billwatson]

Re: What exactly is a "wide awake"

I have a dim recollection, from I know not what long ago book, that "Wide Awakes" was chosen almost as a foil to the "Know Nothings". The "Wide Awakes," unlike the furtive and secretive Know Nothings, with an agenda they seemed half ashamed of, were not only in the open, but were portraying themselves as alert, aware, conscious of what was going on, and not letting anyone slip something past them again as some considered had happened with recent political compromises. Kind of "you can't fool us any more, we're wide awake now." Uncanny parallels to our current political condition?

Bill,
Signature please.
Thanks,
John Stillwagon

[tmdreb]

Re: What exactly is a "wide awake"

I sure don't remember the reference at the moment, but I know "wideawake" as a hat with a very wide brim, such as the Clem Bassett hat in EoG.

[UnionMan]

Re: What exactly is a "wide awake"

The Wide Awakes were also a direct Northern response to the South as its militia system buldged with enthusiasm for the coming storm. In many ways the Wide Awakes were the beginning of the Northern volunteer militia system.

I too have never bought the reasoning that they were called "Wide Awakes" because of there being no nap in their capes...that just sounds to much like the fabricated answer of a student of material culture who has spent too much time looking at the weave of period cloth. The fact that the Wide Awakes also used the symbol of the illuminati, the pyramid with an large eye hovering over the top, indicates that they were speaking out against the political situation in America and that they were "awake" to the truth.

Some months ago I found an electronic copy of a Wide Awake membership certificate. It featured the moto:

Free Soil, Free Men

I will see if I can dig it up.

-Tad

[rogue]

Re: What exactly is a "wide awake"

I will see if I can dig it up.

-Tad[/QUOTE]
I too was able to dig something up, this is a 1/6th plate tintype I have had for 35 years. When I printed the photo I reversed the negative and only then noticed "Lincoln" on the strpe of the flag.
Wide Awake cape, hat, and torch.
Steve Sullivan
46th Illinois
ex-33rd Wisconsin
Co. Mil. Hist.

[UnionMan]

Re: What exactly is a "wide awake"

Excellent picture, Steve. Thanks for sharing.

It appears to me that the cape being worn by the boy is more consistent with the look of painted cloth, not rubberized material. It's very shiney, and even appears to have a slight nap, similar to a painted haversack or knapsack. My eyes could be deceiving me, but this appears to be further evidence debunking the "no nap" naming convention attributed to the wide awakes.

-Tad

[Canton Zouave]

Re: What exactly is a "wide awake"

I my studies of our own local militia companies, the "Wide Awakes" were the nucleus of these pre-war militias.

A late 1859 Article from the Ohio Repository (Canton, Ohio) speaks of the new "Wide Awake" society and calls for their members to meet at Public Square for their monthly drill. The article is signed "Captain, Wide Awakes".

I have followed these stories through the election of 1860. As I review the articles the "Wide Awakes" clearly make a shift from a political movement to a Military Organization, and into the formation of the "Canton Zouaves" in late 1860. This group would become Co. F, 4th O.V.I.

It is an interesting look at the political and local military situation at the turn of the decade.