The 1863 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election occurred on October 13, 1863. Incumbent governor Andrew Gregg Curtin, a Republican, was a candidate for re-election. Curtin defeated Democratic candidate

George Washington Woodward George Washington Woodward (March 26, 1809May 10, 1875) was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. George W. Woodward was born in Bethany, Pennsylvania. He attended Geneva Seminary (now Hobart and William ...

to win another term. Pennsylvania's 15th governor and a strong supporter of President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

, Curtin was first inaugurated on January 15, 1861, and ultimately became known as "Pennsylvania's War Governor" because he was governor when the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

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 the

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

Camp Curtin Camp Curtin was a major Union Army training camp in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War. It was located north of Pennsylvania's state capitol building on 80 acres of what had previously been land used by the Dauphin County Ag ...

, which became one of the largest staging grounds for the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

after it opened that same month. Following the

Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Po ...

, which had been waged on Pennsylvania soil barely three months before Curtin's reelection and helped turn the tide of the war in favor of preserving the Union, Curtin led the state and nation in establishing a

national cemetery The following is a partial list of prominent National Cemeteries: Africa Algeria * El Alia Cemetery, Algiers Burundi * Mausolée des Martyrs de la Démocratie, Bujumbura Ghana * Asomdwee Park, Accra * Burma Camp Military Cemetery, Accra L ...

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.Tristan, David.
Midstate Markers: Pennsylvania's 'War Governor' Andrew Curtin
" Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: WHTM-TV, July 28, 2022 (retrieved online June 3, 2023).

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{{Reconstruction Era 1863

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Gubernatorial A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

October 1863 events