On this day in history, November 8, 1864, President Lincoln defeats Gen. McClellan to win re-election

Republican President Abraham Lincoln defeated Democrat challenger Union Gen. George McLellan in the bitterly contested presidential election on this day in history, Nov. 8, 1864.

As Union soldiers fought their fellow Americans on the battlefield, Union voters battled each other at the ballot box over competing visions of the nation after the war. "McClellan’s letters reveal his contempt for his commander-in-chief." Political division was exacerbated by the personal animosity between the two men. Kerry J. Byrne is a lifestyle reporter with Fox News Digital.

"Lincoln had good reason to doubt his chances for re-election. No president since Andrew Jackson in 1832 had won a second term," writes the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution.