[3] Unionists won critical elections in Kentucky and Maryland preceding the July 4, 1861 emergency session of Congress, sending more than a dozen members to the House of Representatives.
[4] They established provisional governments in Missouri and the western counties of Virginia that constituted the loyal civilian authority in those states throughout the war; a similar strategy was attempted unsuccessfully in East Tennessee.
Lincoln's reelection on the National Union ticket demonstrated the Radicals' superior strength and established a beachhead for the Republican Party in the Upper South.
Most were former Whigs who had declined to join the Republican Party prior to the war; a minority were Unionist Democrats whose Jacksonian nationalism inspired a fierce opposition to disunion.
[9] In its broadest application, "unionist" referred to active opponents of secession in the slave states who remained loyal to the national government following the commencement of hostilities in April 1861.