Civil War Blog

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on March 1, 2013

Today, the regular Abraham Lincoln stamp issues will continue with an examination of the Liberty Series and the Prominent Americans Series which saw service from the mid-1950s through the mid-1970s.

Previously, here on this blog, the Presidential Series of 1938 was explained.  In addition, on Tuesday last week, former presidents who were alive during all or part of the Civil War were depicted on the stamps on which they appeared – the only such regular stamp issues honoring them.   Two other prior posts, Early Postage Stamps Honoring Abraham Lincoln and Postage Stamps Honoring Abraham Lincoln – Bureau of Engraving and Printing to 1909. discussed the early depiction of Abraham Lincoln on postage stamps.

The first stamp to be issued in the new Liberty Series in 1954 was a two-colored Statue of Liberty stamp in a 8 cent denomination (April 1954).  It was soon followed by a 3 cent violet issue (June 1954) to meet the regular letter rate.  As a result, the new series, which would replace the Presidential Issue of 1938, took on the theme of “Liberty,” and ensuing stamps issue depicted people, buildings, and monuments connected with this theme.

On 19 November 1954, a 4 cent stamp in this series was issued to honor Abraham Lincoln (stamp and First Day Cover shown above).  By placing Lincoln on this lower value stamp in the series, it ensured that the portrait of this former Republican president would get good public exposure – much more so than on the 16 cent stamp of the Presidential Series on which he had been depicted for more than 15 years.  This was also a more than subtle reminder that the Republicans had finally taken over the White House in 1953 after twenty years of control by the Democrats.  However, the 3 cent rate remained the domestic letter until 1 August 1958, when, the rate was raised to 4 cents – and the Lincoln stamp of this series saw its most prolific usage on the regular, daily mail of all Americans – the first and only time that this has occurred.

In preparation for the raise in postage rates, the 4 cent Lincoln stamp was issued on 31 July 1958 in two popular formats  – the coil (for machine dispensing and in rolls of 100 for personal and business use), and the booklet (mostly for personal use).  The First Day Covers for these formats are shown above (the coil) and below (one “pane” from a booklet).

All of the individuals who were pictured on the Liberty Series, with one exception, were in the same basic design – a frame, a portrait, a single color, the denomination, and the name of the individual (sometime the full name and sometimes just the surname).

There are two controversial aspects to this series.  The first is trite and does not apply to all the portrait designs – but does apply to enough designs to wonder whether it was done intentionally.  Lincoln, a Republican, faces to the right, as does the other notable Republican president depicted, Theodore Roosevelt.  Thomas Jefferson and Woodrow Wilson, both Democrats, face to the left.  The second controversy was more serious, especially since Civil Rights was coming into the forefront in the 1950s. It involved the selection of Robert E. Lee as the subject of the 30 cent stamp of this series.  Lee, who had taken up arms against the United States in the Civil War in defending both state’s rights and slavery, had previously appeared on a commemorative issue in 1949 – for the Bicentenary of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virgina – but had never before been considered for a regular issue postage stamp.  There were other serious concerns about including Lee.  No African American had ever appeared on a regular issue postage stamp of a series, and, other than Martha Washington, no woman had appeared.  Women got their heroine with the inclusion of Susan B. Anthony as the 50 cent stamp in the Liberty Series.  African Americans would have to wait until the next regular issue series to be included.  The slight to Ulysses S. Grant also did not go unnoticed.  Since the First Bureau of Engraving and Printing Issues of the 19th Century with the exception of one series which only depicted Washington and Franklin, Grant’s portrait had appeared in every series.  Now, with the Liberty Series, he was to be replaced with the image of someone many considered to be a traitor – and the general credited with bringing the rebellion to an end and freedom to millions of those held in bondage, the one who accepted the surrender of Gen. Lee, had apparently lost his place in history.

Of course, the Democrats took over the White House in 1961, but it didn’t seem that they were in any rush to replace the Liberty Series with one honoring heroes from their party.  Slowly, however, a new series began to emerge – one which had a Hodge-podge of designs with no two stamps having a common design element.  On 7 January 1963, the domestic letter rate was raised to 5 cents and the Post Office issued a regular issue stamp with the portrait of George Washington in the 5 cent denomination.  That stamp would be the main stamp seen on mail – thus replacing the 4 cent Lincoln of the Liberty Series.  Since 4 cents was the new post card rate, a new stamp honoring Lincoln was produced (shown below) with his portrait against the background of a simulated log cabin.

Lincoln, although still appearing on a regular issue stamp that would see wide-spread usage, was relegated to a less-frequently used service – that of the post card.

The new series of regular-issue stamps that evolved in the mid-1960s, got the name “Prominent Americans,” and featured Frederick Douglass on the 25 cent issue, Lucy Stone on the 50 cent issue, Albert Einstein on the 8 cent issue, and John Kennedy on the 13 cent issue – in addition to an architect, an historian, an educator, a playwright, others and former presidents.

It was not until 21 October 1968 that the Robert E. Lee stamp was replaced – with a 30 cent stamp honoring John Dewey. It has to be noted that the Liberty Series of stamps was the one still in common usage during the centennial of the Civil War – and that the only two Civil War-era political personages represented were Lincoln and Lee.  It was not until the centennial years were over that the Liberty Series was completely replaced with the Prominent Americans Series.

The United States was beginning to tout its diversity – both in who was portrayed on stamps and in the designs themselves.  This was the last series of stamps in which the choice of stamp subjects supposedly had an element of politics involved through the workings of the Executive Branch.  On 1 July 1971, the Post Office Department, as it had existed since the beginning of the Republic, ceased to exist as such and was replaced with the United States Postal Service. It was also the last time that the portrait of Lincoln would appear on a regular issue postage stamp of the United States.

The next part in this examination of Abraham Lincoln on stamps will begin explore the commemorate issues that recognized him and significant events in his presidency, including the Civil War.  It will appear some time next month.

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Much of the information for this post was taken from Abraham Lincoln on Postage Stamps, privately published in 2000 as a companion to a stamp collection and exhibit that was displayed at a county historical society in Pennsylvania in conjunction with the 135th Anniversary of the Lincoln Assassination.

Category: Research, Resources, Stories | 4 Comments »
Tags: Abraham Lincoln

Posted By Brian Tomlin on February 28, 2013

February 1863

February 2: American writer Samuel Clemens begins using the pen name “Mark Twain” for the first time

February 7: The HMS Orpheus (built 1860) sinks attempting to enter Manukau Harbor, which was not in its intended route. The ship was behind schedule and attempted to take a short cut  while delivering supplies for the New Zealand wars. 189 of the ship’s crew of 259 died.

February 10:The first U.S. patent for a fire extinguisher , by Alanson Crane, of Virginia. The tube-container was a step up from the fire suppression glass “grenades” that were previously the most popular form of emergency firefighting.

February 10: Famous little person and circus performer Gen. Tom Thumb, married another little person, Lavinia Warren, at a ceremony in New York City. Promoter P.T. Barnum, who was Tom’s employer, sold tickets to the event.

February 17: First meeting of the “Committee of Five,” in Geneva, Switzerland, a group that was the foundation of the International Red Cross.

Category: Culture | Comments Off on Events of the World: Feb 1863
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Posted By Norman Gasbarro on February 27, 2013

With the recent resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, amid controversy and speculation, another historical time period and another papacy is brought to mind, that of Pope Pius IX, the longest reigning pontiff in the history of the Roman Catholic Church (1846-1878), and the pope who was the contemporary of Abraham Lincoln.  Pius IX was the last pope to rule as the sovereign of the Papal States and was caught up in the nationalistic movements taking place in the world, particularly in the unification of Italy, an event that was unfolding at the same time as the American Civil War.  Pius IX‘s whole papacy was a balancing act between the trending forces of liberalism vs. conservatism, modernism vs. traditionalism, democracy vs. totalitarianism, and secularism vs. the sacred.  His reaction to those forces – the reforms he instituted as well as his failures – are a good subject for study as part of the international dimensions of our own Civil War.  Likewise, the growth of the Catholic Church in the United States, as well as the discrimination against it, can be analyzed in the context of his papacy.

Pius IX was born 13 May 1792 in Italy and was chosen as pope on 16 June 1846.  His election came amidst the growing nationalistic fervor that was taking place in Europe at the time, and he was seen as a liberal and sympathetic to the causes of the people and the faction of cardinals who wanted reforms in the church.  But shortly after his rise to power his Minister of the Interior was assassinated and he was forced to flee Rome for a short time – which led to his increasing skepticism of the liberal and nationalistic movements.  In the 1850s and 1860s, the Italian nationalist armies made significant gains against the Papal States, those territories over which the pope was sovereign, finally resulting in 1870 in the seizure of Rome and Pius IX‘s confinement to Vatican City, a small territory within the city of Rome, and the pope’s self-declared epithet, as “the prisoner of the Vatican.”

Despite the fact that he was besieged during his entire papacy, Pius IX is credited with major reforms in the Roman Catholic Church.  The doctrine of “papal infallibility,” although an anti-democratic change, came about as a the result of a major democratic reform – the calling of a Vatican Council in 1869.  The financing of the Vatican, the Roman Curia, and the works of the Church, was assured through the institution of “Peter’s Pence,” a levy on Catholics throughout the world that replaced the support previously given by the Papal States which were lost in the Italian unification. And, the dogma of the “immaculate conception,” which helped place Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the position of one of the paths to redemption and salvation, was instituted during his papacy.  These changes and reforms contributed to the centralization of power in Rome and in the papacy itself – changes that would not face any serious challenges in the years ahead.

The changes were not without controversy, especially in how they were perceived outside the Catholic church, and in particular, in how the papacy was seen in other countries.  While the aims of Pope Pius IX were to insure that Catholics could freely practice their religion in any country on earth, he often ran afoul of political realities in places such as Russia and the Ottoman Empire.  His fight against anti-Catholic views in Italy, France and Germany, was noteworthy and there is a history of positive relations with some Latin American countries during his reign.

But the educational policies of Pius IX were criticized in that they continued to neglect the natural sciences; primary education was not mandatory in the Papal States and was generally left to the religious orders or to private concerns.  He was, however, a patron of the arts (art, architecture, painting, sculpture, the theatre, etc.), and in particular the restoration of churches and the protection of the Colosseum and other Roman relics.

It was in the Americas, and his attempts to meddle in the affairs of Mexico, that caused concern in Washington – and may have been directly responsible for the development of anti-Catholic sentiment in the United States.  During the Civil War, the French-supported Maxmillian I, who, with the blessing of Pius IX before he set off for Mexico, attempted to establish a Second Mexican Empire.  Lincoln, preoccupied with saving the Union, was unable to help the Mexicans or to stop what was clearly a violation of the Monroe Doctrine – the interference of European powers in the affairs of the Americas.   The fact that this intervention was supported by the pope was known at the time, and after the Civil War, the United States supported the Mexicans and Maxmillian I was overthrown.  Part of this story was told in an earlier blog post entitled, Cinco de Mayo, the Confederacy and Gen. Jo Shelby.  The connection of the papacy with the Confederacy was also not lost on Americans.  Pope Pius IX was the only foreign ruler who gave any level of diplomatic recognition to the Rebel government.  A conspiracy theory also emerged in the years after Lincoln’s death, that Pope Pius IX was somehow involved in the assassination – in directing it or assisting in it – and was fueled by a number of factors, not the least of which were that Mary Surratt, the convicted conspirator who was hanged, and her son John Surratt, who was wanted as a conspirator but fled to the protection of the Vatican, were both Catholics.

One of the difficulties in researching and writing on the subject of this blog post – “the Vatican, Lincoln and the Civil War” – is the lack of primary resources.  Much of what is done in the Vatican is and was in secret and the hope of ever having any of those documents come into light (it they even exist) is very remote.  Thus, any historical treatise that is produced will be incomplete and based mostly on speculation – or on what is openly known and found in official, public pronouncements.  Writing on this subject could also brand the writer as an publicist for the church if he/she ignores obvious paths of inquiry – or as anti-Catholic if too hard on the church and the pope.

Three resources are presented below, each of which looks at some aspect of “the Vatican, Lincoln and the Civil War.”  All three are readily available and each is not without its own controversies (which will not be discussed at this time).

Charles Paschal Telesphone Chiniquy, Fifty Years in the Church of Rome.  This book, by a former priest, is available as a free download (click on title) from Google Books.  The last section of this book deals with Chiniquy’s relationship with Abraham Lincoln.

Emmett McLoughlin, An Inquiry Into the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.  Also by a former priest, this out-of-print book is currently available from used book sellers such as Amazon.com.

William Hanchett, The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies.  Chapter 8, entitled “Reductio ad Absurdum,” looks at both the views of Chiniquy and of McLoughlin.  The book is available, new and used, from booksellers such as Amazon.com.

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Readers are invited to suggest other books and articles which discuss the relationship between the Vatican, Lincoln and the Civil War.

Category: Research, Resources, Stories | 1 Comment »
Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln Assassination

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on February 26, 2013

In an essay entitled, “Sites of Memory, Sites of Glory: African American Grand Army of the Republic Posts in Pennsylvania,” Barbara A. Gannon presents a list of those posts, which includes the Stevens Post in Harrisburg, previously discussed here on this blog in a connection to Gratz native, John Peter Crabb, who for a time in the late 19th century, served as commander of that post and rode on horseback at the head of most of the patriotic and veterans’ parades held in the state capital, as well as taking an active part in causes such as the extension of pension rights.  Crabb, a blacksmith, lived and worked his later days in Harrisburg, and his direct descendants remained as part of the part of the Harrisburg community well-throughout the 20th century.  At the time she wrote the essay (2001), Gannon was a doctoral candidate at Pennsylvania State University.  Her comprehensive study of the “colored” or African American G.A.R. posts, not only in Pennsylvania, but throughout the country, has led to a recently-published work, The Won Cause:  Black and White Comradeship in the Grand Army of the Republic.

In her essay, Gannon challenged the traditional view that after the Civil War, white veterans abandoned the inclusion of African Americans in the quest for equality despite the shared sacrifice that had taken place during the war – particularly in the activities of the G.A.R., which conventionally has been presented as a segregated, discriminatory organization.  She uses the concept of “memory,” a way of giving meaning to sacrifice, as an organizing principle in her work, and shows how together – whites and African Americans  – through the G.A.R., whether working separately in segregated posts or together in integrated posts, fought the idea of the “lost cause,” and kept alive the “memory” of a war that had been fought for liberty as well as union.

Officially, the G.A.R. did not exclude African Americans from membership.  But in the case of the Stevens Post in Harrisburg, an interesting story is told by Gannon.  Evidence is presented that showed that the post was created as a “colored” post because white members of the two existing posts in Harrisburg were not receptive to integration.

An African-American comrade named John Simpson, who had been elected to one of highest positions in the Pennsylvania G.A.R., the council of administration, moved from Philadelphia to Harrisburg.  Simpson recruited new black members for Harrisburg’s G.A.R. posts.  One of the two predominantly white G.A.R. posts in the city, Post 116, received one of his recruit’s applications.  According to Simpson, the application of this “honorably discharged and otherwise qualified comrade… has been virtually set aside and a withdrawal of it forced by an announcement of the fact that the application would be rejected simply on account of the color of the applicant.”  Because of this threat of rejection, Simpson proposed chartering a new post at Harrisburg that “Comrades of color might join.”  Another Harrisburg post tried to block the post’s formation.  Simpson successfully appealed to the state leadership to issue a charter for a new African-American post in Harrisburg.  Official documents  often record the unusual and the controversial – such as the formation of Harrisburg’s all-black post – while neglecting less controversial events.  The formation of this black post was recorded because it was an unusual case that merited the attention of the state G.A.R. leadership. (Blair, p. 171).

Stories such as these are buried in layers of primary sources and it is because they have not been unearthed, that the mistaken view has prevailed that the G.A.R. on the state and national level had an official policy of discrimination.  Researchers who uncover these lost facts and events are to be commended for seeing history from other perspectives and presenting those views for public analysis.  Micro-history, which includes genealogy and family history of ordinary citizens, is a most useful process in the re-interpretation of history, and in this case, the formation of the “colored” G.A.R. post in Harrisburg, can be connected with the Civil War Research Project – a study of the lives of individual veterans from the Lykens Valley area of Pennsylvania, and one of its native sons, John Peter Crabb.

The table of African American posts in Pennsylvania, 1867-1930, presented by Gannon (Blair, p. 173), gives the post number, the full post name, the location, the years in existence, and the largest number of veterans.  For the David R. Stevens Post No. 520 located in Harrisburg, the largest number of veterans was 62 and the post existed from 1886 to 1930.  All told, there are 21 African American posts in the list.  The same 21 posts are listed on Gannon’s web site, although not as much information is given about each.  However, the web site lists posts in other states, as well as a list of all integrated posts in Pennsylvania, of which she has identified 36, the closest one to the Lykens Valley probably being Shamokin, Northumberland County.

Barbara A. Gannon‘s essay first appeared in Making and Remaking Pennsylvania’s Civil War, which is a collection of essays on some not-often-written-about aspects of the Keystone state’s involvement in the Civil War – during the war and its aftermath, including some perspectives on how the war is viewed today.  The book was edited by William A. Blair and William Pencak and was published in 2001 by Pennsylvania State University Press.  Blair is Professor of History at the Pennsylvania State University and Director of the Richards Civil War Era Center, organizer of a biennial conference with the Society of Civil War Era Historians, and editor of The Journal of the Civil War Era.  Pencak, also a Professor of History at the Pennsylvania State University, is the author of several books including Jews and Gentiles in Early America, published in 2005 by the University of Michigan Press.

The full list of essays included in this volume is presented below, and is from the Table of Contents:

“Introduction,” by William Blair.

1. “Keystone Confederates:  Pennsylvanians Who Fought for Dixie,” by Christian B. Keller.

2. “Avenue of Dreams:  Patriotism and the Spectator at Philadelphia’s Great Central Sanitary Fair,” by Elizabeth Milroy.

3. “‘We Were Enlisted for the War:’ Ladies’ Aid Societies and the Politics of Women’s Work During the Civil War,” by Rachel Filene Seidman.

4. “‘The World Will Little Note Nor Long Remember:’ Gender Analysis of Civilian Responses to the Battle of Gettysburg,” by Christina Ericson.

5. “The Avery Monument: The Elevation of Race in Public Sculpture,” by Henry Pisciotta.

6. “The Civil War Letters of Quartermaster Sergeant John C. Brock:  43rd Regiment, United States Colored Troops,” edited by Eric Ledell Smith. [See also:  43rd U.S. Colored Troops].

7. “Sites of Memory, Sites of Glory: African-American Grand Army of the Republic Posts in Pennsylvania,” by Barbara A. Gannon.

8. “‘A Disgrace That Can Never Be Washed Out:’ Gettysburg and the Lingering Stigma of 1863,” by Jim Weeks.

9. “‘Magnificence and Terrible Truthfulness:’ Peter F. Rothermel‘s The Battle of Gettysburg,” by Mark Thistlethwaite.

10. “The Brothers’ War: Gettysburg the Movie and American Memory,” by William Blair.

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For a detailed view of the activities of John Peter Crabb as Commander of the Stevens Post No. 520, G.A.R., see:  John Peter Crabb – Gratz Native Was G.A.R. Post Commander.

Category: Research, Resources, Stories | Comments Off on The “Colored” G.A.R. Posts of Pennsylvania
Tags: African American, G.A.R., Gratz Borough

Posted By Jake Wynn on February 25, 2013

Here is something a little different: news of the day from 151 years ago relating to the Lykens Valley area. The news comes from the Pennsylvania Daily Telegraph of Harrisburg, PA.

According to Luther Reily Kelker’s History of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, published in 1907, the Pennsylvania Telegraph was first published in 1831 by Theophilus Fenn. Fenn has his own connection to the Lykens Valley, as his nephew Samuel Fenn would later run the Lykens Register. In 1853, the Telegraph gobbled up two local daily newspapers and in 1857 it took up the name The Pennsylvania Daily Telegraph. To the citizens of the era, the paper was known simply as The Telegraph. It was published twice a day during the Civil War and was known for its unwavering support of the Republican Party. The publisher at the time was a man by the name of George Bergner.

Now for the news!

The storm of wind last night was unusually severe, and played sad havoc with awnings, tree branches, flags and window shutters throughout the city. A large chimney over one of the shops at the Round House, and a partially finished tenement in the rear of the Episcopal church, were levelled by the violence of the storm. The wires of the magnetic telegraph were also deranged by the same cause which prevented us from getting our usual amount of despatches last night. This morning opened clear and cold, with every prospect that the “changeable term” of the last six weeks is ended, and that we are now to enjoy an extended spell of clear weather.

THE PENNSYLVANIA TROOPS IN SOUTH CAROLINA –

We have previously noticed the arrival here of Col. Christ, of the 50^th Pennsylvania regiment, at Beaufort, S.C. He left Hilton Head on last Monday week, February 10. His regiment was encamped with another, the Pennsylvania Roundheads (100th Pennsylvania Infantry), under Col. Leasure, and the New York Seventy-ninth. A reconnaissance the night before he left to the mainland, by one of his captains, disclosed the fact that the enemy had not attempted to reoccupy the fort commanding Port Royal ferry to the Charleston and Savannah railroad. They were not sure whether Charleston or Savannah would be the first point of attack. Four hundred of the Massachusetts cavalry had arrived, and were actively at work relieving the infantry from some of their most onerous and fatiguing duties. The United States army there has been reinforced quietly until it has reached twenty-two thousand. The health of the troops is generally very good. He has no doubt that Savannah has fallen. Neither his nor Leasure’s men were to accompany it, and great disappointment was felt on this account.  

What can we take from this piece of news? Well we can see that there was some sort of severe weather that affected the Harrisburg region sometime the night before. As with today, this weather would have surely affected the Lykens Valley area as well, Harrisburg being only about 25 miles from Gratz. A storm of such ferocity would have played havoc with railroad telegraph wires, especially with the Northern Central Railroad, which hugged the wide Susquehanna River from Harrisburg to Sunbury. One can imagine the chaos that followed involving traffic and delays.

The next piece focuses in on Pennsylvania troops at work in the southern coastal region of South Carolina. Colonel Benjamin Christ’s 50th Pennsylvania, with many men from the Gratz area in Company A, moved from their camp on Hilton Head island to another island further north, specifically in the area of Beaufort, SC. After encountering troops and feeling that they could press the advantage to Savannah, according to the report, they were instead withdrawn.

An advertisement from the first page of the paper reports this:

COAL! POWDER!! COAL REDUCED!!!

In consideration of the hard times, and as I sell exclusively FOR CASH, I have reduced the price of Coal as follows:

Lykens Valley Broken@ $2.90 per ton,  Large Egg @ $2.90, Small Egg @ $2.90, Stove @ $2.90, and Nut @ $2.25

It looks like the economic issues of the winter of 1862, including the war and the lax state of the Northern economy, were causing stress on the coal market in Harrisburg. Coal producers in the Lykens Valley, like those at Short Mountain Colliery, would certainly have not liked this.

This is the first experience with this kind of post on the blog. Your feedback is important! Comment below or email us and let us know what you think about this post and others. Should we do more of this in the future?

The Pennsylvania Daily Telegraph was accessed through the Penn State Digital Library, in a collection called the Pennsylvania Civil War Era Newspaper Collection

Category: Events, Overviews, Research, Stories | Comments Off on News of the Day: February 25, 1862
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