417
●
(MILITARY—CIVIL WAR PATRIOTIC COVERS.) CONFEDERATE.
The
Cause of all Our Troubles.
Hand-colored cover depicting a black man within a wreath.
In the background to one side, a scene of a wagon hauling bales of cotton, on the other a
pastoral scene with Palmettos, the symbol of South Carolina. Un-cancelled.
American South, circa 1861-1865
[1,000/1,500]
A RARE CONFEDERATE COVER
blaming the war on blacks. The message could not be more
direct. Provenance: private collection, acquired from the Gordon Bleuler Collection of Postal
Covers.
A FEW WORDS ON THE FOLLOWING LOTS
OF PATRIOTIC CIVIL WAR COVERS
From the onset of the Civil War, enterprising publishers, printers and stationers
began to design and print up patriotic postal covers on both sides of the
Mason-Dixon Line. The early covers were generally simple and “patriotic,”
incorporating the flag and some words regarding the preservation of the
Union on the one side and the glory and values of the “Old South” on the
other. However, after 1861, and the prospect of a protracted war; the covers
became more and more creative. Some celebrated battles and generals, some
were humorous, while others became increasingly harsh. Instead of simple
patriotic messages, biting personal attacks on Lincoln or Jefferson Davis began
to emerge. Designers were quick taking advantage of events that became the
butt of satire. For example; following the liberation of vast numbers of slaves
on the Carolina coast by General Butler, dubbed “contrabands of war,” there
emerged an entire genre of racist covers. The election of 1864 provided ample
material for the covers from both sides, not to mention covers produced by the
so-called “copperheads,” northerners that sympathized with the South. It is
estimated that by the end of the War, at least 200 different publishers had
produced close to five thousand different covers. The following lots include
some of the rarest known covers, Union and Confederate; many from the collection
of Gordon Bleuler whose collection of patriotic covers was said to be
among the most complete ever assembled.
