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Civil War and Reconstruction |
An Eloquent Farewell to His Troops from a Massachusetts General Who Marched to the Sea with Sherman and Fought in the Civil War’s Last Battle
WILLIAM COGSWELL. CIVIL WAR,
Manuscript Document Signed. General Orders No. 14. [Farewell to the Army of Georgia], Near Washington, D.C., June 9, 1865. 1 p., 7¾ x 12 in.
Brigadier General William Cogswell offers a dramatic farewell message to the troops under his command in the Army of Georgia. A Salem, Massachusetts lawyer, Cogswell turned his law office into a recruiting station after learning the 6th Massachusetts had been attacked in Baltimore. He was first in, last out, in his Civil War service: In 24 hours, he raised the first full company of the war (Company C, 2nd Massachusetts Volunteers) and his brigade fought in the final battle of the war in Bentonville, North Carolina. Despite his relative obscurity, Cogswell’s eloquence rivals the great farewell messages in military history.
Item #23320, $7,500
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The Nation Mourns
[ABRAHAM LINCOLN],
Newspaper. Harper’s Weekly, May 6, 1865. 16 pp., complete, disbound.
Engravings include: Lincoln and son Tad at home. Scene at the death bed of President Lincoln. Funeral service at the White House. Ford’s Theatre. Attempted assassination of Secretary Seward. Citizens viewing the body at City Hall, New York.
Item #H-5-6-1865, $750
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“Black bellied Yankees” at The Battle of Fort Blakely
FREDERICK MORTIMER CRANDAL,
Autograph Letter Signed, to Julian E. Bryant. “Up the Alabama,” April 25, 1865. 4 pp.
A Union colonel, in command of the 48th Regiment of U.S. Colored Troops, writes to his friend, Col. Julian E. Bryant, of the 46th Regiment of U.S.C.T., recounting his regiment’s part in the Battle of Fort Blakely. “We have had hard marching & hard fighting. A week in trenches & a successful charge. The ‘Black bellied Yankee’ made their mark … everyone gives us credit for doing well & I think we did excellently well. … My loss was not very heavy, not over thirty all told. The other Regts in my Brigade suffered much more severely on the last charge, I being held in reserve & not being under fire but a few moments, they did gallantly…”
Item #21813, $3,000
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Illustrator Frank Leslie Publishes Fanciful Grand Reception of Civil War Notables as a Subscription Premium
[ABRAHAM LINCOLN],
Lithograph. “Grand Reception of the Notabilities of the Nation, at the White House 1865,” New York: Frank Leslie, [April] 1865. 1 p., 19 x 23¾ in.
Frank Leslie published this print as a premium for his new family magazine, Frank Leslie’s Chimney Corner, and copyrighted it on April 8, 1865, just a week before Lincoln’s death. The image, created by engraver Henry B. Major and lithographer Joseph Knapp, portrays Lincoln, flanked by the First Lady and Vice President Andrew Johnson, greeting Julia Dent Grant, wife of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant who stands nearby.
According to a notice printed at the bottom right corner, “Every Person who pays Ten Cents each for numbers 1 and 2 of Frank Leslie’s Chimney Corner, The New Family Paper, is entitled to a copy of this PLATE without extra charge,” or individuals could purchase the print for $3.
Item #25618, $2,000
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Civil War Veteran in Maryland Predicts the War Will End Soon
DAVID F. MCGOWAN,
Autograph Letter Signed, to Ellen [P. Fowler?], March 15, 1865, Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland. 3 pp., 5x 8 in. Also includes DAVID F. McGOWAN, Autograph Letter Signed, to Ellen [P. Fowler?], May 9, 1865, Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland. 4 pp., 5 x 8 in.
“Sherridan has been doing some good work. 1400 prisoners passed here a few days ago that he captured And Report says he has captured 1000 more. A couple of officers stopped here last night, that had just been exchanged. They were captured last August and gave me a good account of their trials & tribulations down in Dixie. One of them gave $100. for a common pair of shoes from all appearances the Confederacy will soon collapse. Sherman has been heard from, is at Fayetteville, N. C. think Richmond will fall, before fall.”
Civil War veteran David F. McGowan writes about prospects for Union victory and life in Maryland as the Civil War draws to a close.
Item #24471, $380
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Lincoln and Congressmen Who Signed Thirteenth Amendment Abolishing Slavery
[THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT],
Photomontage of the Congressional supporters of the Thirteenth Amendment, which ended slavery in the United States. Composite oval albumen photograph, 7 x 8¼ in., on mount, 13½ x 17 in. New York: G. M. Powell and Co., 1865.
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,...shall exist within the United States....”
Item #27034, $1,450
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Congressmen Who Signed Thirteenth Amendment Abolishing Slavery
[THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT],
Photomontage of the Congressional supporters of the Thirteenth Amendment, which ended slavery in the United States. Composite oval albumen photograph, 13¾ x 16 in., credited in negative, on the original mount, 18⅛ x 20¼ in. New York: G. M. Powell and Co., 1865. Manuscript annotation on verso: “George May Powell / Great National Picture / Photograph of Members of United States House of Representatives and the Senate who voted Aye on Resolution to amend the Constitution of the United States so as to prohibit slavery. Passed Senate April 1864. Passed House of Representatives January 1866 [1865]. Abraham Lincoln – president.”
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,...shall exist within the United States....”
Item #27106, $1,950
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1865 General Orders, Including Many Regarding Lincoln’s Assassination
[CIVIL WAR - WAR DEPARTMENT],
Book. Bound collection of separately printed General Orders from the Adjutant General’s office for 1865. Containing 168 of 175 consecutive orders, and a 94-page index at front. Bound for Major General William Scott Ketchum, with his name in gilt on the spine and his markings or wartime notes on numerous pages. 4¾ x 7 in.
Item #22265, $4,800
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“Separating the Loyal from the Disloyal” in Reconstruction North Carolina
[CIVIL WAR],
Archive of materials relating to the administering of loyalty oaths in North Carolina after the Civil War during presidential Reconstruction. 1865-1866.
Item #21814, $4,500
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A New York Soldier’s Affidavit Allowing a Proxy to Vote in the 1864 Election
[CIVIL WAR],
Partially Printed Document Signed by James M. Smith, countersigned by Jerome B. Parmenter, and Captain Joseph H. Allen. Richmond, Virginia, October 18, 1864. 1 p., 8 x 12½ in. With printed envelope restating affidavit’s claim on the outside.
Item #21264.05, ON HOLD
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Prior to 1864 presidential election, McClellan’s former groomsman tries to even the field
SETH WILLIAMS,
Manuscript Letter Signed, to Marsena R. Patrick, October 4, 1864. 1 p.
Assistant Adjutant General Seth Williams writes to Provost Marshal M. R. Patrick that he will ask Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant to establish regulations to govern political agents in the camps prior to the 1864 elections.
Item #21386.03, $950
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Rebel Deserters Coming within the Union Lines
[HARPER’S WEEKLY],
Newspaper. Harper’s Weekly, July 16, 1864.
Item #H-7-16-1864, $350
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The Success of Black Troops At Petersburg, Virginia, Under Butler
[CIVIL WAR],
Broadside. New England Loyal Publication Society No. 200. Boston, Mass., June 27, 1864. 1 p., 9 x 10¾ in.
“They grinned and pushed on, and with a yell that told the southern chivalry their doom, [they] rolled irresistibly over and into the work.”
Item #23626, $750
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Lincoln, the War, and Emancipation
[EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION],
Newspaper. Harper’s Weekly, June 11, 1864. 16 pp., complete, disbound.
Featuring illustrations of Philadelphia Sanitary Fair Central buildings, and Generals Gouverneur Warren and Horatio Wright on the front page. “Belle Plain, Virginia General Grant’s Late Base of Supplies”; “Army of the Potomac—General Warren Rallying the Marylanders”; “President Lincoln and His Secretaries”; Centerfold: “Army of the Potomac—Struggle for the Salient, near Spottsylvania [sic], Virginia, May 12, 1864”; three illustrations of the environs of Spottsylvania [sic] Court House; “Sherman’s Advance—General Logan’s Skirmishes Advancing Toward: the Railroad at Resaca”; and “Sherman’s Advance—Position of Osterhau’s Division on Bald Hill.”
Item #H 6-11-1864, $150
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The Massacre at Fort Pillow
[HARPER’S WEEKLY],
Newspaper. Harper’s Weekly, April 30, 1864.
Item #H-4-30-1864, $250
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Board of Engineers to Review Sea Coast Fortifications, Including New York
EDWARD D. TOWNSEND,
Document Signed, printed Special Orders No. 41, Jan. 27, 1864. Creating and Appointing Abbot to a Board of Engineers to review Sea Coast Fortifications, especially New York Harbor.
Item #20577.04, $175
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New York Times Carriers’ Address Reviews the Year 1863 in Bad Verse, Including Freeing of Russia’s Serfs, and the Battle of Gettysburg
[CIVIL WAR],
Broadside, “Carriers’ Address / New York Times / To Our Patrons.” New York: Dodge and Grattan, [ca. January 1] 1864. 1 p., 15½ x 21½ in. Intricate borders and patriotic imagery.
“For in this struggle vast The liberties of man shall rise or fall, And unborn generations to us call… The laborer on England’s soil, The peasants that in Austria toil, The serfs, that over Russia’s plains Are dropping now their long worn chains…”
On or around New Year’s Day, some newspapers printed “carriers' addresses” with an appeal for a holiday gift or donation from subscribers. Newspaper carriers were often the printer’s apprentices, sometimes younger than teenagers.
Item #25040, $1,350
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1864 Campaign Blames McClellan’s Failures on Lincoln, Comparing the President’s Treatment of McClellan and Grant
[ABRAHAM LINCOLN],
Printed Document. Democrat Campaign “Document No. 12” with headings “Lincoln’s Treatment of Gen. Grant,” “Mr. Lincoln’s Treatment of Gen. McClellan,” and “The Taint of Disunion.” [New York, 1864.] 8 pp., 5¾ x 8⅝ in.
“with the same determination to divide the country unless they can secure universal abolition, we are exposed to the same dangers every day, and God only knows in what unlucky hour our ruin may be consummated... Compare his policy with McClellan’s expression of readiness to receive any State when its people offer to submit to the Union.”
This Democratic Party campaign pamphlet quotes an April 1864 letter to argue that Lincoln gave Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant free rein to conduct the war, after having interfered with and micromanaged McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign in 1862. The publication also declared that Republicans were stained with “The Taint of Disunion” and quoted from Republican speeches and editorials to insist that the Democrats were the party of “UNION AND PEACE.”
Item #24901.02, $450
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Miscegenation, or the Millennium of Abolitionism – Stirring Fear of Interracial Marriage Before 1864 Presidential Election
[ABRAHAM LINCOLN]. [RACISM],
Print. “Miscegenation, or the Millennium of Abolitionism.” Political Cartoon. New York: Bromley & Co., 1864. 1 p., 20¾ x 13⅝ in.
The second in a series of four racist political cartoons published in 1864 by Bromley & Company, which was closely affiliated with the Copperhead New York World newspaper. These prints sought to undermine Abraham Lincoln’s chances for reelection by branding him as a “miscegenationist” and playing on white fears of “race-mixing.” The cartoon scene pictures several interracial couples enjoying a day at the park, eating ice cream, discussing wedding plans, and a woman’s upcoming lecture. Two African American families have white employees, a carriage driver and footmen and a babysitter.
The only other example traced at auction brought $7,800 in 2010.
Item #25614, $6,500
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Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase Insists on Proper Funding for Soldiers
SALMON PORTLAND CHASE,
Autograph [draft] Letter Signed “S.P. Chase” as Secretary of the Treasury, to Sen. William P. Fessenden, no date [ca. January 1864], 7¾ x 9¾ in., 6 pp.
Important letter to the chair of the Senate Finance Committee on how to pay for new conscripts and volunteers following Lincoln’s call for an additional 300,000 troops. Chase’s final version went to Fessenden on 11 January 1864. Fessenden’s “infernal tax bill” was introduced in May. After more than 300 amendments, it passed in June only one vote shy of unanimity.
Item #22307, $3,750
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