CIVIL WAR STAMPS
In a new series on the stamps that divided nations, we take a look at the designs used on both sides of the American Civil War
Antebellum America
The US Civil War began in 1860 with the secession of eleven southern states: first South Carolina, then Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina. But the two halves of America had been growing apart for over half a century.
In 1861, the population of the US was 31.5m people, of whom nearly 4m were slaves.
The Northern States were modernising, diversifying and investing heavily in transport infrastructure. Agriculture was still the main economic sector but it was highly mechanised, while the banking and insurance industries, newspaper and magazine publishing and telegraph communications continued to expand.
In contrast, the economy of the Southern States depended on large farms – plantations – growing mainly cotton but also sugar and tobacco. They invested heavily in slaves rather than roads, railways or factories. And as the price of cotton rose, that investment paid off. By 1860, 60% of the wealthiest men in America were Southerners. The Southern states were keen to see an extension of slavery into new territories acquired by America, while a growing number of Northerners wanted to see it eradicated. The debate became polarised and conflict was inevitable.
South Carolina seceded from the Union on 20 December 1860, five states followed them and a Confederate Provisional Government was formed on 4 February 1861.
The war broke out early on 12 April 1861, when the Confederate Army shelled Fort Sumter, at the entrance to the harbour of Charleston, South Carolina and the last four states above joined the secession.
The Post Office splits in two
The US Post Office was benefiting from a series of Acts which gave it a monopoly over letter-carrying services and put private competitors out of business. But operating costs were high and profits were hard to find. Revenue from the Southern States was welcome and for the first seven weeks
of the war, postal services continued as normal.
However, the Southern States had been planning a mail service of their own; the Confederate States Post Office was established on 21 February 1861 and took over postal services in the South from 1 June.
The North soon woke up to the new reality. Postal deliveries ceased at the end of May, which stopped any flow of seditious Southern propaganda but it was also feared that stocks of US Stamps held in Southern post offices (worth a reported $270,000) could be smuggled North and sold to finance the war effort. All this coincided with the renewal of the printing contract with Topham Carpenter which expired on 1 June 1861.
The Post Office had also received a quote from the National Bank Note Company (NBC) to print the stamps for 30% less. They therefore killed two birds with one stone. The NBC would produce a set of stamps with new designs – and all stamps prior to that would be demonetised. This remains the only demonetisation in US history. All issues from 1861 onwards are still valid for postage.
The Southern stamps
Confederate President Jefferson Davis chose an excellent Postmaster General in John Reagan. He recruited a number of the US Post Office’s top people and his department was the only one in the
Confederacy to function effectively throughout the war.
Needing funds to get the office up and running, he set postal rates higher than before – after 1863, these included a 40c rate for ‘Transmississippi’ mail – letters that would be smuggled through the Union barricade. He then commissioned stamps from lithographers Hoyer and Ludwig of Richmond VA but until they were delivered, local offices had to fend for themselves. Gibbons lists 41 who produced stamps. Some are simple handstamps applied to letters, others are applied to existing stocks. Some are woodblocks, others were produced by jobbing printers or newspaper offices. All are rare, expensive and frequently forged.
The general issues come in ten basic designs, printed by five printers in all three processes: letterpress, litho and line engraved.
US sources state that they came into use from 16 October, with a 5c green followed by a 10c blue. But Hoyer and Ludwig had no experience of printing stamps, they made only small batches of ink and a shortage of lithographic stones meant that every one was cleaned after each print run. So when more stamps were required, the plates had to be remade with a new set of transfers. This means lots of variety for specialists today – but it didn’t give Reagan the quality product he was looking for. He therefore sent a man over to London to commission De La Rue to fill the gap until a local printer could do the job properly. These remain the only US Stamps to be printed overseas. Reagan wanted line engraved but his instructions got scrambled in transit and De La Rue produced a 5c in blue printed letterpress and later, a 1c orange which was never issued.
In all, De La Rue supplied 12 million copies of this stamp plus plates and supplies of ink and paper. The first two consignments made it through the blockade. However, the third consignment – on the blockade runner Bermuda – was intercepted by the Union warship Mercedita. Its cargo of 5 million stamps was destroyed and the plate impounded. After being lost for a few decades, it is now held by the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.
A further 38 million 5c stamps were locally printed from De La Rue plates and can be distinguished by their poorer impressions and locally made papers.
Reagan finally got a line engraved set in 1863, designed along classic American lines and printed by Archer and Daly of Richmond VA. But it was all too late. In 1864, when Richmond was threatened, printing was transferred to Keating and Ball of Columbia SC, who produced 10c stamps until the town was burned down by General Sherman. Keating’s dedicated employees dumped all the plates in the Congaree River.
The Union stamps
The stamps produced by NBC do not differ markedly from the previous set. The same people are on the same values in similar colours and all facing the same directions as before, except Thomas Jefferson (5c) who now faces left.
NBC presented a first set of proofs in August 1861, a remarkably quick turnaround given the technology of the day. These are known as the ‘Premieres Gravures’ over here and the ‘August Issue’ in the US. The Post Office approved the 24c and 30c stamps but made detail changes to the rest. Since supplies of 10c stamps were running low, the unmodified 10c plate was put to press. All the other proofs were supposed to have been destroyed but a few leaked onto the philatelic market and the whole set receives a Gibbons listing.
The revised designs were in use from late August 1862 until the Pictorial set come out in 1869; issues up to 1867 do not have grilles to prevent re-use. Papers vary from thin and brittle to quite thick and the range of shades includes the 3c in ‘Pigeon’s Blood Pink’ a rare and highly sought-after stamp.
Colours were changed in 1863 with the release of a 2c black for bulk mail (Andrew Jackson). A 15c grey black followed in 1866, this was a mourning stamp for President Lincoln, who had been assassinated the previous year.
The impact on philately
The causes and effects of the Civil War are still felt in America today.
US auctioneer and columnist John Apfelbaum states ‘It is no coincidence that the Red States and the Blue States of the last several elections largely correspond to the North and the South of antebellum US history.’ The division even extended to the world of stamps. After the war, collectors in the South wanted no part of northern philately, so they set up the Southern Philatelic Society instead. It was only after the Second World War that they changed their name to the Society of Philatelic Americans.
The war also caused a massive expansion in collectable material, particularly postal history.
All wars do this to some extent. Mail from soldiers on a rapidly changing front line, censored mail, letters home from field hospitals, and prison camps, too. At one point, both sides held a total of 1.5 million POWS.
A unique by-product of the US Civil War was the mass of blockade run covers.
The blockade covered 3,500 miles
of the US coastline and caused a massive expansion of the US Navy, which was countered by a fleet of fast, agile blockade-runners. Most of them were bound for Britain and many of their owners or operators were British, so they could put in at Colonial ports. But it was dangerous work: 1,500 of their ships were sunk or captured during the war.
Another unique aspect is the war of the covers, conducted through the design and use of ‘patriotic’ envelopes. Many thousands of designs were produced during the war. They were more commonly used in the North and the sentiments expressed run the gamut from noble to brutal.
Encased stamps
The scale of the war effort caused an increase in demand for metals and prices began to rise. This had repercussions for the coinage, which was suddenly worth 20% more as metal than as currency. Shortages were inevitable and exacerbated by the fact that the lowest value note was $5: the ‘dollar bill’ did not appear until 1862.
Loose stamps were frequently used as coins and permission for this was officially granted by Congress, but they were hardly suitable. That was until 1862, when an entrepreneur called John Gault proposed encasing stamps in a case to look – and act – like a coin. These were to be sold in to retailers at a 20% premium and the costs of production would be further defrayed by selling advertising space on the reverse. But the idea was not popular with the post office and they never took off with retailers or the public. When fractional bills were introduced in 1863 (banknotes with values less than a dollar) they killed it off altogether. Of the 750,000 issued, only around 7,000 survive.
Commemorating the war
The war produced a new pantheon of American heroes who have been appearing on its stamps from the early 20th century. But it took until 1937 for two Southern leaders (Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson) to join them.
The conflict itself has featured on a number of sets. The most striking was the set of five to commemorate the centenaries of major battles, with one stamp per year from 1961 to 1965. A set of 1995 featured twenty personalities of the war and was available as a large miniature sheet. The Sesquicentennial stamps (2011 to 2015) followed the earlier tradition – but with two stamps per year featuring the key engagements. Illustrations are taken from contemporary paintings or prints.
Thanks to Robert Siegel Auction Galleries, United States Philatelic Classics Society, USPS, John Apfelbaum, and Stanley Gibbons for images and information.