The Commemoration of the American Civil War on postage stamps concerns both the actual stamps and covers used during the American Civil War, and the later postage celebrations. The latter include commemorative stamp issues devoted to the actual events and personalities of the war, as well as definitive issues depicting many noteworthy individuals who participated in the era's crucial developments.
Civil War stamps
During the Civil War, heroes of the previous national period were featured on the stamps of both sides of the conflict: Washington, Jefferson and Jackson. Following reunification, and during many decades thereafter, sporadic U. S. definitive issues appeared in honor of Civil War-related statesmen and military leaders—exclusively those, however, who had supported the Union cause.
Their Confederate counterparts remained unrecognized on American stamps until 1937, when Lee and Jackson were included among the Civil War generals and admirals pictured in the commemorative Army-Navy issues, a series promoted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (himself a stamp enthusiast). Even then, however, with the war some seven decades in the past, this inclusion of a stamp honoring Confederate generals proved controversial. After the issue was announced in May 1936, a false rumor spread that Jefferson Davis was to be portrayed along with the two officers, and on June 11 the following Associated Press dispatch appeared in the New York Sun: G. A. R. Opposes Honors For Lee. Denounces Plan to Issue Stamp Series. — At Syracuse, June 11, (A. P.) A proposition to honor Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis, on postage stamps issued bearing their likeness, was denounced by thirty-eight aging veterans of the Civil War, attending the Seventieth Annual Encampment of the United States department of the Grand Army of the Republic. Later the proposed Lee-Jackson stamp was deplored in the Ohio state legislature. After its issue, moreover, southerners inveighed against it as well, objecting that Lee’s right shoulder displayed two stars rather than three, in effect demoting him to the rank of Lieutenant General (this mistake occurred as the result of a design change). Word spread that an act of Congress to recall the stamp was in preparation, but no such legislation materialized., pp. 244–45. Indeed, given that the conflict remained so touchy a subject, it is not surprising that the Civil War and its various aspects—apart from a small number of people associated with it—was left virtually uncommemorated on stamps for almost a century.
This article follows the convention of the 1995 Civil War commemoration of 20 stamps related to the Civil War; civilians of the Civil War have been pictured beginning with the definitive issue for Abraham Lincoln after his assassination. Notable people who were Civil War participants have been included in this article including inventors, authors, and subsequent U.S. presidents.
U.S.A. and C.S.A. postal service Note: A brief note as to the significance of each subject as it is related to the American Civil War is included by each stamp and cover.
The generations who led and fought the American Civil War were born into an independent United States and they would determine whether it could continue as a united republic. Steam power on land and sea had begun to shrink the world and the telegraph moved information at the speed of electricity. In 1851, Congress reduced rates for typical uses such as printed matter to one cent, and three-cent letter postage versus five or ten-cent rates. Postal distances for each rate were extended as much as ten times, for example, from three hundred to 3,000 miles.Halmann, Alexander T., "Toppan, Carpenter, Casilear & Co. (1851–1861)", Argo: people, postage and the post, National Postal Museum, online viewed February 17, 2014. Their world was filled with mechanized innovations that included the first U.S. postage stamps produced from machine perforation to replace the cutting tasks which had been done manually. These were accompanied by innovations in paper types and printing techniques.Halmann, Alexander T., "Classic Period (1847–1893)", Argo: people, postage and the post, National Postal Museum, online viewed February 17, 2014.
Confederate stamps were generally issued imperforate to be manually cut.Kaufmann, Patricia. Confederate General Issues, Arago: people, postage & the post. Viewed February 19, 2014.A small number of ten cent stamps were perforated and released for use by the Confederate Post Office Department in 1864, but perforation quality was often poor and the experiment was abandoned as unsuccessful . Moreover, while U. S. stamps had always been steel engraved, the first Confederate issues did not employ this state-of-the-art technique, instead being lithographed (1861) and typographed (1862), before steel engraving finally was adopted in 1863. More innovations in technology and organization would develop during wartime. The north-south conflict exploding into war also ripped the nation's communication system in two. The postal system once meant to unify the country through the dissemination of information was used instead used to solidify the break.National Postal Museum The Civil War: 10 years. Viewed February 19, 2014.
During the decades preceding the war, the American Anti-Slavery Society sought to promote abolition by educating the populace on the evils of slavery, and for that purpose, mailed thousands upon thousands of anti-slavery tracts. The response in the south led the nation to the edge of disaster, only temporarily eased by the Missouri Compromise, and the Compromise of 1850. But the post roads and routes established by Congress in the late 1850s brought a stronger southern mail system, and with it a rising spirit of southern nationalism. Southern public opinion began to boil over as through the southern mails, the fiery pamphlets of the Southern Rights Association other agitators roused a Southern national sentiment. To compound the irony, solidifying of southern opinion was achieved through a mail service that never paid its own way, subsidized largely at northern expense.Benjamin, Maynard H., The History of Envelopes 2002, Envelope Manufacturers Association and EMA Foundation for Paper-Based Communications. pp. 12–13 viewed February 22, 2014.
The secession state by state was at first peaceful, with South Carolina (December 24, 1860) followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. Most Americans still felt that the issues driving "secession" resolutions would be resolved quickly. The United States Government still considered these jurisdictions part of the Union, and allowed continued use of the U.S. Postal System for mail service within those states and to outside destinations. Forming the Confederacy within a month or less brought about a change in postal policy.Charles, Harry K., "American Civil War Postage Due: North and South" , Postal History Symposium, Nov. 2012. Viewed February 19, 2014.
But at the onset of the American Civil War, Lincoln's postmaster general, Montgomery Blair faced a federal postal system regionally disabled by seceding states and disloyal postmasters. To prevent possible fraud potentially amounting to $270,000 in postage and stamped envelopes held in the South, the existing stamps were withdrawn and demonetized, and a new series of stamps was hurriedly issued. With the previous contract ending June 10, 1861, the Post Office Department signed a contract with the National Bank Note Company of New York City. Loyal postmasters in seceded states returned stamps to the Department. The new stamps were in use across the Union by mid-August 1861 with the same denominations and honoring the same people as the previous issue, but all of the designs had changed."1861 Issues" Smithsonian National Postal Museum. viewed January 31, 2014. Unlike most political appointees, Montgomery Blair took charge of the department, organizing an efficient system for the army and navy and abolishing the franking privilege for postmasters. He originated the new practices of free mail delivery and the sorting of mail on railway cars. He developed the return-receipt system for accountability, and innovated the money order system for soldiers to send and receive money from the field. Blair sponsored the first International Postal Congress in Paris in 1863.Smith, Elbert B., "Montgomery Blair", Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: a political, social and military history. , p. 240, viewed February 19, 2014.
President Jefferson Davis had appointed John Henninger Reagan on March 6, 1861, to head the new Confederate States of America Post-office Department. The United States Post Office Department continued to handle the mail of the seceded states until June 1 when the Confederate Post office took over collection and delivery throughout the Confederacy, remaining in operation for the duration of the Civil War."History of the Confederate States Post Office Service". . Viewed January 31, 2014. The most immediate concerns of the Confederate postmaster general was the organization of his department and providing for the payment of postage so that it would become self-financing. While the recalled U.S. postage could no longer be used to carry the mail by the U.S. Post Office, the Confederacy did use "appropriated" United States postal stationery for some time. General Reagan claimed he never conferred official authority on postmasters to issue interim, "provisional" stamps, but they filled a need in the absence of national Confederate stamps (which were not issued until October, 1861) and stamped envelopes.Benjamin, Maynard H., The History of Envelopes 2002, Envelope Manufacturers Association and EMA Foundation for Paper-Based Communications. p. 16. viewed February 22, 2014.
U.S.A. and C.S.A. stamps The eight United States postage stamps issued in 1861 pictured Washington (5), Franklin (2) and Jefferson (1), and envelopes signaled the sacredness of the Constitution and rebellion as treason. Confederate stamps pictured Washington, Jefferson, Jackson and Jefferson Davis (a stamp was printed depicting John C. Calhoun but was never put into use). Confederate envelopes focused on the Confederate flag and Jefferson Davis to foster a growth of Confederate nationalism, characterizing Lincoln as the anti-constitutionalist, the North as disloyal and the Southern attempt at nationhood as a renewal of the American Revolution. In the struggle for preserving their rights and liberties, George Washington was on their side.Boyd, Steven R. Patriotic Envelopes of the Civil War: the iconography of Union and Confederate covers 2010. p. 28 viewed February 23, 2014.
George Washington was revered in the Union as the Father of his country". In the Confederacy he was memorialized as the Founding Father who defeated an occupying empire.
Andrew Jackson was remembered in the Union as the president who upheld the Constitution and faced down the South Carolina Nullifiers. In the Confederacy he was the general who turned back the invader as the "hero of New Orleans".
Thomas Jefferson was revered in the Union as one of the nation's principal architects, with Abraham Lincoln hailing him as "the most distinguished politician in our history." The Confederacy claimed Jefferson as a champion of states' rights, seeing his slavery-based establishment at Monticello as an avatar of the Southern way of life.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis is pictured frequently on stamps as a symbol of national unity. United States President Abraham Lincoln is not featured until in memoriam one year after his assassination. It is considered the first U.S. commemorative stamp.Halman, Alexander T., "15-cent Lincoln", Argo: people, postage and the post , National Postal Museum, viewed February 17, 2014.
United States regular issue stamps during the Civil War.