Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
In a hurry? Save or print these Collection Connections as a single file.
Go directly to the collection, Civil War Treasures, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection.
Civil War Treasures is drawn from archival collections housed at the New-York Historical Society. The materials in this collection include Civil War enlistment and recruitment posters, etchings and sketches, envelopes embossed with decorations related to events or portraits of prominent personalities, photographs, and stereographs. The collection also contains a copy of the Prison Times, a newspaper produced by Confederate prisoners of war at a federal prison camp in Delaware; several of Walt Whitman’s letters written from hospital visits to wounded servicemen; a series of letters from Sarah Blunt, a nurse in hospitals at Point Lookout, Maryland, and Harper's Ferry, West Virginia; and manuscripts relating to the work of William Oland Bourne, a New York social reformer, editor, and author. Background on the types of materials included can be found at Archival Collections from which the Civil War Treasures Are Drawn.
The Special Presentation: Before, During, and After the Civil War provides a brief overview of the events of the Civil War, illustrated with graphics from the Civil War Treasures collection. This presentation could be used to introduce students to the collection.
The digitized images and documents in the collection provide access to mid-19th century archival manuscripts and popular graphics that contain a wealth of information on the political and social history of this pivotal era in American history. However, some of the materials in this collection contain language or negative stereotypes that may be offensive to some readers. Students should be prepared for encounters with such historic materials before they begin working with the collection.
Secession
))
President James Buchanan, in his last State of the Union message to Congress (December 3, 1860), denounced the movement toward secession. When Lincoln’s victory in the presidential election was confirmed, South Carolina called for a state convention and by unanimous vote seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. By February 1, 1861, six states in the lower South—Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas—followed South Carolina, leaving the Union in rapid succession. Buchanan took no overt action as these states seceded. Some of his advisors were sympathetic to the South. Secretary of War John Floyd resigned his office after being implicated in a plot to defraud the government. Before leaving office and returning to his native Virginia, Floyd transferred war materials from Pittsburgh to arsenals in Mississippi and Texas. The Confederacy seized firearms and ammunition held in federal arsenals in their respective states.
))
Before Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1861, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi had been elected and inaugurated president of the Confederate States of America. Davis called on other slave- holding states to join the CSA. Maryland and Virginia, the states that surrounded the nation’s capital, were pressured to secede, but neither had joined the Confederacy by March 1861.
The president-elect traveled by train to Washington in February, making public appearances along the route until he reached Maryland. Warned of an assassination plot in Baltimore, Lincoln traveled the last leg of his trip in secret, boarding a special train at night.
Examine the two illustrations above and answer the following questions:
- What two events in the period between the election of 1860 and Lincoln’s inauguration do these illustrations depict?
- How are the two illustrations similar? How are the two different?
- Summarize each artist’s position in one sentence.
A month after his inauguration, Lincoln considered a plan to supply Fort Sumter. South Carolina had stopped all supplies from reaching the fort, which was strategically situated on an island in the middle of Charleston’s harbor. South Carolina called upon Major Anderson, commander of the fort, to surrender. When he refused, the shore batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, beginning the Civil War. After heavy bombardment, the fort surrendered the following day.
News of the attack on the Union garrison at Fort Sumter aroused patriotic fervor in many Northern communities. William Kachline of Boylestown, Pennsylvania, had broadsides printed announcing the sale of his personal property as he proclaimed his intention to go to Charleston to fight traitors. Examine the broadside. Do you believe Kachline might have had another purpose for printing the broadside, other than announcing a sale? If so, what do you think that purpose was?
))
Within a week, Virginia seceded from the Union. In turn, the western counties of the state organized a pro-Union government that was admitted to the Union as the state of West Virginia in 1863. Many Northerners believed that Virginia had been coerced to secede by “fire-eaters” who had begun to clamor for secession a decade earlier. Former Governor John Wise, who had sent the state militia to Harpers Ferry during the John Brown raid in 1859, was one of the vocal advocates of secession. Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina followed Virginia and joined the Confederacy by May 1861.
What does this envelope tell you about Northern views of Virginia’s secession?
The Union and Confederacy both used the memory of George Washington as a rallying point for their cause. Examine a Union and a Confederate pictorial envelope invoking the memory of Washington. Why do you think both sides invoked the memory of George Washington? Can you think of a leader opposing sides in a current debate on an important issue might invoke? What characteristics make some leaders icons for people with widely varying views?