VIENNA, Va., April 19, 2012 — A new “forever stamp” will be issued on April 24, the second in the sesquicentennial series of postage stamps by the U. S. Postal Service in connection with the 150 year anniversary of the 1861-1865 conflict.
These two stamps, which will be issued in the same format as the previous ones in sheets of 12, feature two significant battles of the war. The first set of stamps commemorate the naval assault, which was at the heart of the Battle of New Orleans, started on April 25 and finally ending on May 1 when Union General Benjamin “Beast” Butler took over the besieged city.
The attack was part of Gen. Winfield Scott’s “Anaconda Plan,” whereby various ports and cities were to be seized, leaving the Southern cities defenseless. With the all the forts captured, the area was ripe for being overrun and the end of trade, finance, and shipbuilding.
The naval battle pictured on the stamp is from an 1862 lithograph by Currier and Ives, which (depending on one’s point of view) was entitled “The Splendid Naval Triumph on the Mississippi, April 24, 1862.” According to the Post Office, the capture “cost Farragut a mere 37 killed and 149 wounded.” Men were definitely disposable.
The cost to the Confederacy was considerable, since they were the ones being fired upon by the mortar boats, resulting in 672 killed and wounded as well as 6,000 captured.
The reverse of the sheet of stamps includes comments on the war by Union Adm. David G. Farragut, as well as Walt Whitman and the New York Times. It also includes Charles Carroll Sawyer’s lyrics from the period’s popular song, “Weeping, Sad and Lonely,” also known as “When This Cruel War is Over” with music composed by Henry Tucker. The lyrics are as follows and could be varied depending on which side was using them:
Dearest Love, do you remember?
New Civil War battles Forever stamps
When we last did meet?
How you told me that you loved me kneeling at my feet.
How proud you stood before me in your suit of blue [grey]
When you vowed to me and country ever to be true? [nevermore to stray]
Chorus: Weeping, sad and lonely, hopes and fears, how vain!
When this cruel war is over praying then to meet again.
When the summer breeze is sighing, mournfully along,
Or when autumn leaves are falling, sadly breathes this song.
Oft in dreams I see thee lying on the battle plain,
Lonely, wounded, even dying, calling out in vain.
If amid the din of battle, nobly you should fall,
1862, Antietam Union burial detail
Far away from those who love you, none to hear you call
Who would whisper words of comfort, who would soothe your pain?
Ah! The many cruel fancies, ever in my brain.
But our Country called you, Darling, angels cheer your way;
While our nation’s sons are fighting, we can only pray.
Nobly strike for God and Liberty, let all nations see,
How we loved our starry banner, emblem of the free.
Weeping, sad and lonely, hopes and fears, how vain!
When this cruel war is over praying then to meet again.
Battle of New Orleans Image: Duval
The second stamp portrays the Battle of Antietam, or Sharpsburg, Md. as it was known in the South, which tactically was declared a draw. No one actually won, and with a total count of dead, wounded and missing at over 13,724 for the Confederates, and 12,410 for the Yankees, it would be the bloodiest day in American history. As one authority said, “Strategically it was a Union victory and a Union tragedy.”
Its major impact, it is said, was President Lincoln’s issuance of a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 23, 1862. That, too, is more theoretical than legalistic. It specifically freed all slaves in Southern states; nothing was said about those in so-called Border States because Lincoln did not want to lose what loyalty he had in those areas.
And nothing was said about slavery, which was alive and well in states where the Union had been victorious. A definite mixed bag. Also, in those states where the slaves were declared free, the law could not be enforced until the war was won.
Antietam/Sharpsburg was one of the important military operations of the war, since it gave a major boost to Northern morale, the high number of casualties notwithstanding.
The stamp features a reproduction of an 1887 painting by a noted Swedish illustrator, Thure de Thulstrup, and was one of a series of popular prints commissioned in the 1880s by Boston publisher Louis Prang & Co. to commemorate the War. Art Director Phil Jordan created the stamps.
The stamps, together with other Civil War related items, can be purchased directly from your local Post Office, or may be ordered online through the link www.usps.com/shop
Forthcoming commemorative stamps will be issued during the sesquicentennial period, which runs through 1865.
Read more of Martha’s columns on The Civil War at the Communities at the Washington Times.
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