410
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(MILITARY—CIVIL WAR.)
Carte-de-visite full length image of a black
trooper, his musket at his side; reverse bears the logo of S.B.Brown of
Providence, R.I.
Image toned with some soil; faint horizontal crease at the center.
Np, Nd circa 1970’s
[500/700]
This photograph was taken in Providence, Rhode Island. It is therefore possible that this trooper was
part of the Rhode Island 14th Heavy Artillery. Eighteen-hundred Black soldiers were recruited from
Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and other Northern states. Seventy-seven white officers joined
the regiment. The recruits were brought to Providence where they received training on Dexter Field
throughout the summer and fall of 1863. In the fall they were assigned to Dutch Island to defend the
West Passage in Narragansett Bay, manning eight artillery pieces on the island. In early 1864 they
were sent to the coast of Texas and later in the Winter, assimilated into the 11th U.S. Heavy
Artillery regiment, they were posted to the defenses of New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
410
A FEW WORDS ON THE FOLLOWING LOTS OF
PATRIOTIC CIVIL WAR COVERS
From the onset of the Civil War, enterprising publishers, printers and stationers began to
design and print patriotic postal covers on both sides of the Mason Dixon Line. The early
covers were generally simple and “patriotic,” incorporating the flag and some words
regarding the preservation of the Union on the one side, and the glory and values of the
“Old South” on the other. However, after the fall of 1861, and the prospect of a protracted
war; the covers became more and more creative. Some celebrated battles and generals etc.,
some were humorous, while others became increasingly harsh. Instead of simple patriotic
messages, biting personal attacks on Lincoln or Jefferson Davis began to emerge. Designers
were quick to take advantage of events that became the butt of satire. For example; the lib-
eration of vast numbers of slaves on the Carolina coast by General Butler, dubbed
“Contrabands of war,” gave birth to an entire genre of racist covers. The election of 1864
provided ample material for a host of covers from both sides, not to mention covers pro-
duced by the so-called “Copperheads,” northerners who sympathized with the
Confederacy. It is estimated that by the end of the war, at least 200 publishers had pro-
duced close to 5000 different covers. The following lots include some of the scarcest
known covers, both Union and Confederate.
I...,214,215,216,217,218,219,220,221,222,223 225,226,227,228,229,230,231,232,233,234,...310