US POSTAL HISTORY BLOG

The Confederate Period in American history begins on December 20, 1860 when South Carolina seceded from the Union. Other states would soon follow to form a confederacy, but official stamps issued by the Confederates would not appear until nearly a year later – October 1861. In the absence of a government-issued postage stamp, Confederate postmasters were faced with a dilemma: how to keep the mail (and postal finances) moving. Most of the time they simply accepted payment in cash and applied a ‘PAID’ hand stamp to the envelope. Continue reading

It was not until 1995 that the USPS issued a block of 20 first-class letter stamps with the theme “Civil War, 1861-1865, The War Between the States.” The series honors men and women on both sides of the conflict including Confederate General Robert Edward Lee, Union Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant, Union Nurse Clara Barton, and Confederate Nurse Phoebe Yates Levy Pember. Famous places as well as famous faces are part of the historic issue with designs featuring Gettysburg and Shiloh. You can see the stamps at the USPS site: http://www.usps.com/images/stamps/95/civilwar.gif

From the earliest days of the war between the States, designs began to appear on envelopes sold to the public which expressed various kinds of sentiments of patriotism and/or negative caricature-like opinions of the enemy, or some other type of related subject. This type of postal expression had never been used to any extent prior to the Civil War. Earlier illustrated envelopes to promote various causes were usually of a propaganda nature, such as Intemperance, Cheaper Postage Rates, Anti-Slavery, etc. Patriotic themes on envelopes were used sparingly prior to 1861 in connection to a few political campaigns, but they were limited in scope and intent. Then, in 1861, all Hell literally broke loose! Continue reading