1861 2011 Aristocrats of Confederate Philately EXHIBITED AT WESTPEX, SAN FRANCISCO APRIL 29-30, MAY 1, 2011
150 Years Ago SCOTT R. TREPEL One of three recorded New Orleans 5 Red color errors on bluish paper. WESTPEX 2011 To be held at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel Friday, April 29 10-6 Saturday, April 30 10-6 Sunday, May 1 10-4 For information about WESTPEX, go to www.westpex.com SPECIAL NON-COMPETITIVE EXHIBITS OF CONFEDERATE STATES Frame 45 The D.K. Collection of Confederate Postmasters Provisionals Frames 43-44 The Steven C. Walske Collection of Civil War Blockade Run Mail Frame 46 The Mount Lebanon Postmaster s Provisional Frame 47 The Confederate Number One Pane of 100 OPPOSITE The only known complete pane of Confederate 5 First General Issue. The American Civil War, fought from 1861 to 1865, established once and for all that no human could be enslaved on American soil and that no state could leave the Union. It also demonstrated that the natural resources, industrial capacity and financial capital of the North doomed the South from the very start, despite the gallantry and ingenious fighting tactics of the Confederate military. The Civil War has been studied, taught and reenacted by countless numbers of people. It still creates strong emotions and conflict. As recently as the year 2000, the Confederate battle flag over South Carolina s statehouse was removed after strong protests from the African-American community. In studying the postal history and philatelic aspects of the Civil War, we are examining how Americans, torn apart by politics and battle, managed to maintain the lines of communication through two separate postal systems. When we collect, examine, classify and display Confederate postal artifacts, we are not celebrating the politics or racial policies of a defeated government. We are attempting to understand how people Americans coped with the disruption, the deprivation and the isolation caused by this horrific war. Who but the most emotionally numb and socially adrift person could feel nothing when holding a Confederate envelope made from wallpaper, a piece of mail that crossed the Union naval blockade, a letter written from inside the walls of a Federal prison camp, or a tattered cover carried in the oiled sachel of a Confederate courier crossing the well-guarded Mississippi River at night? Some of the Aristocrats of Confederate philately have been gathered at Westpex to honor the 150th anniversary of the first guns of the Civil War. These important non-competitive displays join other exhibits in the competitive arena, giving the public a rare chance to see many of the significant postal artifacts of the Confederacy in one place. The five frames of Aristocrats comprise highlights of the D.K. collection of Postmasters Provisionals, the Steven C. Walske two-frame display of Civil War Blockade Run Mail, the unique Mount Lebanon Postmaster s Provisional and the only surviving pane of Confederate Number One. This exhibition catalogue has been published to memorialize this unusual gathering of Confederate Aristocrats and to inspire others to collect this fascinating area of American postal history.
The D.K. Collection of Confederate Postmasters Provisionals FRAME 45 (16 PAGES) The Confederate States Post Office Department assumed control of the mails in seceded states on June 1, 1861. The old United States rates were replaced by a two-tier structure: 5 per half ounce for distances up to 500 miles, and 10 per half ounce over 500 miles. Beginning June 1, U.S. stamps and stationery were no longer valid for postage in the Confederacy. From June until the first Confederate government stamps were made available in October and at later times when wartime conditions disrupted stamp distribution Southern postmasters resorted to provisional means of prepayment. Handstamped markings were applied to letters and envelopes when payment was accepted at the post office or through charge accounts. Some post offices prepared and sold envelopes bearing markings to indicate that postage had been prepaid. At least 53 Confederate post offices issued adhesive stamps and press-printed envelopes. These are the only types of Confederate Postmasters Provisionals shown in this exhibit. Before the war, Southern citizens grew accustomed to the attractive engraving and convenient perforations of U.S. stamps. During the war, Southerners could consider themselves lucky if they had any form of adhesive stamps or printed stationery available for use. Many Confederate Postmasters Provisionals were hand-made by the postmaster, using woodcuts or postal markings. Some were set from loose type and printed at the local newspaper office or commercial printing establishment. A few were elaborately designed and printed from woodcuts, lithographic stones or stereotype plates. There are no engraved Confederate provisionals. The D.K. collection emphasizes the peculiar varieties arising from the primitive methods of production, such as tête-bêche pairs, typographic errors and color errors. Among this group are the Baton Rouge 2 and 5 McCcrmick spelling errors, tête-bêche pairs from Athens and Memphis, the New Orleans 2 printed on both sides, and the New Orleans 5 Red color errors (five of the seven recorded examples). Also displayed are unusual covers, such as the New Orleans 5 Southern Letter Unpaid, the Nashville 10 on an Adams Express cover, and the Nashville 5 Hanging Lincoln cartoon cover.
The Steven C. Walske Collection of Civil War Blockade Run Mail FRAMES 43-44 (32 PAGES) On April 19, 1861, President Lincoln proclaimed the blockade of the southern coasts. Stretching from Virginia to Texas, the blockaded area encompassed over 3,500 miles of coastline and nearly 200 harbors and river openings. Clearly, the U.S. forces could not cover every point of the coastline, so the Federal Blockade Strategy Board set priorities to stem the flow of goods and mail to and from the Confederacy. The North correctly reasoned that only deep-water ports with established commercial interests and reliable rail and/or river connections to the interior could serve as effective entry points. They highlighted thirteen ports as the major points of concern, and developed plans to either capture or close them. By mid-1862, all but four were effectively closed by Union occupations of the ports or of key forts in their harbors. The 32-page Walske exhibit shows examples of mail carried on different Confederate blockade runner routes, including Havana-New Orleans, Havana- Galveston, Nassau-Wilmington, Nassau-Charleston, Nassau-Savannah, Bermuda-Wilmington, Bermuda-Charleston, Haifax-Wilmington, Matamoros-Galveston and Matamoros- Victoria (Texas). The examples of routes are followed by Prize Court mail from captured blockade runners and post-blockade covers.
The Mount Lebanon Postmaster s Provisional FRAME 46 (EXHIBITED BY AN ANONYMOUS COLLECTOR) Mount Lebanon, Louisiana, is located in Bienville Parish. It was settled in 1847 by immigrants from South Carolina. The Mount Lebanon postmaster during the war (1859-65) was W. F. Wells, publisher of the Louisiana Baptist newspaper. The provisional stamps were printed by Wells and used briefly in June 1861. Mount Lebanon had a wartime population of less than 1,000, and it is unlikely that the stamp saw widespread use. The Mount Lebanon provisional is believed to be the sole example of a mirror-image stamp in all of philately. The stamp was printed from a piece of wood with a relatively smooth surface. Lines were incised into the wood and strips were removed to create the borders surrounding each stamp. Horizontal and vertical ruled lines were added within the borders of each subject, and a circle was cut into the center. At this point the engraver took printer s type and hammered the letters spelling Mt. Lebanon La. around the circle, and the numeral 5 was impressed into the center. The enlarged photo shown here in upright position clearly shows the effect of this process the printed stamp is a mirror image of the right-reading wood engraving. Anyone familiar with printing knows that the plate used to print an image must mirror the intended design, a principle of typography that was missed or ignored by this stamp s creator. The single known example of the Mount Lebanon provisional shows parts of three adjoining subjects. A second impression appears to the right of the primary impression, indicating that the woodblock was impressed more than once on a sheet of paper. The Confederate Number One Pane FRAME 47 (EXHIBITED BY AN ANONYMOUS COLLECTOR) This pane of 100 5 Green stamps was printed from a lithographic stone comprising 200 subjects. The stone was built up from four transfers of a 50-subject (10 horizontal by 5 vertical) intermediate transfer unit. More than one stone was used to print the Confederate 5 1861 General Issue. This pane of 100 comes from the left side of a sheet printed from Stone 1. At one time this pane of 100 was part of an intact sheet of 200 owned by Senator Ernest R. Ackerman. The Ackerman sheet was divided into two panes of 100, and the right pane was further divided into two halfpanes of 50 stamps. Therefore, this is the only known surviving pane of Confederate Number One.