Union Civil War Patriotic Covers: An Overview

From the outset of the Civil War, printers in the North published an array of envelopes and matching letter sheets adorned with symbols of the flag, Miss Liberty, an American Eagle and a multitude of other images. Often these images were complemented by various mottoes or phrases. Known as Civil War Patriotic Envelopes, thousands of differently designed envelopes and hundreds of adhesive stickers intended to be attached to blank envelopes were printed and tens of thousands sold. About 250 different Confederate designs were published (part of them by Northern printers) and far smaller quantities sold in the South. Civil War Patriotic Envelopes, both Union and Confederate, are well known to philatelists. They have, however, escaped the notice of historians. The Civil War Patriotic envelopes, nonetheless, are an invaluable resource. In particular, the Union Patriotic Covers and the images on them-which included flags, cannons, eagles, globes, soldiers, prominent figures, women, and a host of others-quite literally show us popular opinion on key issues in the North from the bombardment of Fort Sumter to the end of the War four years later. The patriotic envelopes of the North do not tell us what caused the war. Rather, they show us that the issue motivating men and women, military and civilian, to support the war effort was Union. The dominant theme of the Northern Patriotic Envelopes is the preservation of a single nation of 33 (after December 1861, 34) states. The images on the covers and the mottoes and verses that accompany them document that popular support for President Lincoln's initial call for troops and the ensuing war was, and remained, rooted in the belief that "the Union must and shall be preserved." The Union Patriotics also offer additional insight into an array of attitudes among men and women in the North. Specifically, the covers document popular attitudes regarding the roles of men and women, attitudes toward African-Americans, and they provide insight regarding popular beliefs about the Constitution, the rule of law, religion in American life, and a variety of other issues. These statements are based on an analysis of the covers contained in three published sources. The George Walcott Collection of Used Civil War Patriotic Covers1 is a descriptive compilation of approximately 3,000 postally used patriotic covers, Union and Confederate, as well as several dozen other Civil War era envelopes. It lists briefly the envelopes and includes a partial photograph of most of the covers listed. The collection of George Walcott, a New York businessman who assembled the material in the 1920s, The George Walcott Collection served as an auction catalogue when the collection was sold in 1934. In the 1970s, The George Walcott Collection was complemented by the work of Robert W. Grant. His The Handbook of Civil War Patriotic Envelopes and Civil War History Vol. I2 was the first of a projected multi-volume set (never completed) on Civil War postal history. It identifies the printers and distributors of the envelopes, includes a brief biography of many of the printers, devises a classification system for the covers, and contains pictures or sketches of a select number of the covers. Although the Grant work provides much useful material for historians, it and The George Walcott Catalogue have been materially supplanted by William Weiss' Catalog of Union Civil War Patriotic Envelopes.3 Weiss' volume includes photographs of over five thousand envelopes, develops a more comprehensive classification system for them than did Grant, includes a description and notation of any verse, motto, or saying, and identifies the publisher of each envelope when available. The data presented in the Weiss volume is the basic source for our analysis Of the covers-in-this essay. Before considering the significance of these covers, we need to clarify exactly what is a Civil War Patriotic envelope. A Civil War Patriotic envelope is simply an envelope or cover of any size or color on which a printer has imprinted a patriotic design. …