Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) January 2011 America at Mid-19th Century: Abolition, Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction - An Illustrated Thesis James Schiele Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd Recommended Citation Schiele, James, "America at Mid-19th Century: Abolition, Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction - An Illustrated Thesis" (2011). All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). 468. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/468 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY University College Department of American Culture Studies AMERICA AT MID-19TH CENTURY: ABOLITION, CIVIL WAR, EMANCIPATION, AND RECONSTRUCTION AN ILLUSTRATED THESIS by James E. Schiele A Thesis presented to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts May 2011 Saint Louis, Missouri copyright by James E. Schiele 2011 Acknowledgements I wish to acknowledge the assistance that I received from my faculty Thesis Committee at Washington University in St. Louis: Douglas B. Dowd, Thesis Committee Chair, Professor of Art Iver Bernstein, Professor of History Steven M. Fazzari, Professor of Economics Wayne D. Fields, Lynne Cooper Harvey Distinguished Professor of English Gary J. Miller, Professor of Political Science I also would like to thank the following University staff: Anne Posega, Maria Schlafly, Christine Moseley, and Nancy Galofré, as well as Sue Rainey, former editor of Imprint, the journal of the American Historical Print Collectors Society. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ii List of Illustrations iv Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Understanding the Impact of the Illustrated Press in 19th Century America 3 Chapter 2: The Art of Plate Making and Printing 26 Chapter 3: Important Illustrators and Publications of the 19th Century 41 Chapter 4: Significant Battles and the Impact of the Emancipation Proclamation 146 Chapter 5: From Custer to the Sea 164 Appendix 180 Description of Illustrations 185 Bibliography 190 Notes 195 iii List of Illustrations Illustration # Description Page # 1 Lincoln, Proclamation of Emancipation Front Cover 2 Reading the Emancipation Proclamation Frontispiece Chapter 1 3 Number of Periodicals Published in the United States 16 4 Slave Sale in Charleston, S.C. 17 5 John Brown 18 6 Charles Sumner 19 7 Harriet Beecher Stowe 20 8 Uncle Tom’s Cabin 21 9 Eminent Opponents of the Slave Power 22 10 Henry Ward Beecher 23 11 William Lloyd Garrison 24 12 Political “Blondins” Crossing Salt River 25 Chapter 2 13 The Bird 34 14 Freedom to the Slaves 35 15 Battle of Fredericksburg 36 16 Custer 37 17 Lincoln Elected 38 18 Battle of Chancellorsville 39 19 The Offering 40 Chapter 3 20 Harper’s Ferry 116 21 Battle of Bull Run 117 21a Retreat of Our Troops from Bull Run, By Moonlight, Colonel Blenker’s Brigade Covering 118 22 The Bombardment of Fredericksburg by the Army of the Potomac 119 23 The Battle of Gettysburg 120 24 Gettysburg (Repulse of Longstreet’s Assault) 121 25 Major General George G. Meade at the Battle of Gettysburg 122 26 Storming Fort Wagner 123 27 The War in America: Assault on Fort Wagner 124 28 Compromise With the South—Dedicated to the Chicago Convention 125 29 Arrival of a Federal Column at a Plantation House in Dixie 126 30 This Is a White Man’s Government 127 31 Army of the Potomac—The Struggle for the Salient Near Spotsylvania, Virginia 128 32 Contrabands Coming Into Camp in Consequence of the Proclamation 129 iv Illustration # Description Page # 33 Scene On a Mississippi River Steamer—The Parting Song 130 34 Gen. Robert E. Lee Leaves McLean House 131 35 On the March to the Sea 132 36 Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville 133 37 McClellan at Antietam 134 38 Emigrants Crossing the Plains 135 39 Massachusetts Militia Passing Through Baltimore 136 40 Expulsion of Negroes and Abolitionists 137 41 A Bivouac Fire On the Potomac 138 42 The War for the Union 139 Edwin Forbes 43 The Pontoon Bridges 140 44 A Cavalry Charge 141 45 Going into Action 142 Currier & Ives 46 Rumsey’s Darktown Hook and Ladder Corps 143 47 Battle of Gettysburg, PA, July 3rd, 1863 144 48 First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation Before the Cabinet 145 Chapter 4 49 Battle of Antietam 162 50 Exciting Scene in the House of Representatives . on the Passage of the Amendment to the Constitution Abolishing Slavery For Ever 163 Chapter 5 51 The Ghost Dance 175 52 Brigadier General George A. Custer 176 53 The Last Stand 177 54 Sitting Bull 178 55 Battle of the Little Big Horn—The Coulee 179 Appendix 56 The Gettysburg Mural at Muhlenberg College 184 Final Pages 57 General Sherman (with signature) 202 58 General Grant (with signature) 203 Back Cover 59 On the Southern Plains Back Cover v Introduction If socialism had ever been considered as part of the culture of America, it was stillborn on the fields of Antietam and Gettysburg. This was the final message delivered by British military historian and author, John Keegan, in his 2009 book entitled The American Civil War.1 The Civil War, fought on 10,000 battlegrounds between April of 1861 and April 1865, was the largest engagement of arms fought anywhere in the 19th century and likely the largest that will ever be engaged on the North American continent. To understand the significance of the proliferation of illustrations that poured out of the presses of the Illustrated London News, Harper’s Weekly, and Leslie’s Illustrated News, it is important to understand the cultural revolution that was taking place in America as its citizens, North and South, grappled with issues of slavery, states’ rights, and union. Illustrations played a vital role in shaping public opinion; that is the underlying premise of this thesis. In the sometimes-called “Second American Revolution,” Americans were awakened to issues that heretofore had not seriously interrupted their daily lives that largely revolved around an agricultural livelihood or an urban life. In a nation of some 33 million, only around 16,000 had chosen the military as a career, and they were mostly posted in the West. John Keegan, a premier English military historian who taught at Sandhurst and lectured at Princeton, keenly observed that while traditional officer corps were establishments in England, France, and Germany, no such institutions existed in antebellum America. Where concepts of socialism brought to light by Karl Marx permeated the roots of European society and made lasting, if not always successful impressions, the United States was uniquely impervious to such theory and practice. 1 Jacksonian Democracy had made the stronger impression and as armed conflict to resolve the issues of slavery, states’ rights, and union appeared to be ever more likely, sectional majorities would end up deciding whether those United States would remain half slave and half free or whether a more cohesive Union would survive. The War itself would decide the issues. The James E. and Joan Singer Schiele Historical Print Collection contains over three hundred 19th century prints; the vast majority are original lithographs, chromolithographs, metal plate engravings, wood engravings, etchings, three John Stuart Curry charcoal and ink sketches, and some Frederick Remington late 19th century pieces. The Schiele Collection is housed at the Olin Library, Washington University in St. Louis, and is on permanent exhibit in Special Collections under the direction of Anne Posega. All sixty of the pieces displayed in this thesis are part of the Schiele Collection. 2 Chapter 1 Understanding the Impact of the Illustrated Press in 19th Century America The following events have been recorded to tell a story. The story, illustrated by pictures, is a tale of a nation in turmoil, a crisis that might have remained unresolved and the character of the men and women who stood up to the trauma of a divided nation to find resolution. The story also includes some information about the illustrators and artists who painted pictures from memory or from their own sometimes harrowing experiences on the battlefields. These pictures were printed thousands of times; hundreds of thousands saw them as a way to help resolve their own feelings about a nation divided into a cultural landscape in which there was no right or wrong. Did the Constitution prevail on such a contentious issue as slavery, or did the “better angels of our nature” prevail? In 2011 the United States recognized the 150th year of the war that decided whether the nation would remain half slave and half free. Illustrations by talented and dedicated artists never determined an outcome on the field or at the polls, but sometimes opinions could be easily turned by discussion that followed those pictures. Many books have been published over the last century that illustrate the Civil War in America in words and pictures. Today, in the 21st century, books continue to be published that contain beautiful engravings, lithographs, and etchings taken from a variety of sources that depict the lives of those who made history and those whose lives were strewn on the fields of battle during this tumultuous time. The concept of America changed in the eyes of those who lived in the mid-19th century, to some extent driven by events that were reported not only in print but also in pictures. 3 Woodblock engraved illustrations in papers and periodicals began their meteoric ascendancy in the 1850s and took off during the 1860s (see Ill.