AMERICAN WARS--United States--Civil War--Confederate
Stamps--Hispano-American War--Vera Cruz--Canada--Mexican
Revolution--South and Central America.
UNITED STATES. In December, 1860, South Carolina in convention
repealed the act adopting the Constitution of the United States, a
move which was promptly followed by other Southern States, and led
to the American Civil War. On February 18, 1861, a provisional
Confederate Government under Jefferson Davis was set up at Montgomery,
Alabama, with all the appendages of military and civil administration,
including a post office department. The Confederate Government later
moved to Richmond, Virginia, and throughout the long and bloody war
from 1861-1865 the Confederate States maintained a separate postal
service, with separate postage stamps. Judge John H. Reagan was
Postmaster-General.
The United States postage stamps current at the beginning of the war
were the beautiful series of 1851-60, and as large quantities remained
in stock at Southern post offices, these issues were demonetized and
replaced hurriedly by the now rare _premi[`e]re gravures_ of August,
1861, which were promptly superseded by the more finished designs of
September, 1861.
The Confederate States stamps lack the excellence of engraving
and printing of the United States stamps, a deficiency due to the
difficult conditions under which they were produced in the country or
imported from England. But what they lack in this respect is more than
amply compensated by their historic significance and associations. The
home produced stamps were prepared under the stress of invasion;
the foreign manufactured ones and much of the material for the local
productions had to be brought through the blockade. In the annals of
philately there are no more exciting records than those which tell
of the capture of a ship bearing three De La Rue plates and 400,000
dollars worth of Confederate States stamps, which the agent of Davis's
Government managed to throw overboard, or of the despatch (preparatory
to the evacuation of Richmond) of printing press, dies, plates, and
stamps to Columbia, in South Carolina, where they arrived only to be
destroyed in the holocaust following upon General Sherman's capture
of the city. The different designs of the successive issues of
Confederate stamps are shewn in _Figs._ 287-295; their history we have
dealt with at length in "Confederate States of America: Government
Postage Stamps."[7]
[Footnote 7: Melville Stamp Books, No. 19. Stanley Gibbons, Ltd.,
London, 1913.]
Some bogus stamps purporting to have been used in various temporary
services are illustrated (_Figs._ 296-299), including one showing a
fort at Charlestown, and another which purports to prepay "blockade
postage" to Europe.
The postmasters of a number of towns in the Confederate States found
it desirable pending the receipt of stamps from the Confederate
Government to prepare and issue provisional stamps of their own to
denote prepayment of postage. Among these are some of the rarest
postage stamps known to collectors; the best authenticated issues
emanated from:--
Athens and Macon in Georgia; Baton Rouge and New Orleans, in
Louisiana; Beaumont, Goliad, Gonzales, Helena, Independence,
and Victoria in Texas; Bridgeville, Greenville, Grove Hill,
Livingston, Mobile and Uniontown in Alabama; Charleston and
Spartanburg in South Carolina; Lenoir in North Carolina;
Danville, Emory, Fredericksburg, Greenwood, Jetersville,
Lynchburg, Marion, Petersburg, Pittsylvania, Pleasant
Shade and Salem in Virginia; Kingston, Knoxville, Memphis,
Nashville, Rheatown, and Tellico Plains in Tennessee; and New
Smyrna in Florida.
[Illustration: 300 301]
The war with Spain produced a considerable effect upon stamp issues;
but the war tax stamps which were very popular with young collectors
by reason of their bearing a picture of the battleship _Maine_
(_Figs._ 300, 301) were in no sense postage stamps, though often
affixed to letters as small contributions to the war funds. Throughout
the campaign there were many United States military postal cancellations
used in Cuba (_Fig._ 302), Porto Rico (_Fig._ 303), and the Philippines
(_Fig._ 304), and United States postage stamps were later overprinted
for these and other former Spanish colonies, e.g., Cuba, Guam,
Philippine Islands and Porto Rico (_Figs._ 305-307). These have since
been replaced by definite issues for the Republic of Cuba, and for the
Philippines.
[Illustration: 287 288 289 290 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 302 305
303 306 304 307]
The United States stamps offer a very wide field for association with
war interest, many of them bear portraits of warrior heroes, and their
cancellations in connection with expeditionary forces cover a wide
range of territory from the neighbouring and troublesome republic of
Mexico (where the United States recently used its own stamps at the
post office of Vera Cruz) to China.
[Illustration: 308 309 310 311]
CANADA. Our great North American dominion gave us a patriotic Empire
stamp a few years ago to mark the introduction at Christmas 1898, of
Imperial Penny Postage (_Fig._ 308). It shows a map of the world on
Mercator's projection with the British possessions coloured in red,
and with a line quoted from Sir Lewis Morris's jubilee ode, "We hold
a vaster Empire than has been." The "bumptiousness" of the quotation
led _Punch_ to suggest a few alternatives:
We are richer than anybody.
We are Tremendous Swells.
The Policeman outside Mansion House is the finest in the world.
Our fleet can smash all the rest.
Mind your eye!
By Jingo, if we do--!!!
Go to Jericho!
The difficulties of printing a map of the world in colours within the
space of a postage stamp led to "minor" geographical inexactitudes,
such as the annexation by the red colour, of the United States, the
invasion of France by England, and the removal of the Cape of Good
Hope out into the sea. But unlike the Dominican Republic's map stamp
of 1900 it did not lead to complications with other countries.
Canada's Quebec Tercentenary issue includes some stamps of martial
interest (_Figs._ 309-311), the 5 cents shows the French Governor
Champlain's house in Quebec, round which a wide ditch was dug and
breastworks were thrown up and cannon mounted to protect the colonists
from the savages. Generals Wolfe and Montcalm are portrayed on the 7
cents, the 10 cents shows the old city and fort of Quebec in 1700, and
the other denominations show incidents in the exploration of Canada
and portraits of King Edward and Queen Alexandra, and of King George
and Queen Mary.
[Illustration: 312 313]
MEXICO. Mexican stamps from 1856 to the rise of Porforio Diaz
demonstrate some of the political changes through which the country
has passed, from Republic to Empire, and back to Republic. Revolution
has brought about provisional stamps of a rare order, such as the
Guadalajara, Chiapas, and Campeche stamps of 1867-1868, and the more
recent issues of the "Constitutionalist" party for Sonora (_Figs._
312-314) and Tamaulipas (_Fig._ 315).
[Illustration: 314 315]
_Figs._ 316, 317 represent ordinary Mexican stamps commandeered and
overprinted by the rebels.
[Illustration: 316 317]
Martial portraits figure on the stamps of many of the South and
Central States; to mention them all would require a goodly sized
dictionary of American biography. In addition, specialists find much
interest in tracing, by extra-territorial postmarks, the movements
of troops in the various wars between Brazil and Paraguay, Chili
and Peru, etc.; and many of the countries give us scenes recording
outstanding incidents in their histories, especially on their issues
commemorative of the centenary of their freedom from the Spanish yoke.
Chili, for example, depicts the battles of Chacabuco, Roble, Maipo,
the sea fight of April 27, 1818, between the _Lautaro_ and the
_Esmeralda_, and another ending in the capture of the _Maria Isabella_
on October 28. In this series also is a portrait of the renowned
Admiral Cochrane, the 10th Earl of Dundonald, who organised the
Chilian Navy and played a great part in Chili's struggles for freedom
from Spain.
Ecuador's issue of 1896 marks the end of a period of civil strife and
the triumph of the Liberal Party, a portion of the proceeds of the
sale of the stamps being devoted to the destitute families of soldiers
killed while serving in defence of the Liberal cause.
[Illustration: 318 319]
Colombia gives us a number of stamp designs of war-like interest,
including warrior heroes, and a crude picture (_Fig._ 318) of the
cruiser _Cartagena_. A particularly bitter commemoration of the
centenary of the independence of Colombia in 1910 was the picturing
on a registration fee stamp of the wholesale executions ordered by the
Spanish victors at Carthagena on February 24, 1816. (_Fig._ 319). To
this stamp objections were raised by the Spanish Minister at Bogota,
and in deference to his protests it was withdrawn from circulation.
Guatemala displays its Artillery Barracks (_Fig._ 320). The much
disturbed Dominican Republic warns off possible invaders by displaying
the fortress of Santo Domingo. Its map issue of 1900 (_Fig._ 320A),
owing to a dispute over the boundary indicated nearly led to war with
the Haytian Republic. Hayti shows the fortress of Sans Souci (_Fig._
321). Peru having had its stamps much overprinted by the Chilians in
1881-1883, vaunts more peaceful subjects on its recent picture stamps,
e.g., its General Post Office, Municipal Institute of Hygiene, and
the Lima Medical School. Uruguay, after its civil war of 1904, added
a "peace" overprint to its contemporary stamps, reading PAZ-1904. It
also illustrates the fortress and port of Montevideo, and its cruiser
of the same name on its issues of 1908 and 1909 (_Fig._ 322), and
Venezuela has given us crude sketches of the revolutionary steamer
_Bankigh_ (_Fig._ 323), and a map stamp illustrative of the great
boundary dispute with Great Britain.
[Illustration: 320 320A 321 322 323]
Brazil also furnishes examples of stamps specially furnished to
soldiers and sailors for use on their letters home in war-time. These
were printed by a stationer in Rio de Janeiro and were used during the
war with Paraguay 1865-1870. The army franks are inscribed EXERCITO
(Army), and those for the sister service ARMADA (Navy).