War Envelopes Used In Civil War Correspondence

1907

War Envelopes

The story of the civil war has been told and retold from platform and press, particularly on Memorial day, until the shelves of our libraries teem with the volumes of records of that epoch of our country's history.

In many a garret or family cabinet may be found some cap or portion of a garment worn during the strife by the soldier boy of the family; possibly the battered, bullet-pierced canteen may have its place.

To each or to all of these the grayhaired veteran may point his children at this memorial season, while telling them of the part he took in the struggle. But there is still another reminder of those years of national trial, simple though it may be, that serves to recall the spirit that prevailed before hostilities began, as well as to remind us of the progress of events during the development of those four years of bloody conflict. It is the stationery used in the correspondence between camp and fireside and between home and battlefield.

One envelope shows Gen. Scott to be the bulldog, with Jeff Davis as the smoking car, and the bone of contention as the city of Washington. The gamecock and shanghai envelope has no significance only as one turns to an issue of the Richmond Examiner of that period and reads, "The capture of Washington is perfectly within the power of Virginia and Maryland. The entire population pant for the onset. Our people can take it. They will take it, and Scott, the archtraitor, and Lincoln, the beast, combined, cannot prevent it. The just indignation of an outraged and deeply injured people will teach the Illinois ape to repeat his race and retrace his journey across the border of the free negro state still more rapidly than he came. And Scott, the traitor, will be given the opportunity at the same time to try the difference between Scott's tactics and the shanghai drill for quick movements."

The Ellsworth envelope was popular throughout the union, as was the "young man of 24 years" and his Chicago zouaves. His genuine energy and self-confidence had won the attention and admiration of the whole country.