Chapter VII.

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 In December, 1860, South Carolina in convention repealed the act adopting the Constitution of the United States, a move which was promptly followed by other Southern States, and led to the American Civil War.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issues were demonetized and replaced hurriedly by the now rare première gravures of August, 1861, which were promptly superseded by the more finished designs of September, 1861.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]

[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.

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.

287     288     289

290     292     293

294     295     296

297     298     299

302

303

304

305     306     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.

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:

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.

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).

314     315

Figs. 316, 317 represent ordinary Mexican stamps commandeered and overprinted by the rebels.

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.

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.

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).