Raynors HCA 2017-02
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/23/2017
A complete and authentic issue of the New York Tribune, July 31, 1863, eight pages, 15 1/2" x 20 1/2", fine. First column headlines, reads, in small part: "The Mission of Alexander Stephens…Protest Against Mustering and Arming Negroes. The Rebels Have Used Them Only To Dig Trenches. A Threat that They Will Be Used as Soldiers in Retaliation." In an open letter to the Tribune Confederate Secretary of War George W. Randolph admonishes the Lincoln administration for turning away Vice President Alexander Stephens during a recent flag of truce meeting. Randolph's letter, reads, in very small part" "In a vain hope of helping avert new horrors of war…with the prayerful wish…of saving your people and mine…from crimes political and military too terrible to contemplate…I ask the N. Y. Tribune thus to speak for the humane among us…the primary object of Vice-President's [Stephen] mission was to protest…against the mustering and arming of the blacks…on the good faith of his Government…not one single regiment of corps of negroes has ever been brought into the Confederate service to be…armed against you…such negroes as have been from time to time been found on breastworks and in trenches have been caught with spades only or picks…we would…remind you that the 4,000,000 of negroes…of your census for 1860 are the working hands of both sexes…out of these…at least 750,000 able-bodied fellows, loving and trusting their masters and ready to follow them up to the mouths of your cannon (ah! do not continue to befool yourself on that question of ties), [they] can be enrolled, armed, drilled, in three months. They can be officered …by their own masters…who have seen most service and won most honor. They can be segregated, regiment by regiment, with the white troops…this is what Vic-President of the Confederate States came to tell you will certainly be done forthwith…". The second top news story was the reporting of the casualties sustained by both white and black troops during the battle of Fort Wagner, South Carolina that occurred on July 18th. These head lines are: "The Siege of Fort Wagner…Our Batteries 600 Yards Nearer Sumter…Exchange of Prisoners…THE COLORED PRISONERS ENSLAVED…List of Killed and Wounded." The following articles reads, in very small part: "…it appears from the very best sources of information, that Col. Shaw, of the 54th Mass., instead of having been hung by a Charleston mob, as was believed…was shot in the heart, early in the engagement, and buried the next morning in a pit with 25 negroes…the Charleston papers…all say that 650 of our killed were buried…after the assault. This extraordinary proportion…could not have been reached without an indiscriminate murdering of our soldiers, after they had fallen wounded and helpless…one hundred and eight of our wound are still at Charleston and Columbia. The officers and men of the 54th Massachusetts (colored) will not be given up, nor has it yet been positively ascertained what has become of them…" Following are two lists of the battles casualties, first a list of the killed on the 17th and the other a list of the wounded who arrived on board the U. S. hospital steamer, Cosmopolitan. Included in this last list are six white officers, one black non-commissioned officer and amazingly no members of the rank and file of the 54th, although, there are many white soldiers from white regiments listed. Much more like content. In fine condition with binding holes to the edge
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