Emancipation Proclamation, 13th Amendment Sell for $4.17 Million.

May 26, 2016, ABC News   A telephone bidder bought one of the 48 "Authorized Edition" Emancipation Proclamation copies signed by Lincoln that sold at the Great Central Fair fundraiser for the United States Sanitation Commission that sold for $10 at the fair back in 1864.

The copy of the 13th Amendment sold for $2.4 million and is one of just 14 signed by Lincoln on February 1, 1865.  It is also one of three of the "Senate Copies."  These are also signed by the vice president and 36 senators.

The 13th Amendment was ratified in December 1865.

There are just 27 known copies of the original 48 existing.

The Emancipation Proclamation also led to liberated slaves being able to serve in the Union Army and Navy.

Not a Bad Investment and a Whole Lot of History.  --Old Secesh

Emancipation Proclamation Copy Signed By Lincoln At Auction-- Part 2

Continued from April 23, 2018.

This is one of the copies sold at the Great Central Fair in 1864 in Philadelphia.  The original Emancipation Proclamation is in the National Archives.  Several other of the Great Central Fair copies exist.

These copies are known as the "Authorized Edition" of the Emancipation Proclamation and are signed by Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward.  The authorized edition was as close to the original as it could get and made for use as a fundraising item.

Entrepreneurs Charles Leland and George Boker came up with the idea.  They had 498copies made for the Great Central Fair in Philadelphia in 1864.

--Old Secesh

Emancipation Proclamation Signed By Lincoln At Auction-- Part 3

Abraham Lincoln was a big supporter of the United States Sanitary Commission for whom the Great Central Fair was raising money and had previously donated a n autographed item.  Leland and Boker had corresponded with Lincoln's private secretary John Nicolay for an authorized version of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Both were fervent abolitionists.

The "Authorized Edition" of 48 copies also had Nicolay's signature.  The original only had Lincoln and Seward sign it.

Imagine Making $2 Million for a $10 Investment?  --Old Secesh

MCCWRT Discussion Group Meets Saturday

The McHenry County Civil War Round Table will meet Saturday, April 28 at Panera Bread in Crystal Lake, Illinois.  It is located at 6000 Northwest Highway (near Main Street).

This month's topic is Railroads and Supply During the Civil War.

I plan on talking about the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad which ran through North Carolina and was an important supply line for military items brought through the blockade at Wilmington and Richmond.

Time is from 10 a.m. to noon.

--Old Secesh

Henry Beard, One of First Blacks (and Union Veteran) in Sycamore-- Part 2

Continued from April 10, 2018.

Henry Beard was a member of the 105th Illinois Infantry Regiment.

He settled north of Sycamore, Illinois, in an area called the "North Woods" where he purchased five acres from local abolitionist David West. Later, he married Julia (Judy) Jones.  They built a 2-room home and raised 14 children.

Unable to read or write, he wanted his children to get an education so he sent their sons to the only school in the area, a one-room North Grove School where the boys learned to speak Swedish because most of the people in the area were Swedish and had built the school.

The children had to learn to speak Swedish in order to understand the teacher who only spoke Swedish.

--Old Secesh

Black Group Disrupts Confederate Service in Chicago-- Part 2

Oak Woods Cemetery is at 67th and Cottage Grove streets in Chicago.  It was established in 1853.

Famous Blacks former Mayor Harold Washington and Olympian Jesse Owens are both buried there.  Other famous black people buried there are Thomas A. Dorsey (Father of Gospel Music) and Eunice and John H. Johnson, entrepreneurs.

The Confederate Mound, as the site in the cemetery is called, is the final resting place of some 4,000 victims of the Union prison called Camp Douglas who were buried there.  The prison camp was located in Bronzeville on the grounds of Stephen Douglas' land.

It features a 30 foot tall granite column with a Confederate soldier on top.  bronze plaques around the base list the names of 4,000 Confederates who died there.

It sits on federally-owned land run by the Veterans Administration.

It is Sad When a Group Does Not Pay Respect to American Veterans.  --Old Secesh

Black Group Disrupts Confederate Memorial Service in Chicago-- Part 1

From the April 23, 2018, Chicago Sun Rimes  "Confederate memorial on South Side sparks protest" Mitch Dudek.

A Sons of Confederate Veterans memorial service at a mass grave of thousands of Confederate soldiers who died in a Chicago prison during the war was disrupted Saturday when 50 mostly-black protesters showed up to mark the nearby grave of Civil Rights activist and journalist Ida B. Wells. They used loudspeakers to drown out the Confederate service claiming that the service just was more white supremacists.

The SCV Camp Douglas (Camp 516) group, so named for the Chicago prison (sometimes called the North's Andersonville) in which anywhere between 4,500 and 6,000 Confederates died under unbelievably harsh conditions, has held memorial observations at the site for almost twenty years and the other group had never shown up in that time.

Seems like quite a coincidence, especially since neither Ida B. Wells' birth or death were on April 22.    Someone was just wanting to provoke a confrontation.

Coincidence, I Think Not.  --Old Secesh

Burlington, Wisconsin, in the Civil War

From the April 2018 Spirit of Geneva Lakes  "Historic Downtown Burlington."

Located in southeast Wisconsin near the Illinois border.  First settlers arrived in mid to late 1830s seeking fertile farmlands and water power for mills at the junction of the White and Fox rivers.

A grist mill supplied flour locally as well as to Milwaukee, Kenosha and Racine.

A woolen mill made the first roll of cloth produced in Wisconsin.  During the Civil War is supplied cloth for Union soldier uniforms.

Wheat was the leading farm product through the Civil War but much effort turned to livestock and dairying after that.

--Old Secesh

Civil War II --615: Finally, a Politician With Backbone

From the April 23, 2018, Google Alerts for Confederate.

**  Republican aims to protect Confederate symbols from removal.  (Texas)  (Win)  State Representative Pat Fallon.  Finally, a politician with a backbone, not afraid to stand up to these attacks.  Maybe I will move to Texas so I can vote for him.

**  What I learned from my fight to remove Confederate memorials.  (n)ew (o)rleans mayor (l)andrieux)

**  Fate of Robert E. Lee statue doesn't include Cleburne.  Cleburne was also a Confederate general.

--Old Secesh

Civil War II-- 614: Dumb Professors, Dumber Mayor

From the March 25, 2018, Google Alerts for Confederate.

**  UNC profs threaten to destroy Confederate monument unless its is taken down.  They want to stay anonymous but don't fear getting arrested for doing it.  These were described as senior professors.  Sure setting a terrible example.    I'd sure fire them if they went through with the threat and definitely do something about making such an absurd threat.

**  The mayor of (n)ew (o)rleans, (m)itch (l)andriex has written a book about why he took down the statues  "In the Shadow of Statues."    One I definitely wouldn't buy.  Still hoping he decides to make a run at a national office because of the statues.  Someone I would definitely work against.

--Old Secesh

Emancipation Proclamation Copy Signed By Lincoln At Auction-- Part 1: Estimated Price, $2 Million

While writing about those 48 Lincoln signed copies of the Emancipation Proclamation that were sold at the Great central Fair in Philadelphia in June 1864, I got to wondering how many are still around and how much they would be worth.

What started off earlier this month as mention of Meade's spurs and Semmes' sword at the Rock Island Auctions, this has really grown into quite a project.

From the June 25, 2012, History Site  "Emancipation Proclamation Copy Signed By Lincoln For Sale" by Eliza Hanes.

On June 26, one lucky bidder can expect to pay around $2 million to own it.

I Don't have $2 Million Lying Around.  --Old Secesh

Logan Circle (Square) in Philadelphia

From Wikipedia.

Logan Circle is also known as Logan Square.  The circle aspect of it is entirely within the boundaries of the old square.  Logan Square is where the Great Central Fair was held in 1864, which I have been writing about.

It was originally known as Northwest Square in William Penn's 1684 plans for the city.  It was renamed in 1825 after Philadelphia's James Logan (1684-1751), the 14th mayor, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, lieutenant governor and acting governor.  He was an avid collector of books, eventually amassing 3,000 of them, which he described as "my disease."

During the American Revolution it was essentially a forest.  Over the next 25 years it served as a pasture, cemetery and execution ground.  In 1823, it was the site of the hanging of William Gross, the last person publicly executed in the city.

--Old Secesh

The Great Central Fair, 1864-- Part 4: 250,000 and $1.046,000

The Union League of Philadelphia proposed it.  Its Heritage Center has one of the 48 personally signed by Lincoln Emancipation Proclamations.  It was the Union league which arranged for the 48 signed copies to be sold at the fair.

A total of 250,000 visitors came and it was the second most profitable of all the Sanitary Commission fairs held.  The Sanitary Commission cleared $1,046,000 from it.

One reason so much money was made was because of all the volunteer help provided by the women of Philadelphia.

--Old Secesh

The Great Central Fair, 1864-- Part 3: Not the First Fair, Though

From the Hidden City Philadelphia site.

The official name was the Great Sanitary Fair.  It was also called the Great Central Fair.  Its object was to raise money to buy Union troops food, medical supplies, hospital ships and rest homes.  In effect, it served as a dress rehearsal for Philadelphia's Centennial Exposition of 1876.

It covered Logan Square (now called Logan Circle).  The main building of the fair extended the length of the square.  It was encompassed by smaller structures all of which were connected by corridors.

It was not, however, the first fair for the U.S. Sanitary Commission.  The first was held in Lowell, Massachusetts a year earlier.  It was a modest success and the idea spread to other cities.

--Old Secesh

The Great Central Fair, 1864-- Part 2: A Little Bit of Everything Inside

Union Street was compared to a great cathedral by Charles J. Stille.  Inside it were departments from which to select items to buy.  They each had different themes.  Some of them:  the  neighboring states of New Jersey and Delaware, corn, sewing, restaurants, weaponry, fine art, curiosities, transportation and children.

On June 16, Abraham Lincoln and his family visited and donated 48 copies of the Emancipation Proclamation that he had signed.  They fair was asking $10 for each one.

The fair netted some $1 million for the Union's military.

A painting of the fair accompanied the article and it was quite impressive.

--Old secesh