Nouvelles

1864 · WRCAM54026 — Richmond: Ayres & Wade 1864. Forty-four issues of 110 most 8pp. each. Folio. Old fold lines and light wear. Separations along gutter vertical folds. Some light tanning and soiling scattered foxing and wear. Some issues lightly dampstained. Many issues trimmed at gutter margin creating loose sheets. Still very good overall. THE SOUTHERN ILLUSTRATED NEWS was the Civil War South's answer to northern publications such as HARPER'S WEEKLY. A pictorial paper it printed portraits and biographies of important military leaders political cartoons mocking President Lincoln and other northern figures as well as literary tidbits. The paper ran from Sept. 13 1862 to Feb. 4 1865 and was published weekly. Through 1863 issues were eight pages in length but into 1864 issues were more often four pages or sometimes skipped entirely and only published every other week. <br> <br> The quality of the publication and its illustration were rather crude by comparison with the North's offerings. The publishers advertised several times for expert engravers but never seem to have found any to take up the job. Nevertheless each issue contains cartoons and portraits of famous generals and officers along with literary works a few advertisements theatre and literature critiques and the news of the day though often several days behind. The back page of each issue advertises literary works now available or recently off the press maps of the war and different plays and shows coming up. One cartoon shows a downcast President Lincoln as Julius Caesar with a black Brutus; another shows the pleasant conditions for Union soldiers at Belle Isle Confederate Prison as opposed to the isolation and unhappiness of Confederate soldiers imprisoned in Ohio. Still a further illustration shows a dead man sprawled across a coffin captioned: "The Fate of a Deserter." The NEWS not surprisingly published with a pro-southern bias even to the point of declaring the Battle of Gettysburg to be a great Confederate victory. <br> <br> Publication only became more difficult as the months passed. Legend has it that in 1864 several issues were printed with shoe polish rather than proper printing ink due to shortages not borne out by an examination of existing copies. Paper was also in short supply resulting in shortened or skipped issues. By 1865 with the Union Army occupying major southern cities and marching further into the heart of the Confederacy the paper's circulation plummeted and distribution outside of Richmond became next to impossible. Richmond fell to the Union on April 2 1865 which is when the periodical effectively ceased. <br> <br> This excellent run consists of issues spanning from Sept. 20 1862 No. 1:6 through March 5 1864 No. 3:9. The NEWS published forty-two issues in its first volume Sept. 13 1862 to June 27 1863 twenty-five in its second volume June 27 1863 to Dec. 26 1863 and thirty-eight issues in its third Jan. 2 1864 to Dec. 24 1864. There is some confusion about how many issues appeared in 1865. Some sources record the paper running until September 1865 though that is almost certainly wrong; others say the end of March. The Library of Congress website devoted to historical newspapers "Chronicling America" indicates an end date of Sept. 3 1865 but gives the final issue as Volume 4 issue 5 which was published on Feb. 4 1865. Emory University holds a 4:5 dated Feb. 4 1865 the latest we can find listed anywhere and thus probably the actual end of the publication. Assuming this is correct the present run contains forty-four of one hundred ten issues. <br> <br> Issues are rare and representative runs even more so. A wonderful resource for Civil War history. Ayres & Wade unknown books