The Graphic War

The First of May 1865 or Genl. Moving Day in Richmond, Va.

By Salvatore Cilella · Originally published May 2019 · p. 22

This occasional column highlights prints and printmakers from the Civil War. It discusses their meaning and most importantly, the goals of the print maker or artist. This highly satirical, hand colored, lithographic print, although smaller than most of the Civil War period (only 9 x 12), is loaded with demeaning symbolism and sarcastic “I told you so” imagery. The print depicts “moving day” at Confederate headquarters in Richmond on May 1, 1865. Conceived and drawn by lithographers Kimmel and Forster, and published by H. & W. Voight of New York City, this biting lithograph depicts a Confederate officer, heavily laden with weapons facing another man burdened with several boxes over his shoulder. The soldier is undoubtedly Robert E. Lee. New York print dealer, Donald Heald, who recently had this print in his shop, identified the other man as Treasury Secretary George Trenholm. Lee is loading weapons in an old dog cart and Trenholm “hauls a string of boxes carrying worthless bonds over his shoulder, each bearing the name of a Confederate state.”1 Most experts agree that this print was published in April 1865 and not May and predicts the coming fall of the Confederacy. The buildings are in disarray with broken windows and shutters. A sign gives away the fact that this print was not published in May but early April. Over Secretary Trenholm is a sign which reads: “To let. Apply Lincoln & Co.” Presumably Lincoln was still alive when this print was produced. Another sign merely reads “Sheriff’s Sale.” Two African Americans (one thumbing his nose) watch the scene as

Trenholm and Lee try to load a cart labeled “CSA” pulled by two malnourished dogs. Nearby, a box labeled “C.S.A. Treasury Wastepaper 55 Ann Str.” awaits loading. Off to both sides are two white civilians watching the proceedings as another malnourished dog urinates on the treasury box New York print dealer Donald Heald also agrees that “The title date of May 1 is misleading. It was probably issued earlier in the spring, before the collapse of the Confederacy, speculating on its demise with May 1 as a projected to date. In fact, Richmond was occupied by Union troops on April 3. Likewise, the reference to “Lincoln & Co.” is unlikely after his death on April 15. Finally, Treasury Secretary Trenholm had resigned on April 27, although this detail might have escaped a cartoonist.”2 The firm of Kimmel and Forster produced several allegorical and patriotic Union lithographs at war’s end featuring Lincoln, and other Northern heroes of the war. In 1865, after Lincoln’s assassination, they issued The Preservers of the Union featuring Lincoln and Grant on either side of Liberty giving Grant equal billing with the slain leader. Their other work, more realistic, and also later in the war, included a print of Fort Sumter after its re-capture by Federal troops and the “Capture of Harrold and the Shooting of Booth.”3 The “First of May” is a small print packed with biting imagery. Copies are held in the collections of the American Antiquarian Society, the Library of Congress, Yale, the Virginia Historical Society, and Brown University. Endnotes: 1.

The Library of Congress’ copy of this print mistakenly identifies Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Stonewall Jackson vacating premises in Richmond. Trenholm’s

depiction, while crude, is definitely too young to portray Davis and, of course, Jackson was dead some two years before this print was published. www.donaldheald.com Harold Holzer, Mark E. Neely, Jr. The Union Image: Popular Prints of the Civil War North. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000, 177; Harry Peters. America On Stone: The Other Printmakers to the American People. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1931, 251. See also Mark Neely, Harold Holzer and Gabor S. Boritt, The Confederate Image: Prints of the Lost Cause. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987, 175.

Salvatore Cilella is retired after 43 years in the museum field. His last position was President and CEO of the Atlanta History Center. He is the author of several articles and books. His most recent books are Upton’s Regulars: A History of the 121st New York Volunteers in the Civil War (U. Press Kansas, 2009) and The Correspondence of General Emory Upton, 1856–1881 (U. Tennessee Press, 2017) edited. He is currently editing the intimate love letters between Emory and Emily Upton.