The Graphic War

The Eagle’s Nest

By Salvatore Cilella · Originally published October 2020 · p. 26

The Graphic War highlights prints and printmakers from the Civil War discussing their meaning and most importantly, the print maker or artist’s goals. Once the war began, both sides turned to symbolism to bolster their cause. The northern cause quickly adopted the flag as it’s rallying symbol. Currier and Ives, seemingly always in the forefront of recognizing and then exploiting the marketing potential of the American flag quickly produced three prints emphasizing the national emblem. The first two were published immediately after Fort Sumter fell. Appropriately titled Bombardment of Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor: From Fort Moultrie and similarly titled Bombardment of Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor, both featured the desecration of the flag at the war’s flashpoint. Although Currier and Ives were not on the scene that April morning, they relied on New York illustrated newspapers for content.1 That same year, 1861, the New York lithographer published The Spirit of 61/God, Our Country and Liberty. In one powerful print, Currier linked God and country. To the very end of the war, Currier returned to the theme with The Flag of Our Union.2 Not to be outdone, several lithographic rivals joined in the “flag mania.” New York firms such as Sarony, Major, and Knapp; Goupil and Company; Kimmel and Forster, and the Philadelphia firm of M. H. Traubel quickly followed suit. The Connecticut firm, E. B. and E. C. Kellogg of Hartford, not to be outdone by the big city publishers, came out with an unusual and striking lithograph. The firm had been established in 1830 and produced the usual stock images; young attractive women, political figures, mourning pieces, domestic scenes, Mexican War views, and occasional city views. When the war came, they produced two fort scenes—Fort Sumter and Fort Hatteras, North Carolina, “from the Confederate vantage point.”3 They also produced “patriotic animal scenes,” for lack of a better description. One featured a mother hen with a flag for a comb squawking at a newly hatched chick, probably warning against seceding as it was titled “Uncle Sam, On Secession.” Another Kellogg entitled “Forward March!/Uncle Sam’s old Hens covering their chickens on the way to Richmond,” depicted ironclads steaming up the James

River with large, enveloping wings covering marching troops on either bank. At first glance all seems well, but upon close examination, it is evident that the artist has placed the bird’s head on the stern of the steamers and the bow on the bird’s rear!4 A more sensible and vitriolic lithograph was done in the first year of the war. This time a fierce American Eagle sits on an American flag nest of eggs, each egg representing a northern or southern state. The northern states have not hatched; the southern states are in various stages of hatching (seceding!). Each southern “egg” has the name of its governor or a dignitary associated with that state. The eggs are arranged in the nest according to their geographical location in the country. Virginia has Governor Letcher depicted as a boar with a bunch of hatchlings; Maryland, not yet hatched is labeled “Bad Egg;” an unidentified animal has hatched from North Carolina; the eagle’s talons are grasping the hatching state of South Carolina, which reveals an open mouthed, probably venomous snake. The other talon is on Mississippi with a bear or boar emerging waving a Confederate Flag with the legend “Repudiated Bonds.” Missouri’s shell is cracked; Kentucky bears the legend “Addled;” Tennessee, “Rotten;” Beauregard is emerging from the Louisiana shell brandishing a saber and the Alabama shell is labeled “Yancey” and shows an alligator devouring an unknown person. The print is entitled “The Eagle’s Nest/The Union! It Must and Shall Be Preserved.” Above all is a banner in the eagle’s beak that reads: “Annihilation to Traitors.” 1.

Endnotes:

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, 2. Bryan F. Le Beau. Currier & Ives: America Imagined. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001, 74-6. Nancy Finlay, ed. Picturing Victorian America: Prints by the Kellogg Brothers of Hartford, Connecticut, 1830–1880. Hartford: The Connecticut Historical Society, 2009, 91. Ibid., 93.

After 43 years in the museum field, Salvatore Cilella devotes his time collecting American prints and maps and writing. His last professional position was President and CEO of the Atlanta History Center. His most recent books are Upton’s Regulars: A History of the 121st New York Volunteers in the Civil War (U. Press Kansas, 2009). His two-volume Correspondence of Major General Emory Upton, (U. of Tennessee Press, 2017), received the 2017–2018 American Civil War Museum’s Founders Award for outstanding editing of primary source materials. His latest book “Till Death Do Us Part,” an edit of Upton’s letters to his wife 1868– 70, was published in May by the Oklahoma University Press.

“The Eagle’s Nest.” Print shows American eagle in its nest of the American flag, which holds 34 eggs representing the states; the eggs representing the Southern states are cracked, rotten, or have various animals being hatched from them; the eagle says “Annihilation to traitors.” Library of Congress.