September 22, 2011
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 9/22/2011
THE BROADSIDE: Extremely scarce Confederate broadside, 10"x7", and reads in full: "To the People of Maryland: Headquarters Army N. Virginia Near Frederick Town, 8th September, 1862. It is right that you should know the purpose that brought the Army under my command within the limits of your State, so far as that purpose concerns yourselves. The People of the Confederate States have long watched with the deepest sympathy the wrongs and outrages that have been inflicted upon the citizens of a Commonwealth, allied to the States of the South by the strongest social, political and commercial ties. They have seen with profound indignation their sister State deprived of every right, and reduced to the condition of a conquered Province. Under the pretense of supporting the Constitution, but in violation of its most valuable provisions, your citizens have been arrested and imprisoned upon no charge, and contrary to all forms of law; the faithful and manly protest against this outrage made by the venerable and illustrious Marylanders to whom in better days, no citizens appealed for right in vain, was treated with scorn and contempt; the government of your chief city has been usurped by armed strangers; your legislature has been dissolved by the unlawful arrest of its members; freedom of the press and of speech, of the Federal Executive, and citizens ordered to be tried by a military commission for what they may dare to speak. Believing that the People of Maryland possessed a spirit too lofty to submit to such a government, the people of the south have long wished to aid you in throwing off this foreign yoke, to enable you to again enjoy the inalienable rights of free men, and restore independence and sovereignty to your State. In obedience to this wish, our Army has come among you, and is prepared to assist you with the power of its arms in regaining the rights of which you have been despoiled. This, Citizens of Maryland, is our mission, so far as you are concerned. No constraint upon your free will is intended, no intimidation is allowed. Within the limits of this Army, at least, Marylanders shall once more enjoy their ancient freedom of thought and speech. We know no enemies among you, and will protect all of every opinion. It is for you to decide your destiny, freely and without constraint. This army will respect your choice whatever it may be, and while the Southern people will rejoice to welcome you to your natural position among them, they will only welcome you when you come of your own free will. R. E. Lee, General Commanding." THE NOTE: The Jackson Autograph Note Signed is on the reverse of the broadside. Jackson's pencil note in full, "Regret not being permitted to see Dr. + Mrs. Ross: but could not expect to have that pleasure at so unreasonable an hour. T.J. Jackson Sept 10/62 51/4 a.m." VG. THE STORY: It is said that on the morning of September 10,1862, at the age of 95, Barbara Fritchie waved the Union flag out of her window, demonstrating her opposition to Stonewall Jackson's troops, who were passing through Frederick in the Maryland Campaign. Today the Barbara Fritchie House has been converted to a museum and is located at 1342 West Patrick Street, Frederick, Maryland continuing to commemorate this event THE POEM: This event was further immortalized by John Greenleaf Whittier's poem of 1864, titled, "Barbara Frietchie." In part Whittier wrote, "Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then, Bowed with her fourscore years and ten; Bravest of all in Frederick town, She took up the flag the men hauled down; In her attic window the staff she set, To show that one heart was loyal yet, Up the street came the rebel tread, Stonewall Jackson riding ahead. Under his slouched hat left and right He glanced; the old flag met his sight. `Halt! - the dust-brown ranks stood fast. `Fire!` - out blazed the rifle-blast. It shivered the window, pane and sash; It rent the banner with seam and gash. Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf. She leaned far out on the window-sill, And shook it forth with a royal will. `Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, But spare your country's flag,` she said......" THE FACTS: General Henry Kyd Douglas, who was an officer on the staff of Stonewall Jackson, lectured in Cooper Union. "General Jackson never even passed Barbara Frietchie's house," said General Douglas. "General Jackson, just before an entry into Frederick, had been seriously injured by a fall from a horse that had been presented to him by some of his admirers.....General Jackson on the following Sunday was taken to Frederick in the ambulance to attend church (that being Dr. Ross' church). He did not return to town again until the morning of the supposed incident, September 10, 1862. Then we again took him into town in the ambulance. We stopped at the corner of Patrick and Main streets, where he asked some of the citizens misleading questions about the surrounding country. Then he directed that I drive with him to the residence of the Rev. Dr. Ross, the Presbyterian clergyman, whose church we had attended on the preceding Sunday evening. It was still so early that Dr. Ross was not up, so we left a card. . . . We did not pass Barbara Frietchie's house. In the book, "Civil War Papers Volume II, 1900, Boston, on page 560-561, the author states, "...Colonel Douglas, now generally known as General Douglas, informs me that he was with General Jackson every moment of the time of these two visits to Frederick. On the morning of September l0th, General Jackson stopped at the square on Patrick Street, gave some orders and asked some misleading questions of citizens and rode to the house of Rev. Dr. Ross, a Presbyterian clergyman who was a friend of General Jackson's. General Jackson and Colonel Douglas reached the house of Dr. Ross about six o'clock in the morning before Dr. Ross was up, and not seeing Dr. Ross, left a penciled note for him with his colored man who was standing at the gate...." And finally from the book (included with this lot), "Life of Whittier's Heroine, Barbara Fritchie: Including a brief but comprehensive sketch of historic "Old Frederick," by Henry M Nixdorff, 1877 , on page 30-31, "...I am inclined to believe from inquiry that General Jackson on the day the Confederates passed through Frederick, did not pass by the dwelling of Mrs. Fritchie. It appears that he left his soldiers, at the East end of the city, to call on the Rev. Dr. John B. Ross, pastor of the Presbyterian church, the wife of whom was the daughter of Ex-Gov. McDowell, of Virginia, with whom he was well acquainted. It being early in the morning it is declared that he wrote the following note, and slipped it under the front door at Dr. Ross s dwelling : "REV. JOHN B. ROSS: Regret not being able to see you and Mrs. Ross, but could not expect to have that pleasure at so unreasonable an hour. T. J. JACKSON." THE CONCLUSION: The story of the aged patriotic women defying the Southern icon grasped the imagination of the North. Dorothea Dix had heard of the incident and wrote Whittier a letter affirming the incident. Northern newspapers ran with the story. The Southerners were insulted by the effort to slander Jackson by portraying his lack of civility in shooting at an old lady's flag. So, the debate far outlasted the war.... the advocates from both sides of the incident raised their case to near mania. In fact, the ballad is widely accepted as fact today. But finally we have physical evidence which confirms the truth that General Jackson never passed Fritchie's house. He detoured to leave THIS AUTOGRAPH NOTE for Dr. Ross. AUTHENTICATION: The broadside is presented in a modern frame, open windows on both sides presenting a view of both the broadside and the Jackson Note. In addition, there are two type letters authenticating the piece. The first letter is February 8, 1997 on official North Carolina Department of Resources letterhead states in part, "I have also compared the hand with the known hand of Stonewall Jackson in four documents in the North Carolina State Archives, and the hand in pencil on the reverse of the document ... is consonant with the hand of Thomas J. Jackson in the documents known to have been written by him." Then, a second typed statement, March 21, 1997 on official United States Department of the Interior letterhead, by Robert Krick, Chief Historian, states the Parrish #1236 noting the error in the spelling of "Marland" and closes, "You have a really awesome artifact, combining a wonderfully rare publication with a unique autograph from a well-documented incident."
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