September 22, 2011
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 9/22/2011
Newspaper, Frank Leslie's Illustrated, November 12, 1864, complete issue, 16pp., disbound, VG. War date issue with reports and engravings of the War. Most important is the vertical center spread showing 14 vignettes, "Hotels of New York City That Were Set Afire By Rebel Incendiaries ..." The Confederate Army of Manhattan was a group of eight Southern operatives who attempted to burn New York City on November 25, 1864, during the final stages of the American Civil War. In a plot orchestrated by Jacob Thompson, the operatives infiltrated Union territory from Canada and made their way to New York. On Friday night, November 25, beginning around 8:45pm, the group attempted to simultaneously start fires in 19 hotels, a theater, and P.T. Barnum's museum. The objective was to overwhelm the city's firefighting resources by distributing the fires around the city.
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