How New York tried to secede from the Union, the anti-slavery sculpture that Northerners refused to buy and the combat medal black soldiers were never allowed to wear: The little-know relics that show just how divided the nation was during the Civil War



‘The Civil War in 50 Objects’ highlights relics from the war that are housed at the New-York Historical Society


One hundred and fifty years ago, the nation was torn asunder.

The instatement of the first national military draft in American history led to riots in New York City. Confederate General Robert E. Lee had launched an offensive on the Union by marching on Pennsylvania. It would result in a furious battle outside the town of Gettysburg that would claim more than 7,800 American lives - more than have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

Though far removed from modern life, the Civil War cut a deep wound in American society - one that can still be felt today - whether in difficult race relations, questions or class warfare or the political divide between northern states - blue states - and the South - red states.

A new book aims bring the lessons of the Civil War to the forefront by focusing on surviving items that tell the story of the war.

‘The Civil War in 50 Objects’ - published by Viking Press - features documents with political significance, trinkets that held great personal value and souvenirs of historical worth.

Shocking: These circa-1800 slave shacked were meant to fit a child. They were likely used to chain children down to the boat so that their mothers would not throw them overboard during the lengthy, any deadly, voyage across from Africa to North America

Some of the objects are familiar to the modern eye. Abraham Lincoln’s hand-written tally of the electoral college votes he would receive in the 1864 employs a political map not unlike those broadcast on every TV station on Election Night last year.

Other objects are an anathema to contemporary America. A pair of iron shackles used to bind the hands of a slave child conjures a ghastly image of this nation’s slave-trading past.

‘Looking at relics, looking at things that people touched - famous people, unknown people - brings you much closer to history - even 150 years later,’ the book’s author, Civil War scholar Harold Holtzer told MailOnline.

Each object in the book was carefully selected from the archives of the New-York Historical Society, which houses one of the largest collections of Civil War relics in the nation.

The story that emerges from the objects is remarkably more complex than the grade-school version of Civil War history most Americans envision.

For example, Mr Holtzer says, ‘The North wasn’t all pro-war and all pro-Union and anti-slavery. New York was a divided city and you certainly had New Yorkers on both sides.’

Slave shackles forged for a child, ca. 1800

The Civil War began with slavery and slavery in America began with the slave trade.

Until the importation of slaves was completely banned in 1853, slave ships carried some 15million Africans to American shores.

On the long Trans-Atlantic Voyages, it often became necessary for captains to shackle their human cargo to chains to prevent them from mutinying or jumping overboard.

As Hotlzer writes, the set of shackles seen here are particularly devastating: ‘This gruesome relic of slavery was designed to restrain a mere child.’

Holtzer believes they shackles were designed to bind children to the ship so their mothers wouldn’t throw them overboard.

The Slave Auction, sculpture by John Rogers, 1859



Populist: John Rogers expected his explosive sculpture 'Slave Auction' to play on the emotions of abolitionists in the North - and make him lots of money. He found that cities like New York were more divided about slavery than most realized

By 1859, anti-slavery sentiments in the North were gaining steam and sculptor John Rogers believed he could use his art to add fervor to anti-slavery movement - and make a buck for himself, too.

Rogers designed a mass-produced plaster sculpture meant to evoke strong emotions. His subject: the slave auction. Slave auctions, where of human lives were bought and sold as property, symbolized the barbarity of slavery in the South for many abolitionists.

The sculpture played directly to the audience. The cruel auctioneer is depicted with a devious curled mustache. Two twists in his hair even give the impression of horns.

In front of the auctioneer’s podium is a family being ripped apart. A black man stands stoically, arms crossed, on the left side of the work. On the right, a black woman holds her infant tightly while her young son hides himself in her skirts.

Rogers believed his socially-conscious sculpture would make him a wealthy man. He was wrong. He hired a free black man to push a car with his wares through the streets of New York. There were precious few takers, even at $1.50 apiece.

Rogers blamed the poor sales on the divided nature of the city.

But even in Boston – a much more ardently anti-slavery town – sales were disappointing, despite high praise from abolitionist leaders.

In the end, he sold fewer than 30 copies.

‘Perhaps the scene depicted in The Slave Auction seemed to barbaric to qualify as decoration,’ historian Mr Holzer concludes.

Secessionist overtures from New York City to the Confederate states, January 29, 1861

Overtures: New York City Mayor Fernando Wood made strong advances toward the Confederacy before the war - including drawing up a proposal for secession. He also appointed representatives who he sent to several southern states in an attempt to stay neutral

Geographically, New York City was decidedly a northern city. But, many of its citizens held deep sympathies for the Confederacy – or at least a strong ambivalence to ending slavery.

The city’s loyalty to the Union was so torn that New York Mayor Fernando Wood proposed seceding from the U.S. along with the Southern states.

Wood had no desire to see slavery in New York City – but he believed secession would be a power play for the city and believed New York was strong enough to operate on its own, as an independent island, apart from the United States.

Wood, a pro-South Democrat, wrote: ‘As a free city, New York would have the whole and united support of the southern states as well as the other states to whose interests and rights under the Constitution she has always been true.’

Bankers and industrialists relied on inexpensive southern cotton to stock the textile mills and agricultural exports to keep shipping traffic coming into New York Harbor.

Additionally, the throngs of new immigrants in the city had no desire to see the slaves freed, Mr Holzer writes.

Many of the new transplants from Europe were unabashedly racist against the blacks. They also feared that freeing millions slaves would flood the labor market with new workers willing to work for even less money than the new immigrants – thus driving down wages and making jobs harder to come by.

On January 7, 1861, he sent out a message to the six southern states that had declared their intendance. The official proclamation announced the appointment of three commissioners to represent New York City, independent of the federal government.

His message to the southern states: ‘Preserve peace, secure the rights of the South.’

A month later, Lincoln made his only trip to New York as sitting president. He was not warmly received, but he made himself clear to Wood: ‘There is nothing that can ever bring me to the destruction of the Union.’

He also reminded Wood that New York owed its prosperity not to the South, but to the Union as a whole. By the time war broke out, Wood begrudgingly backed the federal government.

Confederate palmetto flag from South Carolina, 1861

Personal and political: This hand-painted South Carolina flag, which is the size of a handkerchief, was flown during the April 1861 Confederate assault on Fort Sumter. During the war, flags were carried as a person reminder of home states and the homefront

This handkerchief-size brilliant blue flag, carried by a Confederate soldier from South Carolina, reveals the distinctive state pride that many southerners had.

The motifs on the small flag should be familiar. They are all present on the current South Carolina state flag and are in use by the modern Tea Party movement, as well.

It is believed this flag flew proudly on April 12, 1861, during the opening volley of the Civil War – the confederate bombardment of the federal government’s Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina.

During the Civil War, flags were not necessarily inexpensive or easy to come by as they are today. Flags had to be hand-made and many soldiers had deep personal connections to them.

Union Zouave uniform, ca. 1861-1863

Modern soldier? This flamboyant Zouave uniform was thought to be the future of combat fatigues on both sides of the conflict

This Union Zouave uniform, with its red pantaloons and intricate trim hardly looks heroic by contemporary standards.

In their time, though ‘Fey and affected as their apparel may look to modern eyes, Zouaves were widely considered the roughest and toughest men in the Union service.’

The flamboyant French-inspired Zouave uniform was once the cutting edge of military fashion. Both Union and Confederate troops wore variations of the Zouave outfit.

This wasn’t just a dress uniform. Men wore this ensemble into combat.

However, the rigors of war soon proved the Zouave impractical. The pantaloons easily ripped and the fine trim on the coat was soon mangled.

By war’s end, few Zouave uniforms remains intact.

However, one Private David P. Davis was able to preserve his. Davis wore the uniform pictured here through a grueling military campaign that included that Second Battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chanellorsville.

‘He survived them all – flamboyantly dressed like this,’ Holzer writes.

Officer’s footlocker with belongings, 1860-1890

Personal property: This trunk belonged to Lieutenant Colonel William H. Pain, a topographical engineer from New Hampshire. In it, he carried all of his clothing and all of the items he needed at war

During the war, generals lived in luxury, commandeering private mansions to live in while on the march and employing with personal servants. Enlisted men, on the other hand, were allowed few personal belongings and slept in canvas tents ‘packed like sardines in a box.’

Between those two extremes of comfort and squalor, high-ranking officers were allowed simple footlockers that carried everything they needed for war.

This footlocker belonged to Lieutenant Colonel William H. Pain, a topographical engineer from New Hampshire who surveyed terrain and battlefields for the Union army.

The wooden chest he carried to war was just 10 and ¾ inches by 21 and ½ inches by 15 and ¼ inches – about 50percent larger than an airline carry-on suitcase.

Lt Col Pain’s footlocker features two tray compartments that allowed him to neatly arrange his belongings. When the New-York Historical Society took possession of it, it was still stocked the Pain’s wartime supplies – and a few other things he had acquired during his life after the war.

One-of-a-kind: This 'Butler Medal' was the only badge issued specifically to black troops for their service during the Civil War. Major General Benjamin Franklin Butler was reportedly moved by the courage after witnessing a U.S. Colored Troops regiment during the siege of Richmond, Virginia

Story of the war: 'The Civil War in 50 Objects' offers a new perspective on the deadliest conflict in American history by using surviving objects to tell stories from the era

Pictured are: Engineering spectacles, a shaving kit with brush and razor, a black comb and wooden hairbrush, leather belt holster that once carried Pain’s service revolver, highly decorated leather-brass-and-cotton sword belt and buckles, paper fragments, a skeleton key on a string, a single metal grapeshot round, a leather strap, a single souvenir epaulet from the War of 1812, insignia of the U.S. Army Engineers, miniature silk American flag, wooden accessory box filled with ribbons and coin purses, metal tape measures that Pain himself invented and a metal Paine won from the American Institute.

Medal for black soldiers who fought for the Union, 1864 to 1865

Major General Benjamin Franklin Butler was, by all accounts, a miserable wartime commander and a corrupt, greedy administrator after the war.

However, he will be remembered in history as the first American general ever to specifically recognize the valor of black troops in combat with a medal.

After watching U.S. Colored Troops regiments under his command fight bravely during the 1864 attack on the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, he decided that they needed commendation.

Without permission from President Lincoln or the Union commanders, Butler ordered about 200 metals specially made and minted in bronze and silver.

The general apparently took great pride in personally pinning most of the medals on the chests of his black soldiers.



He later wrote about his decision: 'I record with pride that in that single action there were so many deserving that it called for a presentation of nearly two hundreds. Since the war, I have been fully rewarded by seeing the beaming eye of many a colored comrade as he drew his medal from the innermost recesses of his concealment.'

Despite the momentousness of Butler's actions, his reputation as a rouge - and his failure to clear the medal with anyone in the army chain of command - meant that the soldiers who received his 'Butler medal' were actually barred from displaying it publicly on their uniforms.