"Metamorphosis" prints usually consist of folding flaps, each printed with part of a design and which, when opened sequentially, show several consecutive scenes. This example is an imaginary view of the hanging of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. (Davis was actually only imprisoned.) For another of the many popular portrayals of Davis's hanging, see "John Brown Exhibiting His Hangman" (no. 1865-16).

McClellan, in the character of Hamlet stands near an open grave holding the head of Abraham Lincoln. He soliloquizes, "I knew him, Horatio: A fellow of infinite jest . . . Where be your gibes now?" The cartoon evidently appeared following publication in the "New York World" of a scandalous but fabricated account of callous levity displayed by Lincoln while touring the battlefield at Antietam. (See also "The Commander-in-Chief conciliating the Soldier's Votes," no. 1864-31.)

Issued in the North during the Civil War, the melodramatic portrayal of an apocryphal incident from the life of John Brown must have had unmistakable propagandistic overtones. In actuality a violent antislavery fanatic, Brown was convicted in 1859 of treason, inciting slave rebellion, and murder in his abortive attempt to seize the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry and ignite an armed slave insurrection in the South. Yet through his trial and execution at Charles Town, Virginia, in December 1859, Brown became for many Northerners a martyr of the abolitionist cause.

An advertising calendar for a lithographic printing firm, decorated with Unionist symbols and motifs. The calendar for 1863 and the first 6 months of 1864 is surrounded with an elaborate framework of floral and acanthus ornament, surmounted by the figure of Columbia or Liberty. The figure is closely based on Thomas Crawford's statue of Freedom on the U.S. Capitol. She stands holding shield and sword, and wearing a robe emblazoned with stars and an eagle headdress with a crown of stars.

Another show of Northern optimism in the early months of the Lincoln administration. Uncle Sam approaches from the left holding a bayonet, causing five Southern soldiers to flee in panic to the right. In their haste to retreat the Confederates drop their flag, muskets, a hat, and a boot. A black child and two black men, one fiddling, watch with obvious glee from the background. Prominent in the center foreground are a mound marked "76" bearing an American flag and a crowing cock. In the background are the Capitol at Washington (left) and the palmetto trees of South Carolina (right).

April 26, 1862
Justin Howard

Foote, the son of Connecticut governor and U.S. senator Samuel Foot [sic], was a career naval officer who had served off the coasts of Africa, China, and the West Indies. His experiences capturing slave ships were recounted in Africa and the American Flag (1854), which influenced public opinion against the illicit international slave trade. A temperance advocate, he convinced the Navy in 1862 to repeal its alcohol ration to sailors.

“A Man Knows A Man�

April 22, 1865
artist unknown

Although black men volunteered to serve in the Union armed forces as soon as the Civil War began, their service was rejected, ostensibly because of a federal law which prohibited blacks from bearing arms in the United States military. (Although the law was enacted in 1792, blacks had served during the War of 1812.) Both the eagerness of black volunteers and the refusal to enlist them were based significantly on the assumption that their military service would foster emancipation of the slaves.

April 12, 1862
artist unknown

This unsigned Harper's Weekly cartoon contrasts the opinions of William Howard Russell, war correspondent for the London Times, upon entering and leaving the United States.

“General Stuart’s New Aid�

April 4, 1863
artist unknown

During the Civil War, some women served either the Union or the Confederacy as spies, couriers, informers, smugglers, saboteurs, scouts, or guides. Rumors of espionage were printed frequently in newspapers, sometimes maligning the character of the innocent who were named or inadvertently protecting the operations of the guilty who were unidentified.

“The First of April, 1864�

April 1, 1864
Thomas Nast