Abolitionist Broadside, Died, Near the South-Side Rail Road…The Southern Confederacy

Description

James B. Rogers, a printer in Philadelphia, celebrated the surrender of General Robert E. Lee’s army by printing this satirical broadside proclaiming “Died, Near the South-Side Rail Road, April 9, 1865, The Southern Confederacy, Aged Four Years. Conceived in Sin, Born in Iniquity, Nurtured by Tyranny, Died of a Chronic Attack of Punch.” Abraham Lincoln is listed as the attending physician, U. S. Grant as the undertaker and Jeff Davis as the chief mourner.

The satirical mourning card announcing the demise of the Confederacy was likely printed in Philadelphia immediately after the end of the Civil War, but before Lincoln’s assassination.

The epitaph reads:

Gentle stranger, drop a tear; the C.S.A. lies buried here: In youth it lived and prosper’d well, but like Lucifer it fell; Its body here, its soul in — well, E’en if I knew I wouldn’t tell. Rest C.S.A., from every strife, your death is better than your life; And this one line will grace your grave – Your death gave freedom to the slave.

Excellent condition; clean.

Rogers, James B. (Broadside) Died, Near the South-Side Rail Road, April 9, 1865, The Southern Confederacy… Philadelphia: James B. Rogers, N.d. (April, 1865). Printed on black and white card stock,; 8 5/8” x 6 15/16”; decorative mourning border.