The 20 new Civil War stamp subjects selected by the U.S. Postal Service are a balance of not only North and South but show representation of women, blacks and American Indians while managing to include many of the names generally associated with the conflict.
Images representing the North are: American President Abraham Lincoln, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, Vice Adm. David Glasgow Farragut, Nurse Clara Barton, Abolitionist Harriet Tubman, Journalist Frederick Douglass, and the battles of Gettysburg and Shiloh.Confederate images are: Confederacy President Jefferson Davis, Gen. Robert E. Lee, Lt. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Gen. Joseph Johnston, Rear Adm. Raphael Semmes, Diarist Mary Chesnut, Nurse Phoebe Pember, Brig. Gen. Stand Watie "Degadoga" and the Battle of Chancellorsville.
Also illustrated is a scene of the "Battle of the Ironclads" - the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (also known as the Merrimack).
The special sheet of 20 stamps can be purchased at your local post office or first-day covers from the Philatelic Fulfillment Center, U.S. Postal Service, P.O. Box 419636, Kansas City, Mo. 64141-6636.
- Syd Kronish