kurz & allison civil war series

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MONTAGECivil Rights in Popular Prints: Kurz andAllisons Civil War Series

Barbaranne E. Mocella Liakos

In the last two decades of the nineteenth century theChicago-based lithographic firm of Kurz and Allison producedthirty-six chromolithographs depicting battles from the recent

American Civil War.1

Five of these images, Battle between theMonitor and the Merrimac, Storming of Fort Wagner, Battle ofNashville, The Fort Pillow Massacre, and Battle of Olustee, Flaalmost one-seventh of the whole setdepict African Americans;four of the five give Black figures a central role in the action. Ofthe other well-known firms to produce Civil War print series inthe mid- to late nineteenth century, none gave African Americansthe prominence that Kurz and Allison did.2After the abolition ofslavery and during the hard fought struggle for civil rights somepublishers continued to demean blacks in garish caricaturesrather than represent them as dignified citizens, even thoughmany African American soldiers had distinguished themselves intheir service with whites for the Northern cause.3 In four of theprints containing black figures, Kurz and Allison could havechosen different, or better known events from the battle depicted,but instead they selected scenes in which black soldiers andcivilians played pivotal roles in the war. In each case AfricanAmericans are portrayed as heroic, even if the eventual outcomeof the battle was not in the Unions favor. It is for this reason thatthese images can be seen as contributing to the larger discoursesurrounding civil rights in late nineteenth century America.Through their Civil War portrayals of blacks as strong, resilient,capable soldiers and civilians more than twenty years after the

battles took place, Kurz and Allison demonstrated their belief thatAfrican Americans should be awarded civil rights equal to thoseof their countrymen.

Kurz and Allisons images did not just reflect thissentiment, rather their images were active participants in the civilrights dialogue that occupied the citizens of the newly unitednation. One must ask then, why would a lithographic firm made

Note:Montagearticles, and the imagescontained therein, are for educational

use only.

1. Each image measures 28 x 22.

2. Harold Holzer and Mark E. Neely, Jr.,Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: The CivilWar in Art(New York: Orion Books,1993), 252. Louis Prangs Civil War se-ries contained one black figure in thedepiction of the battle of the Alabamaand the Kearsarge.

3. The Currier and Ives Darktownseries was completed during the 1870s

and 1880s. According to the Philadel-phia Print Shop, creating a segregatedcommunity of black Americans, Dark-town prints showcased a full array ofnegative stereotypes of former slaveswho moved north after the Civil War.Portrayed as mentally slow, physicallygrotesque, and morally inept, AfricanAmericans became comical figures tothe primarily white consumers ofCurrier and Ives prints. See http://www.philaprintshop.com/blackimagec&i.html.


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up of two white men in Chicago choose to include such a boldstatement in favor of civil rights in their Civil War print series?

The firm of Kurz and Allison was formed in Chicago in1880 after Louis Kurz had tried his hand at several other printingventures. Kurz was born in Austria and moved to Milwaukee

with his family as a youth. He later moved to Chicago, where in1865 he co-founded the Chicago Lithographing Company. Afterthe Great Chicago Fire of 1871 Kurz returned to Milwaukee wherehe founded the American Oleograph Company the next year. In1878 he again returned to Chicago where he would pass the restof his life. He continued at the firm of Kurz and Allison until hisdeath in 1921.4 The biography of Kurzs partner in the Chicagofirm is much less clear. He was either William or AlexanderAllison and was listed in the Chicago City directory as anengraver in 1879.5

Issued from 1884 through 1894, Kurz and Allisons litho-

graphs were the largest and most popular set of Civil War printsever produced.6 They were not, however, completed in chrono-logical order. For example, The Battle of Gettysburg, which de-picted the cataclysmic confrontation of July 1863, was the first tobe issued in 1884, perhaps, as John Neely and Harold Holzer havesuggested because of the battles famed reputation.7

As with any printing house that wants to stay afloat, Kurzand Allison were clearly concerned with producing popular andmarketable images. This would seem to suggest a marketatleast in Chicagoin the late nineteenth century for images of theCivil War. Because Kurz and Allisons print set contained a highpercentage of depictions of blacks, one can also assume a marketfor images of the heroic acts of African American participants inthe Civil War.

The first of these five depicts the Battle Between the Monitorand Merrimac (see fig. 1), completed in 1889 to commemorate acontest fought on March 9, 1862 at Hampton Roads, Virginia. Thiswas the infamous battle of the ironclads, the first armored ships ofwar. In most images of this naval confrontation, the ships them-selves are presented as the most significant players in the scene,while human figures are given only secondary importance. In thecase of the Kurz and Allison image, however, the elevated viewerwatches from the shoreline where Union soldiers are engaged in

an effort to rescue those forced to abandon a burning woodenUnion ship.8

As the ironclads engage in the background, Union soldiersand black civilians (whether slaves or not is uncertain) aid in theeffort to rescue those abandoning the burning ship. In the far leftmiddle ground a black figure emerges from his small dwellingthat has been set ablaze in the battle. His hand is raised to his

4. Jay T Last, The Color Explosion: Nine-teenth Century American Lithograph(Santa Anna, CA: Hillcrest Press,2005), 110-11.

5. Jay Last lists Kurzs partner asWilliam Allison, while Battles of theCivil War 1861-1865: The Complete Kurz& Allison Prints names him AlexanderAllison. Neely and Holzer ascertainthat Allison was probably a financialbacker and manager, in Mark E. Neely

Jr, and Harold Holzer, The Union Im-age: Popular Prints of the Civil War North(Chapel Hill: The University of NorthCarolina Press, 2000), 210.

6. Neely and Holzer, The Union Image,209.

7. Ibid., 210. In fact this was the case, asthe Gettysburg chromo was executedon the heels of the unveiling of theGettysburg Cyclorama by PaulPhilippoteaux in Chicago in 1883.

8. This ship may be the Congresswhichhad been destroyed and left to burn bythe Merrimac the night before. Othersources suggest that the ship is the

Minnesotawhich sustained some injuryduring the March 9thbattle, but did not

sink and never flew the white flag ofsurrender. Inconsistencies like these inthe timeline of the action and some-times in the players themselves are notuncommon in Kurz and Allison prints.For more information see Battles of theCivil War 1861-1865: a pictorial presenta-tion(New York:Pioneer Press, 1960)and Neely and Holzer,The Union Im-age:Popular Prints of the Civil WarNorth, 218. There are numerous publi-cations that recount the events of theCivil War. Shelby Footes three volumeThe Civil War: A Narrative(New York:

Vintage Books, 1986) is that which ismost often consulted for this portion ofthe essay.


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head in a gesture of anguish at all he surveys outside hisdoorway. In the right middle ground another black figure assistsa white Union soldier in the rescue of a wounded sailor. Inbetween these two figures, along the same parallel, is a canoefilled with figures apparently departing, including a black man,two black children, and a black woman, who holds onto the sternof the boat. Perhaps they are making their escape (although this

would seem odd since the frenzied battle taking place aroundthem would make this attempt quite perilous). Or perhaps theyare going to aid the other boats rescuing soldiers from the burningUnion ship (although this too seems somewhat implausible sincechildren are on board). Whatever the reason for their inclusion,Kurz and Allison accord these figures more importance than thebattle between the newly invented iron ships of war that wouldultimately give the battle its fame.

Fig. 1:Kurz and Allison, Battle Between the Monitor and Merrimac, 1889, chromolithograph, 22 in. x 28 in. (55.88 x71.12 cm). American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA, Graphic Arts collection.


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Storming Fort Wagner is perhaps the best known Civil Warevent that involved an African American regiment, theMassachusetts Fifty-fourth (see fig. 2). In their 1890 image of thebattle Kurz and Allison depict the moment on July 18, 1863 whenthe black division, led by General Robert Gould Shaw, attacked

the rebel garrison in Charleston, South Carolina. In the center ofthe print the General Shaw stands atop a parapet, sword raised inhis right hand where he is said to have commanded his troopswith the shout of Forward, my brave boys.9 As he gave thiscommand he was shot directly in the heart and his troops wereforced to carry on the battle without him. Next to Shaw stands ablack member of the infantry, Sergeant William H. Carney.Carney rescued the colors from a fallen comrade and reportedlynever let the flag fall to the ground even though he was severelywounded in the battle.10In the foreground black soldiers dressedin Union blues surge forward onto the walls of the fort, while

9. William Wells Brown, The Negro inthe American Rebellion: His Heroism andHis Fidelity(Boston: Lee and Shepard,1867; reprint, Athens, OH: Ohio Uni-versity Press, 2003), 114 (page citations

are to the reprint edition).

10. Letter from E. N. Hallowell toWilliam Schouler reprinted in ibid,121.

Fig. 2:Kurz and Allison, Storming Fort Wagner, 1890, chromolithograph, 22 in. x 28 in. (55.88 x 71.12 cm). The Uni-versity of Iowa Library, Iowa City, IA, Special Collections.


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defending themselves from Confederate troops who have left theenclave to defend their territory. Rebels are strewn all over theground at the feet of the Fifty-fourth. Union soldiers stab andshoot their enemies at close range and manage to ascend the wallwith very few casualties.

Kurz and Allison give prominence to the initial action ofthe event in which black soldiers commenced one of the bloodiestbattles of the war. The hand-to-hand combat that ensued all but

decimated the Massachusetts Fifty-fourthand led to a total of overfifteen-hundred Union casualties, while less than two-hundredwere lost on the Confederate side. The outcome of the battle,however, is unapparent in the scene the Chicago lithographic firmchose to depict. Black soldiers are shown as strong, organizedindividuals led by a gallant general. Very few Union soldiers havefallen as compared to almost a dozen Rebels. The viewer is placedat a slight distance from the violence and on a level comparable to

Fig. 3:Kurz and Allison, Battle of Nashville, 1891, chromolithograph, 22 in. x 28 in. (55.88 x 71.12 cm).The Libraryof Congress, Washington D.C., Prints and Photographs Division.


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that of General Shaw. The point of view is from behind Unionlines; the viewer is thus clearly aligned with the Union cause. TheConfederates behind the wall of the fort are cropped by the leftborder and appear much smaller in size and fewer in number,although this was hardly the case of the actual battle.

Perhaps following on the success of Storming of FortWagner, Kurz and Allison completed Battle of Nashvillein 1891 (seefig. 3). The battle took place in December of 1864 and was a three-day long engagement that would eventually turn the tide of thewar towards the Union. In this image the viewer looks on as ifpositioned on a nearby hilltop offering a panoramic view of theaction. In the foreground Confederate butternuts lie dead andwounded as their general on horseback raises aloft a white flag ofsurrender. In the background a black corps of Union soldiersascends the hill behind which the Confederates have beenfighting. The African American soldiers march tall and in line,

bayonets raised to affront the enemy while their Rebel counter-parts retreat in disarray.This scene probably depicts one of two events that in-

cluded Union General Steedmans three brigades, two of whichwere composed of black troops. On the first day of the battle,December 15, Steedman was charged with engaging his soldiersin a feint on Rains Hill, southeast of Nashville, in order to distractConfederate troops from other maneuvers of the Union army. Asecond possibility is that this is the engagement that took place onOverton Hill the following day when Steedmans efforts were nolonger a ruse but rather an important battle on the road to victory.In both cases, the generals black troops were held at bay or theywere repulsed by the Confederates. In the first instance the Unioninfantry came upon a haggard brigade of Confederate soldierswho immediately fell back in a rather disorderly manner butthen came on again and again for more two hours.11 The eventended in no gain for Steedmans troops, but was an overallsuccess because the rebels were distracted for enough time for theUnion leader, General Thomas, to complete other maneuversacross Nashville. The result of the next days contest on OvertonHill was the bloodiest fighting of the two-day battle.12 In thiscase the rebels were the victors. After nearly three hours of surg-ing up the hill and then stumbling down the slope muddied from

a thaw the day before, the Union soldiers retreated. One ofSteedmans unitsthe 13th U.S. Colored Infantrysuffered 221casualties, the largest regimental loss on either side.13Participantsin this battle also included brigades commanded by four othergenerals: Wilson, Smith, Wood, and Schofield, none of whosecontingents included blacks. The maneuvers completed by theseleaders were also of vital importance to the Union victory at

11. The admission of a Confederateregimental commander reprinted inFoote, vol. 3, 690.

12. Foote, vol. 3, 698.

13. Ibid., 700.


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Nashville. Kurz and Allisons calculated choice to represent thispivotal battle through a depiction of a black regiment is thereforenotable.

A battle that later became known as The Fort PillowMassacre occurred on April 12, 1864 in Tennessee and wasmemorialized in print by Kurz and Allison in 1892 (see fig. 4). TheFort Pillow Massacre had been a popular subject in the press inthe years prior as well. In this scene of carnage innocent black

women and children, along with black Union soldiers aremassacred by Confederate soldiers wielding knives and bayonets.The Confederate flag flies high amid the chaos, carried in bysurging Rebels. In the left background a white flag of surrender israised while below it those who once occupied the fort arebrutally murdered at seaside. This band of Confederate soldierswas led by Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest, a well knownslave trader. As a military leader he was feared because of his

Fig. 4:Kurz and Allison, The Fort Pillow Massacre, 1892, chromolithograph, 22 in. x 28 in. (55.88 x 71.12 cm). TheHistorical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, Graphics Collection.


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unorthodox methods and slashing attacks, often delivered in utterdisregard of the odds and the tactics manuals . . . . 14Fort Pillowhad been established as a Rebel stronghold, but came underUnion control two years prior to the massacre. It was garrisonedby a force of about five hundred and fifty men, half of whom were

former slaves who had volunteered for duty.15The other half ofthe force was made up of white southerners who joined the Unioncause, called traitors and deserters by their Rebel foe. As the Rebelforces attacked, no counterattack could be forged without anyUnion soldier exposing half of his body to open fire because of theway the fort was constructed. In this way the rebels were able togain ground against the fort, enter it, and fire upon the soldiersinside. As the Union supporters retreated they were flailed fromthe rear by heavy downhill volleys. All kept running; some wentstraight into the river where many drowned, others dropped theirguns and surrendered, many of whom were killed anyway.16

Forrest, however, had apparently ordered the firingstopped as soon as his troops entered the fort; his soldierstherefore must have disregarded his orders. Within six days acongressional committee was appointed to gather testimony fromthose who survived. They came away with stories of outrageouscruelties inflicted on the innocent.17Although the testimony mayhave been exaggerated, the casualty figures do indicate thatracism was at play. A full four-fifths of the 262 black soldiers werekilled or mortally wounded, whereas over half of the whitesoldiers were led away to Confederate prisons. After PresidentLincoln ordered an investigation General Grant wired GeneralSherman, If our men have been murdered after capture, re-taliation must be resorted to promptly. But none took place.Sherman never made a recommendation for retaliation, whichFoote writes, is proof in itself that none was justified, since noone doubted that otherwise, with Sherman in charge, retaliationwould have been as prompt as even Grant could have desired.18So the events of the Fort Pillow Massacre remain a mystery, butthe Kurz and Allison print suggests that the atrocities committedagainst black soldiers and civilians at the fort were importantenough to be accorded a place within their selective series.

The final image under consideration was completed as oneof the last prints of the series. The Battle of Olustee, Fla. was

copyrighted in 1894 (see fig. 5); the battle took place February 20,1864.19In this image the viewer once again joins the ranks of theUnion. A black regiment in the foreground, led by GeneralSeymour on horseback, engages with a barely visible Confederatecontingent in the background. Amid the smoke from the firearmstwo rebel flags and hints of Rebel soldiers and cannons can beseen. The two factions are divided by a swamp called Ocean Pond

14. Ibid., 106.

15. Ibid., 108.

16. Ibid., 110.

17. Ibid., 111.

18. Ibid., 112.

19. The print is erroneously labeledFeby 26 1864.


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a typical terrain in this part of Florida that was difficult totraverse. In the central foreground two black soldiers lay dead asa wounded white general is led to the back of the procession by ablack soldier. In the right middle ground white soldiers shootcannons at their foe as their black brothers-in-arms advance. Atthis time in the action only five Union casualties can be counted;any rebel deaths are unaccountable because of their distance from

the viewer.The image does not betray the eventual outcome of the

battle. Seymours troops were tired from continuous hikingthrough the swamps, while the Confederates, equal in numbers,were rested and eventually able to overtake the bluecoats. Footeindicates that the breakdown occurred when successive Unionregiments were overtaken and forced to flee. He writes, A NewHampshire regiment was the first to give way, followed by

Fig. 5:Kurz and Allison, Battle of Olustee, Fla., 1894, chromolithograph, 22 in. x 28 in. (55.88 x 71.12 cm). SmithsonianNational Museum of American History, Washington D.C., The Harry T. Peters Collection.


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another of Negro regulars who fled when their colonel was shotdown, and total collapse was only forestalled by Seymoursbelated permission for the rest to withdraw.20None of this col-lapse is evident in the Kurz and Allison image. If the white soldierin the foreground being helped off the field by a black soldier is

indeed their general, in the image he has been replaced byanother leader and the black troops continue to advance in stronglines.

Ever since authors began committing the memory of theCivil War to print, various characterizations have existed. In acatalog of Kurz and Allison Civil War prints published in 1960 byPioneer Press, the editors present accounts of each battle writtenby Civil War historians.21Some of their accounts differ markedlyfrom those by the more recent author, Shelby Foote. For examplein the 1960 catalog, Campbell H. Brown, the then executive direc-tor of the Tennessee Civil War Centennial commission, explains

that the first maneuver by Steedmans black regiment in the Battleof Nashville had been erroneously termed a feint (Foote calls itsuch) and was in fact an attack necessary to detain advancingConfederate troops.22

Perhaps the most glaring inconsistency resides in the de-tails surrounding the Fort Pillow Massacre. Lorenzo J. Greene,historian and contributor to the Journal of Negro Historyand otherhistorical periodicals, was selected to comment on Kurz andAllisons print in the 1960 catalog. In his estimation Confederatetroops under General N. B. Forrest captured Fort Pillow thenmassacred, tortured and burned most of the white and Negrosurvivors.23 He recounts contemporary testimony which statesthat Forrest made his strategic maneuvers under the guise of atruce, and that the morning after the battle most of the woundedwere rounded up, placed in nearby buildings and set on fire,while others were nailed to logs and burned. Unlike Foote,Greene notes that retaliatory measures were not taken becausethey proved far too difficult to impose. This reasoning seemsunfounded, but no less than Footes own account of Forrestssoldiers blatant disregard for their commanders orders. Forrestsbrutish, no-holds-barred reputation is reiterated in many sources.It seems implausible that soldiers would indiscriminately ignoresuch a feared general and continue the slaughter without his

approval. Kurz and Allison apparently deemed it appropriate togive the benefit of the doubt to the black soldiers and civiliansand to allow them the attributes of capability, grace, and virtueunder extreme pressure.

It is evident throughout the five Kurz and Allison imagescontaining black figures that the artists took some liberties, com-mitted some errors of fact, and chose to represent select scenes

20. Foote, v 2:904.

21. Battles of the Civil War, n.p.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid.


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and versions of Civil War events. They made conscious choicesregarding their own values and those of the series subscribers.Accuracy does not seem to have been the firms main objective.Had it been, each image would have been rendered as objectivelyas possible and would always depict the most salient event of

each battle. The four images that include black soldiers in par-ticular convey an overwhelming sense of their strength andresolve. Whether a Union victory or not, and whether the scenedepicted was the deciding event of the battle seems not to havemattered to Kurz and Allison. As a group the prints representblack Americans as equals to their white Union counterparts, andas more able, oras in the case of the Fort Pillow Massacresmore human than their white Confederate enemies. Pro-Unionpublications usually characterized Union militia, both black andwhite soldiers, as superior to Confederate, but multiple depictionsof blacks as equally able to fight is unique in print sets of this

time.24

Kurz and Allisons predisposition towards scenes repre-senting the strength and resolve of black soldiers over and abovea need for accuracy shows how committed the firm was toadvancing the larger discourse surrounding civil rights.

Throughout the decades that Kurz and Allison publishedtheir Civil War series the heroic actions of black soldiers in theabove mentioned battles were often invoked in written texts asevidence of their right to equality. In an address given on March16, 1886 to members of the Union League Club of New York,Reverend W. B. Derrick, a former member of the crew of theMinnesota during the battle between the Monitor and Merrimacand a representative man of the emancipated race appealed forequality based on military service. He made a request to thosewho had the moral courage to stand up before the mobs . . . andled one thousand Negro troops down to the dock for the seat ofconflict. He asked, Now that the war of bayonets is over, nowthat shot and shell are still, do not desert us in our hour ofneed.25In an 1882 editorial a contributor to The Christian Recorderrecounted the bravery of black soldiers throughout history, . . . itis not to be supposed that the negro has only and ever figured asthe worlds servant. Let him who thinks so read the ancient sacredand profane histories of the world . . . . Let him read the JewishChronicles and Kings. In these, the prowess of negro arms is seen

to be the very counterpart of Fort Wagner, of Petersburgh andOlustee . . . . 26

In an 1887 account of The Assault on Fort WagnerCaptain Luis F. Emilio, one of the survivors of the Fifty-fourthregiment of black volunteers, described his comrades as, in-spired with noble ardor to aid their enslaved brothers when thelong-looked-for opportunity was offered.27 He included termslike bravery, heroism, and glory in his description of the troops

24. The firm of Currier and Ives did doa representation of the Battle of FortWagner entitledThe Gallant Charge ofthe Fifty Fourth Massachusetts (Colored)Regimentin 1863. But, as far as can be

deduced, Currier and Ives completedno others including prominent blackfigures.

25. Reverend Derricks address is re-printed in An Address, The ChristianRecorder, 7 October 1886.

26. Arabis Black Troops. The War,The Christian Recorder, 14 September1882.


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actions during the bloody assault. In 1886 the Reverend Jno.(sic)C. Brock invited all black troops who served in the Civil War tocome together in a national reunion. He proposed that historicalinformation could be collected during the event and published inorder to add the black perspective to the history books. Examine

our school histories, of (sic) you please, and you will find verylittle, if any, reference made to the fact that nearly 200,000 coloredmen shouldered the musket and went forth to so and die, that thefoul blot of slavery might be forever erased from our nationalbanner.28 In each of the above selections the author does notinvoke the term equality proper or the ongoing fight for civilrights, but he does seek, in some cases more than twenty yearsafter the conflict, to retain the memory of the gallant actions ofblack troops, and, most importantly, he contributes to a largerdiscourse taking place during the late nineteenth century in whichthe bravery and heroism of black troops wereinvoked as such.

On January 28, 1886, The Christian Recorder ran an articleentitled Governor Foraker on the Race Question, discussing theviews of the white governor of Ohio, who heartily defended civilrights:

The theory of our government recognizes the absolutecivil and politic (sic) equality of all our citizens withoutregard to race or color. This theory has not, however, hadabsolute, practical application. There are still a few lawson our statute books that crate (sic) unjust discriminationsbased on color. They should be swept away, to the endthat our colored fellow citizens may have the same rightsand the same opportunities for education and self-elevation and the enjoyment of the rights of citizenshipthat the citizens have. This is due them & they haveearned it. They are a loyal people and always have been.They have fought for the flag and have attested theirheroism and shed their blood on the battle-fields of theRepublic. No braver soldiers ever followed the stars and stripesthan the heroes of Fort Wagner and a dozen other contests of thelate war, where colored men patriotically laid down their livesthat this nation might live. We can not afford to be less thanjust to all. And not only should such rights be fully

accorded, but their enforcement should be adequatelyprovided for by appropriate legislation.29

Denunciations like this, which rallied against the lack of en-forcement of these rights were rampant in black periodicals of thisperiod.

In response to the decision of the Supreme Court in 1883not to impose civil rights on the country but to allow states to

27. Luis F Emilio, The Assault On FortWagner July 18, 1863: The MemorableCharge of the Fifty-Fourth of Massachu-setts Volunteers(Boston: Rand AveryCompany, 1887), 7.

28. Reverend Jno. C. Brock, Reunionof Colored Troops, The ChristianRecorder, 1886.

29. Governor Foraker on the RaceQuestion, The Christian Recorder, 28

January 1886. My emphasis.


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enact those as they saw fit, Professor B. K. Sampson admonishedthe court for this decision and reminded readers of all that blacksoldiers had done for the country. He wrote, I would ask thisnation to remember the behavior of our colored soldiers at NewOrleans, to consider their heroic devotion, their suffering and

death around Port Hudson, Fort Wagner, Fort Pillow, Honey Hill,Olustee, Petersburgh, Richmond and AppomattoxThe rights ofevery American must and will be placed beyond all cavail (sic),beyond all political strife, beyond prejudice and machinations ofmen. In the darkest hour of our country we have been loyal.30

Many post-war sources verify the racially motivatedmassacre of the garrison at Fort Pillow that Shelby Foote denies.Francis Vinton Greene, one of the authors of the 1882 thirteenvolume series entitled Campaigns of the Civil War and a militaryofficer himself, does not describe the atrocities, but does admit tothe indelible stain left by Forrest when he slaughtered the

captive negro garrison of Fort Pillow, in April, 1864.31

Othersources are more specific in their condemnation of the event. In aNew York Timesarticle from May of 1879 entitled The Murders atFort Pillow: A Lame Explanation by Gen. Chalmers of his Part inthe Atrocities, the author recounts the Generals assertion ofinnocence to the U.S. House of Representatives. The authorexplains that Chalmers, did not attempt to deny the truthfulnessof the published reports of the barbarities perpetrated upon thatoccasion by the Confederate troops which he and Gen. Forrestcommanded. In closing the author writes, It would have beenbetter for Gen. Chalmers had he not reopened this painful anddisgraceful chapter of the rebellion. No man who participated inthat assault and butchery can ever hope to be relieved from thedeep disgrace which attaches to it.32It is clear that the memory ofthe events that occurred at Fort Pillow during the Civil War werestill quite fresh in the minds of Americans more than fifteen yearslater. This assault on humanity has certain parallels to theinhumane institution of slavery and was another event ofteninvoked in the effort to gain civil rights.

On March 18th 1886 The Christian Recorder published aresponse to a document provided to the black regimenttheTwenty-fifth army corpsby their new commander in Februaryof 1865 just before they entered into battle. Major General Godfrey

Weitzel, in order to inspire the troops placed under hiscommand, issued [a] remarkable document in which he statedthat blacks, deserve those equal rights that have been hithertodenied by the majority. The author who published thedocument, Rev. John C. Brock, had this to say in response toGeneral Weitzels positive account of his black troops, Whateverdoubts may have existed in reference to their ability as soldiers

30. B.K Sampson, In Reply to BishopH. M. Turners Scathing Letter on theDecision of the Supreme Court Touch-ing the Civil Rights Bill, The ChristianRecorder, 27 December 1883.

31. Francis Vinton Greene, Campaignsof the Civil War vol. VIII: The Mississippi(New York: Charles Scribners Sons,1882), 237.

32. The Murders at Fort Pillow. ALame Explanation by Gen. Chalmersof his Part in the Atrocities, The NewYork Times, 8 May 1879. See also Gen-eral Chalmers An Open Letter To theNew York Times, from November 24,1876 at www.americanantiquarian.org/digital2.htm


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were quickly dispelled after the names of Port Hudson, FortWagner, Olustee, Honey Hill, Fort Pillow and Petersburg wereemblazoned on the banners of this class of the nationsdefenders. In this way, a contemporary account by a respectedmilitary official paved the way for later claims to equality based

in part on military conduct.In fact, other accounts of the bravery of black soldiers pre-

date Kurz and Allisons print set. These descriptions of courageand heroism acted as catalysts for the more vehement demandsfor equality found in later sources. On August 8, 1863 HarpersWeeklypublished its account of The Attack on Fort Wagner. Theauthor wrote of the devastating loss of life and of those regimentsthat participated. Of Colonel Shaws forces the author wrote, The54th Massachusetts (negro), whom Copperhead officers wouldhave called cowardly if they had stormed and carried the gates ofhell, went boldly into battle . . . . 33The phrase equal rights was

invoked in reference to the unequal pay received by blacks whoenlisted after they had been promised the same wage as whitesoldiers. In the September 23, 1865 edition of The ChristianRecorderan earnest advocate of legal equality called those whofought at Fort Wagner sublime and honorable heroes becausethey fought diligently for their country, but stood their groundand demanded equal pay.34 Of those who fought at Olustee,George Heimach, Second Lieutenant of the Third U.S.C.T. (UnitedStates Colored Troops) wrote:

Nothing could have been more heroic, noble or brave thanwas the conduct of the three colored regiments in thatawful fightto see those dusky faces, with determinationwritten on ever (sic) line, fire flashing from every eye,hurling destruction at their enslavers, and praying thatthey might make but one charge, and meet them hand tohand, and let them see that they would make goodsoldiers, but would die before they would be slaves.35

Contemporary accounts of the events at Fort Pillow arejust as horrible as those recounted in the 1880s. The title of a NewYork Timesarticle published just days after the massacre is enoughto make ones stomach turn: The Black Flag. Horrible Massacre

by the Rebels. Fort Pillow Captured After a Desperate Fight. FourHundred of the Garrison Brutally Murdered. Wounded andUnarmed Men Bayoneted and Their Bodies Burned. White andBlack Indiscriminately Butchered. Devilish Atrocities of theInsatiate Fiends.36 The Christian Recorder called the Rebels, in-satiate as fiends and blood-thirsty as devils incarnate as theycommenced an indiscriminate butchery of the whites and

33. The Attack on Fort Wagner,Harpers Weekly, 8 August 1863.

34. The Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts,The Christian Recorder, 23 September

1865.

35. For the Christian Recorder, TheChristian Recorder, 16 April 1864.

36. The Black Flag, New York Times,16 April 1864.


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blacks . . . . 37And Harpers Weekly asserted that, The annals ofsavage warfare nowhere record a more inhuman, fiendishbutchery than this . . . . 38

In his 1867 book entitled The Negro in the American Rebellion:His Heroism and His Fidelity, William Wells Brown interpreted the

war as a struggle for blacks to attain social equality.39 Brownwrites that Robert Gould Shaw, leader of the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth at Fort Wagner, was always thinking of others, not ofhimself; thinking of that great struggle for equality in which therace had now a chance to gain a step forward . . . . 40Through histext Brown describes the bravery with which black soldiers foughtin many of the battles represented by Kurz and Allison. Althoughthe battle at Olustee was a loss for the Union, Brown explains thatthe actions of two of the colored regiments saved the armyand saved the forces from utter route (sic).41 Of Fort Pillow hewrote, By the uniform and voluntary testimony of the rebel

officers, as well as the survivors of the fight, the negro-artilleryregiments fought with the bravery and coolness of veterans, andserved the guns with skill and precision.42 In defense of blacktroops an editor at Harpers Weekly wrote, We have alwaysinsisted that the colored men should have the same chance offighting in this war that white men have; and we have alwaysbelieved that battle for battle, they would show the same spirit andpluck.43 In his discussion of white soldiers responses to blacktroops in the Civil War, historian Mark Ehlers explains that:

Civil War armies were composed of men who had grownup in a democratic society and who carried theirdemocratic ideals with them when they joined the army.Many even elected their own officers and non-commissioned officers. Furthermore, they were well awarethat threats to shoot men refusing to listen to orders after abattlefield defeat were rarely, if ever, carried out. If thewhite men [thrown in line with black men] had feltstrongly enough about not marching with black soldiers attheir side, they would not have done it. Yet, apparently,those white men made a conscious decision to follow [theirleader] and to march with their black comrades. It is anadmission, albeit a grudging one, of the equality of the

black solider on the battlefield.44

As Ehlers suggests, it is the abundance of this type of early rhetoricand sentiment that initiated the inclusion of honorable militaryservice by blacks in civil rights discourse throughout the re-mainder of the century.

During the Civil War the majority of Chicago residentswere pro-Union. This was not an overwhelming majority,

37. The Christian Recorder, 23 April1864.

38. The Massacre at Fort Pillow,Harpers Weekly, 30 April 1864.

39. John David Smith, introduction toThe Negro in the American Rebellion: HisHeroism and His Fidelity, by WilliamWells Brown, xvi.

40. Brown, 117.

41. Ibid., 126.

42. Ibid., 136.

43. The Black Troops, HarpersWeekly, 20 August 1864.

44. Mark Ehlers, The Color of Cour-age: White Soldiers Response to BlackTroops in the Civil War (Mastersthesis, James Madison University,2005), 48.


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however, and anti-Union, anti-abolitionist rhetoric was also evi-dent. In Rally Round the Flag: Chicago and the Civil War author,Theodore Karamanski, explains that, Although southerners oftendenounced the city as a nigger loving town and a den of BlackRepublicanism, Chicago was not strongly abolitionist.45 But, like

other northern cities, there were various abolitionist groups andsmall free black communities. In a paper read before the ChicagoHistorical Society in 1890, Union supporter Augustus HarrisBurley noted angrily, . . . we were surrounded by traitors inChicago, and a large proportion of the people of Southern Illinoissympathized with the South . . . . 46Kurz and Allisons images ofBlack soldiers, however, refuted the notions of the traitors andsupported the calls for abolition.

In the mid nineteenth century Chicago was becoming abooming metropolis. During the war years the population grewfrom 110,000 to 190,000.47By the 1890s the number was 1,100,000.48

Blacks made up a small percentage of this population, but theirnumbers continued to rise steadily due to migration from theSouth. Karamanski writes, The streets thronged with newcomersdrawn to the city by its reputation for commercial opportunity andits open throttle attitude towards the future.49This reputation wassurely the draw for Louis Kurz who sought to break into theprinting industry. Unlike eastern states involved in the war, theconflict actually helped to strengthen the economy of the windycity.

The two main ethnic groups in the city were Germans andthe Irish. The two had been political allies for many years until1860 when the Germans in Chicago backed Lincoln for president.The need for jobs increased the tension between the two immigrantgroups. The Irish generally made up the blue collar work force atthe time, while the Germans were skilled tradesmen and middle-class shopkeepers much like Kurz.50 The Irish had come toAmerica for economic reasons, and the Germans left their homecountry for political ones. Karamanski explains, For the Germans,slavery was an insult to democratic ideals, while emancipation wasperceived as a potential economic threat to the less well off Irish.51Kurz was Austrian, not German, however it is probable that hisloyalty lay with his fellow shopkeepers and German speakers andconsequently with the abolitionists. Although blacks were the low-

est in the immigrant hierarchy, newcomers of all backgroundswere often socially restricted in the same ways. Perhaps Kurz felt akinship to blacks for this reason also.

Illinois so called black laws did, however, deny Blacksbasic civil rights and forced free Blacks to provide proof of theirstatus. In an editorial in Harpers Weekly George William Curtiscompared Illinois to several slave states, The black laws of

45. Theodore J Karamanski. RallyRound the Flag: Chicago and the CivilWar( Chicago: Nelson Hall Publishers,1993), 42.

46. Reprinted in Reminiscences of Chi-cago During the Civil War(New York:Citadel Press, 1967), 56.

47. Karamanski, 159.

48. http://history.alliancelibrarysystem.com/illinoisalive/intro.cfm

49. Karamanski, 159.

50. Ibid., 179.

51. Ibid.


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Illinois, although Illinois is a free State, were as much a part of thecode of slavery as any slave law of Arkansas or Mississippi . . . . 52The black laws were finally repealed in 1864 due to considerablepublic petitions circulated and signed to influence the statelegislature.

Quite a number of Chicagoans fought in the Civil War.Cook County sent over 22,000 men into battle, of which about15,000 were from Chicagoof these nearly 4,000 died.53 In a paperread before The Chicago Historical Society in 1878, William Brossput forth his pride in Chicago which, with the exception of SanFrancisco [is] the youngest of the leading cities of the republic, hasabundant reason to be satisfied with her patriotic record madeduring the Rebellion, and later asserts that the sternly loyal cityof Chicago and the great Northwest were ready and willing to[help] rescue the republic from treason and rebellion.54

By the time Kurz and Allison began their print series ten

posts of the largest veteran group in Chicagothe Grand Army ofthe Republichad been established. Veterans clubs swelled innumbers and tours of former battlefields became popular.Karamanski explains that, more than nostalgia motivatedveterans to call attention to the sacrifices of the war. Memorialceremonies and soldiers reunions served to remind the veterans,and the public, of the ideals for which the war was fought. 55The1880 charter of The Veterans Union League declared that theLeague was formed to encourage the spirit of universal liberty,equal rights, and justice to all men, regardless of nationality orcolor.56According to Karamanski, For a generation after the warmany Chicagoans tried to keep faith with the vision of a societybased upon compassion, individualism, idealism, and socialresponsibility . . . . 57 Kurz and Allison were a part of thisgeneration, and their Civil War prints containing AfricanAmericans comply with this vision.

Kurz and Allison were probably also affected by nationalcultural and political developments of the late century that keptthe memory of the war alive. In 1881 Frederick Douglass publisheda new edition of his The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass Writtenby Himselfin which he reinforced his opinion that the cause of thewar was slavery.58 In the 1870s and 1880s seven volumes of theeight volume set of the history of the United States, written by

German author Hermann Eduard Von Holst from the emergingschool of trained historians, were published and included thefounding of the country through the events of the Civil War. VonHolst enjoyed enormous popularity in the academic communityand was offered jobs by several American universities includingthe University of Chicago.59

In addition, the end of Reconstruction in the late 1870s al-lowed Southerners to regain control over their local governments.

52. George William Curtis, The BlackLaws, Harpers Weekly,11 February1865.

53. Ibid., 235.

54. William Boss, History of CampDouglass, Reprinted in Reminiscencesof Chicago During the Civil War, 161 and170.

55. Ibid., 243.

56. Reprinted in Ibid.

57. Ibid.

58. Thomas J. Pressly, .Americans Inter-pret Their Civil War. (New York: TheFree Press, 1962), 66.


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Of this issue Thomas J. Pressly, in his book entitled AmericansInterpret Their Civil War, writes, disillusioned after a decade ofattempts to impose a solution to [the Negro Question] upon theSouth from the outside, the majority of Northerners apparentlywere willing by the end of Reconstruction, to permit Southern

whites to handle the problem by themselves. And further, Thisnew Northern approach received legal sanction in a series ofdecisions by the Supreme Court which, in effect, left the questionof Negro segregation in the hands of white Southerners.60Hence,the issues pertaining to civil rights for blacks contained within civilwar era dialogue were once again called into question over adecade later. Pressly also notes that, beginning in the late 1870s,there was a revival in interest in the battles of the war and manysymposia were held on various aspects of the war written byprominent individuals, both Unionists and Confederates.61By the1890s a second generation of Civil War historians emerged who

viewed the conflict as history rather than remembered personalexperience.62 Although Kurz was not of this later generation, heand his partner were surely influenced by the interpretations ofthese new historians. Further, in 1892the same year that Kurzand Allison issued The Fort Pillow Massacrethe Supreme Courthanded down the infamous Plessy vs. Ferguson, a decision withnational implications, which deemed separate but equal con-stitutional. Americans across the nation were concerned with equalrights issues; many began revisiting the events of the war for theUnion and reassessing the consequences of this conflict and itsimplications for civil rights.

Kurz and Allison constructed their print series so thatpatrons would remember the necessary efforts of black troops insaving the Union. In an essay that analyzes two Civil War-eraphotograph albums, historian Andrea L. Volpe asserts that thesetypes of albums participated in the cultural work of rememberingand forgetting civil violence and the traumatic costs of establishingthe United States as a modern nation.63 In other words, con-structed visual collections of the Civil War, like Kurz and Allisonsseries, were manipulated in order to aid selective memory. Inaddition, Volpe writes,

The pages of a photograph album present its viewers with

a visual discussiona contest of meaningin which thecontent and context of any one image is always inconversation with the content and context of another. Inthis kind of reading the photograph ceases to be a self-sufficient image and becomes an active performer ofcultural work legible within a social, political, andhistorical field.64

59. Ibid., 73-4.

60. Ibid., 152.

61. Ibid., 157.

62. Ibid., 166.

63. Andrea L Volpe, Collecting theNation: Visions of Nationalism in TwoCivil War-Era Photograph Albums, in

Acts of Possession: Collecting in America,ed. Leah Dilworth, (New Brunswick,N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2003),91.


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The images in Kurz and Allisons civil war series also react thisway to one another. Those that contain black soldiers are scatteredthroughout the print set; they were not issued as a separate set,nor were they all completed in the same year. Those underdiscussion in this essay were completed in 1889, 1890, 1894, 1892,

and 1891 respectively. Prints within the series containing onlywhite soldiers were also issued in the same years. They weredisbursed throughout the set in such a way as to consciously andcontinually reinforce the heroic actions of black troops within thecomplete discourse of the history of the Civil War.

Volpe also contends that within the pages of Civil Warphotograph albums a nation is defined as much by who isincluded in its bounds as it is by who is excluded.65By includingblack soldiers and civilians, Kurz and Allison defined their nationas one inclusive of both white and black races. Conversely, otherprint firms, like L. Prang & Company, neglected the important

addition of black troops to the Union armies. The only blackfigure in Prangs entire Civil War series of eighteen prints is de-picted within a scene from the battle between the Kearsarge andthe Alabama completed in 1887 (see fig. 6). In his description ofthe print Harold Holzer writes, Commander John A. Winslowcan be seen at left; nearby is an African American sailor. TheKearsarge boasted an integrated crew, and Prang was not averseto illustrating this point. However, Prang has only depicted onemember of the integrated crew and in fact, within the context ofthe print set as a whole, virtually disregarded African Americansmarked participation in many battles of the war. It would seemthat Prang wasaverse to illustrating this point.66

Kurz and Allisons images also portray a marked tra-ditional or nostalgic aesthetic that Louis Prangs more modernchromos do not. Prangs images sometimes appeared so muchlike original paintings that a controversy over originality in artarose. The Chicago firm, on the other hand, chose a dated look forits prints even though they had access to all of the most moderntechniques and materials. Their images are far more akin to thoseproduced by Currier and Ives in the 1860s than the con-temporaneous images created by Prang. Perhaps this aestheticallowed Kurz and Allison to more readily deliver their patronsback to the era of the Civil War. Of this aesthetic choice, Holzer

and Neely have written, Their black-outlined images subtlyremind us of the Civil War as common people at the time saw it intheir visual imaginations.67 The hard outlines and stiff com-positions actually made the images and their underlying intentresonate more fully with each viewer.

In an exhibition catalog entitled The Democratic Art, arthistorian Peter Marzio writes, For most of his career, Louis Kurz

64. Ibid.

65. Ibid, 102.

66. Harold Holzer, ed, Prangs Civil

War Pictures: The Complete BattleChromos of Louis Prang. (New York:Fordham University Press, 2001), 174.


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crop a different scene from the panorama that would still includethe ships but not the black figures, or they could have chosen notto render any figures black at all.69 In fact, they could havezoomed in on the ironclads and the burning ship nearby for anequally impressive composition. But they chose otherwise. Their

Storming of Fort Wagnercould have depicted the gory aftermath ofthe bloody battle, but instead Kurz and Allison show black troopsas numerous, strong, and brave led by a white man who gave hislife for the Union and the cause of civil rights. Kurz and Allisonhad numerous maneuvers to choose from for their depiction ofthe Battle of Nashville. They chose one in which one of only twoblack regiments in the whole battle took part. The Fort PillowMassacre is the print that perhaps remains truest to many con-temporary depictions of the event, but, as with all of these selec-tions containing black figures, the publishers could have left it outof the set altogether. Instead they chose to portray the scene as the

worst of the contemporary accounts relayed itwith the un-merciful killing not only of surrendering soldiers, but also ofinnocent women and children. The Battle of Olustee, Fla. was adevastating Union loss, but Kurz and Allison would never haveits subscribers know that. What were known to be a tired andbedraggled group of soldiers is depicted as strong and mission-bent while their Confederate foe are lost behind a cloud of cannonfire. Through the skillful and sympathetic inclusion of imagerycontaining heroic black figures Kurz and Allison and their CivilWar print series became active participants in the ongoing warafter The Warto give black Americans the civil rights they sorightly deserved.

69. SeeA Comprehensive Sketch of theMerrimac and Monitor Naval Battle: Giv-ing an Accurate Account of the Most Im-

portant Naval Engagement in the Annalsof War(New York: Merrimac and

Monitor Panorama Company, 1886).

kurz & allison civil war series

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