Two Civil War battles memorialized in stamp series
The U.S. Postal Series recently issued the third stamp collection in a five-year series honoring the Civil War. Companies that employ direct mail software can venerate U.S. history on their marketing campaigns through the commemorative stamps.
The two Forever stamps depict the Battle of Gettysburg and the Siege of Vicksburg, both significant collisions between the Confederate and Union armies. Designed by art director Phil Jordan, the conflicts were chosen for their historical significance and are part of a five-year series honoring the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
The Battle of Gettysburg stamp was created using the 1887 chromolithograph by Artist Thure de Thulsrup and illustrates the moment of engagement between the two warring factions. The Siege of Vicksburg stamp is a reproduction of the 1863 lithograph by Currier & Ives and highlights the clash of Confederate and Union naval forces on the Mississippi River during the Union's campaign to gain control of the waterway.
The Gettysburg stamp was dedicated at the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitors Center in Pennsylvania and the Vicksburg stamp was dedicated at the USS Cairo Museum in Mississippi.
At the Battle of Gettysburg stamp's dedication ceremony, Jeff Williamson, chief human resources officer and executive vice president of the USPS, said the two stamps honor those who lost their lives in the conflict.
"Today, we are humbled by the opportunity to dedicate this new stamp honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice so our country could be whole and we could all prosper," Williamson said. "In issuing these stamps, it is our fervent hope that it will help to strengthen what President Abraham Lincoln called the American people's 'mystic chords of memory' that stretch 'from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land.'"