the kids who started the civil war – a true story

Gallery

  • Three Wide Awakes in 1860
  • Henry T. Sperry
  • Henry Sperry’s re-printable Press Advisory
  • A “fabulous Beecher,” Isabella Beecher Hooker was a member of “The Women of Connecticut Club” and a pioneering- suffragist.
  • A ticket to one of the Wide Awake excursions that built a national network of Wide Awakes, and also, a political party.
  • Nineteenth-century GOTV included the deadly practice of “Cooping.”
  • 19th Century messenger boys ran GOTV operations.
  • An Iowa Wide Awake member in 1860.
  • Harriet Tubman’s rescue of a runaway slave in Troy, New York was tied to the outsized Wide Awake chapter there.
  • A German-language Abraham Lincoln campaign parade transparency used by Missouri’s German Wide Awakes who drilled under young Sergeant Ulysses S. Grant.
  • Custom letterhead stamps from a Wide Awake member, from Brown University’s collection of Civil War letterhead. Henry Sperry’s communications with chapter leaders was often in this form.
  • An advertisement for a (non-Chalker) marching torch supplier.
  • An unofficial Wide Awake marching torch.
  • Wide Awake member and future President James Garfield.
  • Several of the marching torches in the Smithsonian Collection.
  • A still from Connecticut public TV’s 100 year anniversary re-creation film of Lincoln meeting the Wide Awakes (1960).
  • A letter from Brown University’s letterhead collection shows a stamp with Lincoln beside some Wide Awakes – a ubiquitous tandem in 1860.
  • One of the first Wide Awake torches with gimbal hinges.
  • “The Political Excitement in New York City – A ‘Rush’ During the Passage of a Precession on Broadway,” Harpers Illustrated. A common sight, political marches turning into melees.
  • Wide Awake member William Dansberry’s letter to Abraham Lincoln asking for new shoes because he wore out his his pair in Wide Awake service.
  • “A Democratic Barbecue” from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated, Oct. 1884. Free barbecues, like this Tammany Hall event were common. Often “Ladies Auxiliaries” distributed desserts of strawberries and cream.
  • New York firefighters on a midnight parade.
  • The first mention of the boys and the christening of the name.
  • The first of the Hartford originals James Francis shortly before he was killed in battle in LA.
  • “The first Wide Awake Cape: | “Original Muslin Cape worn by E.S. Yergason February 25th 1860.”
  • Hartford’s popular Coronet Band often marched with them in 1860.
  • Elias Beadle (center) with members of a class for young men at the Pearl Street Church, 1858. Photograph from The Connecticut Magazine, Vol. V, No. 8, August 1899. Heber stands at left.
  • Heber Beadle at Yale University
  • A New London, Connecticut newspaper advertisement for the last pro-Frémont rally of 1856.
  • A huge two-page spread in the New York Illustrated News showed the “Wide Awake Gala Hall, at Hartford, Conn., on the evening of Thursday, July 27.” Sketched by the paper’s own artist, sent to Hartford to record the event. The press coverage of the Grand Ball was as effusive as the decorations were extravagant.
  • A huge two-page spread in the New York Illustrated News showed the “Grand Torchlight Procession of the Wide Awakes, at Hartford, Conn., on the evening of Thursday, July 27.” Sketched by the paper’s own artist, sent to Hartford to record the event. The press coverage of the Grand Ball was as effusive as the decorations were extravagant.
  • A huge two-page spread in the New York Illustrated News showed the “Newark Wide Awakes Arrive in HartfordGreeted by Connecticut’s Wide Awakes, at Hartford, Conn., on the evening of Thursday, July 27.” Sketched by the paper’s own artist, sent to Hartford to record the event. The press coverage of the Grand Ball was as effusive as the decorations were extravagant.
  • Common parade placards included the club’s logo – the all seeing eye.
  • Unofficial Wide Awake torch, 1860
  • Unofficial Wide Awake torch, 1860
  • CVR Pond, Chalker’s Chief of Staff
  • The cottage industry of supplying the Wide Awakes caused shortages of black cambric fabric and many torch suppliers
  • One of the new custom marching torches that came out of the Wide Awake summer
  • Downtown Hartford in 1860
  • Lincoln’s notes from his Hartford address
  • Lincoln in 1860
  • Henry T. Sperry
  • James Chalker
  • Nineteenth century’s Dry Goods Stores were a forerunner of the Department Store.
  • Youth militarism was common in 1860
  • Parade Marshal George P. Bissell, Esq.
  • Sam Clemens in Nevada
  • The Wide Awake Marching Handbook included custom march patterns like this zig-zag maneuver in honor of the Lincoln lore ‘split rail fence’
  • A Wide Awake banner commemorating the Chicago Wide Awakes
  • The Hutchinson Family singers were the most popular family troupe in 1860, their tours coincided with Wide Awake events and they sung Wide Awake songs
  • Cover of a Wide Awake comic book
  • A Wide Awake in 1860
  • Orion Clemens, Editor of a Republican Iowa newspaper and organizer with the Wide Awakes. His service earned him the job of Secretary of the Nevada Territory.
  • An ambrotype of a young Wide Awake in his uniform: a fireman’s torch, a military-style cap, and waterproof black shoulder cape.
  • Members of the Hartford Wide Awakes from the Gala, Sperry stands at left, Chalker faces camera, standing at center.
  • Wide Awake James A Garfield
  • Senator Seward’s campaign tour across the north was peopled by Wide Awake members.
  • One of the Wide Awake parades in New York City.
  • A young Wide Awake in 1860
  • A parade ribbon worn in support of Lincoln in 1860.
  • The Wide Awake logo – the all-seeing eye
  • When New York hosted its final Wide Awake excursion for area Wide Awakes, it was the largest political gathering in the history of the city.
  • Wide Awake “songsters” were commissioned songs about the Wide Awakes and spread by left-leaning glee clubs.
  • This Irish Wide Awake Songster was sung to a popular Irish ballad.
  • Abraham Lincoln campaign parade transparency. PL*238747.01.
  • Night marches with transparencies was common – this would have contained a burning lantern inside.
  • Charles Francis Adams Jr. during the Civil War.
  • Republican Party founder Rep. Cassius Clay.
  • A page from Sperry and Hinckley’s marching guidebook
  • Advanced marches, customized for the campaign
  • Hinckley and Sperry’s marching brochure with Captain calls.
  • A Wide Awake Captain’s lamp in the Corning Museum collection
  • Frames from Pipps Among the Wide Awakes – a Comic Book distributed to children.
  • Illustration from a French magazine’s coverage of the Wide Awakes.
  • “As phase of campaign enthusiasm,” a cartoon from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, November 13, 1880. (Photo courtesy Library of Congress.” Kids were commonly put to work by campaigns.
  • New York Firemen march through the street carrying torches. Wood engraving. 1858 Published: 23 Jan. 1858
  • Image from Miramax’ Gangs of New York (2002) shows an American Party politician marching with their associated fire brigade.