[Indianapolis, IN]: July 22, 1861. Broadside, 16.75 x 8.5 inches, on newsprint, printed in three columns. Old folds, moderate foxing and toning, some creasing. Overall very good. Item #13110

An informative newspaper extra from Indianapolis printing recent dispatches about very early Civil War activity from Washington D.C., Kansas City, New York, and Baltimore, with some homefront news printed in most of the last column. The most notable news, printed in two separate dispatches "From Washington" on July 21 and 22, details the disastrous Union losses at the First Battle of Bull Run, also know to the Confederates as the First Battle of Manassas. The news begins: "Our troops, after taking three batteries and gaining a great victory, were eventually repulsed and commenced a retreat on Washington." The news gets worse from there, as the dispatch relates that "the carnage was tremendously heavy on both sides, and on ours is represented as frightful." The report of Bull Run, an event couched here as to "the intensest degree disastrous," comprises about half of the total space on the broadside, frantically recounting the loss of troops and armaments, the state of remaining supplies, the panic of the retreat, and the reinforcement of Washington following the retreat. Other war news is related from Kansas City (regarding the recent skirmish on July 18 at Harrisonville, Missouri), New York (noting the arrival of the schooner S.J. Waring (here identified incorrectly as the "Waiving")), and Baltimore (concerning the arrival of General Dix).

The news of the Waring's arrival in New York is particularly interesting for the heroic backstory of its recent capture and re-capture, described here: "She was captured by the privateer Jeff. Davis, on the night of the 16th. When fifty miles south of Charleston, the steward, Wm. Tolman, colored, killed three of the prize crew with a hatchet, and the two others were released on promising to assist in working the vessel." "Wm. Tolman" was actually William Tillman, a free African American working on the Waring as a steward and cook. After capturing the ship, the Confederate prize crew of the Jeff. Davis told Tillman he was now southern property and he would be sold into slavery once the Waring landed in the South. Tillman and other passengers aboard the Waring hatched a plan to re-capture the Waring. Long story short, Tillman killed the captain, master, and first mate, and proclaimed himself master of the ship. His heroism was celebrated at the time and would later be recounted in William Wells Brown's The Negro in the American Rebellion (Boston, 1867). Some historians believe Tillman's heroism contributed to Gideon Welles' decision to open enlistment (though admittedly highly restrictive enlistment) for African American sailors in the U.S. Navy two months later, September 1861, a full year before Black soldiers could enlist in the Army.

Price: $850