On this illustrated Civil War patriotic cover, Scott #65, the 3c Washington, paid the first class letter rate from New York City to New Bedford, Massachusetts.
The New York cancel has a minor error in the datestamp. It is weak and a little hard to see, but I hope you can tell that it reads AUG 11 1683 instead of AUG 11 1863.
The patriotic illustration shows the 35-star American flag.
One star was added to the 34-star flag during the Civil War in 1863 for the admission of West Virginia.
Virginia was split into two separate states because the eastern parts supported the Confederacy and the western parts supported the Union.
President Lincoln did not remove stars from the flag representing the eleven Southern Sates which had seceded from the Union,
because he believed they were still part of the government.
Posted 02/21/2008 9:39 pm
