Description

Caustic satire depicting the enlistment by notorious New York Congressman Colonel Daniel Sickels of recruits from offices near New York's crime-ridden Five Points area. The congested scene depicts several men, including African American men, clustered on a city street near a liquor store. In the left, Sickles, unwigged, stands above the crowd, and holds out Bibles in each hand, as to the right, and above the crowd, "Mrs. Higby," wife of a New York clergyman, hands out pipes to the men (an allusion to Sickle's men being given pipes and Bibles for enlisting). A sign near Sickles reads "The Capital in danger. Sickles Brigade to the Rescue!!" A sign near Mrs. Higby reads "Pipes for the noble saviors of their country by Mrs. Higby." The "enlisting" men wear disheveled, ragged, and patched uniforms or street clothes and hold picket signs, guns, and clubs. Within the crowd, a pit bull terrier and boy watch the melee, which includes a man in uniform and a "Colonel Sickels Brigade" cap offering an African American man a medal, who scratches his head, next to another African American man, in uniform, and seated on a barrel. A few years before the war in 1859, Sickels gained notoriety for murdering Philip Barton Key II for having an affair with his wife Teresa Bagioli. He was acquitted based on the first successful use of the insanity defense in the U.S.; Inscribed upper left corner: 6.; Issued as plate 6 in Sketches from the Civil War in North...

Record Contributed By

The Library Company of Philadelphia

Record Harvested From

PA Digital