Early Civil War Issue of "Charleston Mercury" with News and Runaway Slave Ads

An issue of the "Charleston Mercury" dated just a few months after the beginning of the Civil War. 1 sheet, measuring 21" x 26.75", Charleston, South Carolina, dated August 10, 1861. Volume LXXIX, No. 11,225. The paper includes numerous articles on the latest news from the war: "Missouri Awake", "Patriotism and the Cotton Power", "How the Secession of the South is Felt in England", "Notes of the War From Our Own Correspondent", "Military Hygiene", and more. On verso are numerous advertisements, including several rewards posted for runaway slaves. The paper has flattened folds and moderate creasing. Wear, light soiling, and foxing throughout. Bumped edges with some small areas of tearing. Very good overall

Highlights from the issue include:

"The South has always said that cotton was king, but now she intends to crown him…The North is now about out of cotton, and England will be needing a supply before long. The former cannot get it at all, except from Liverpool, and Liverpool can only get it when the independence of the Southern Confederacy is recognized and the blockade abandoned. If the English do not need cotton, we can afford to keep it, we suppose, until she does need it. If they should be such fools as to side with the North, hoping to get the cotton through the Northern Government, we shall decline, unless we get in a tight place, and then we can burn it without much trouble…"

"The weight of this war requisition, on the part of the Lincolnite abomination, is hardly to be overestimated. But little time is allowed to the Rail Splitter and his faction. The North is upheaving with anarchical elements which indicate more trouble at home than they will ever occasion the South. The masses are splitting into wedge-like forms, ready for the application of the maul. Already 200 people in New York, in one body, applaud when the speaker proclaims a war upon property, rather than submission to famine. In other words, it is the first modest phraseology which is destined to become more terribly laconic, in the cry of bread or blood, and there is no moral power in the North which can sustain society against the masses…"

"On a recent visit Yorktown, a correspondent of this paper has seen regiments reduced by half their effective force by sickness, while the hospitals excited such aversion that many of the sick preferred their crowded and shadeless tents, where they lay sweltering on the ground without straw or bedding, in many instances, and suffering for the want of a diet suited to their condition. Physicians, many of whom were also sick, scarcely sufficed for the duties incumbent on them, and complained that their requisitions for medicines, and even for the most needful utensils, were neglected. Notably was this the case at the hospital of the Sixth Georgia Regiment, which with the First and Fifth North Carolina, was most afflicted…"

"$25 Reward will be paid for the apprehension of boy JACK, who ran away from the Negro Hospital on 27th July. Said boy is about 24 years old, of a dark mulatto color, and very sullen aspect…"

"$30 Reward -- Ranaway DICK, about 30 years of age, a house servant, above middling height, very dark, large nose, thin visage and slim; upper teeth much decayed; in walking his feet turn out very much, and bends his knees more than negros usually do…."

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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