1861 ILN Civil War Print Assault Ft Wagner Charleston

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This original engraving of a deserter from the Federal Army being executed military style during the America Civil War was published in the Illustrated London News (ILN) on the 26th of Sep 1863 - the date is engraved at the top of the page.

Fort Wagner (also called Battery Wagner) was a fortification on Morris Island, South Carolina, that covered the southern approach to Charleston harbor. It was the site of two American Civil War battles in the campaign known as Operations Against the Defenses of Charleston in 1863.

The first engagement, the Battle of Fort Wagner or the First Assault on Morris Island, occurred on July 11, 1863. The second is better known. The Battle of Fort Wagner/Morris Island, was the Union attack on July 18, 1863, led by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first major American military unit made up of African Americans. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw led the regiment on foot while they charged and was killed in the assault.

The Confederate fortifications, garrisoned by around 1,800 men, extended across the northern quarter of the low and sandy island. The main wall ran for 630 feet from the eastern ocean to salt marshes on the west. The wall was up to 30 feet high and a wide, but shallow, trench stretched in front. Much of the fort was earth barriers and sandbagged emplacements. The site of the fortifications is currently underwater.

Union forces landed on the island in early July 1863. The first assault on the fortifications was by three brigades on July 11 and it failed. A second force was gathered by Major General Quincy Gillmore and dispatched against the fort in the early hours of  July 18.

The approach to the fort was constricted to a strip of beach 60 yards wide. After a bombardment from both land and sea, the Union infantry moved in. The assault force was headed by the 54th Massachusetts and included five other brigades, around 5,000 men in total. Unfortunately for the assault force, the prior bombardment failed to seriously damage the fighting power of the fort. Consequently, the Union infantry suffered considerable casualties in the rush towards the fort.

As the Union troops reached the parapets, the fighting proved intense. Three brigades managed to occupy a portion of the walls, but they were forced to withdraw after an hour of fierce hand-to-hand combat where almost every officer was killed. The Union forces suffered around 1,600 casualties and the Confederate garrison under 200.

Although a tactical defeat, the battle proved to be a political victory for the Union since the valor of the 54th against hopeless odds proved the worth of black soldiers. It spurred additional recruitment that gave the Union Army a further numerical advantage in troops over the South.

The Union besieged the fort after the unsuccessful assault. After enduring almost 60 days of heavy shelling, the Confederates abandoned it on September 7, 1863. (Ref: Tooley; M&B)

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General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 16in x 11in (405mm x 280mm)
Margins: - Min ½in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Overall Quality (in Bold):
Perfect/Fine/Very Good/Good/Fair/Poor

In 1842, Herbert Ingram, a young printer and newsagent from Nottingham, arrived in London. As a newsagent he noticed that when on the rare occasions that newspapers included woodcuts, their sales increased. He therefore came to the conclusion that it would be possible to make a good profit from a magazine that included a large number of illustrations.

Herbert Ingram discussed the proposal with his friend, Mark Lemon, the editor of Punch magazine. With Lemon as his chief adviser, the first edition of the Illustrated London News appeared on 14th May 1842. Costing sixpence, the magazine had sixteen pages and thirty-two woodcuts. The first edition included pictures of the war in Afghanistan, a train crash in France, a steamboat explosion in Canada and a fancy dress ball at Buckingham Palace.

Ingram was a staunch Liberal who favored social reform. He announced in the London Illustrated News that the concern of the magazine would be "with the English poor" and the "three essential elements of discussion with us will be the poor laws, the factory laws, and the working of the mining system". Later Herbert Ingram was to become MP for Boston and until his death in 1860 continued his campaign for social reform in the House of Commons.

The London Illustrated News was an immediate success and the first edition sold 26,000 copies. Within a few months it was selling over 65,000 copies a week. Special events were important to the success of the London Illustrated News. The magazine did very well during the Exhibition 1851 and over 150,000 copies were sold of the edition that reported the funeral of the Duke of Wellington. The Crimean War caused a further boast to sales and by 1863 it was selling over 300,000 copies a week. This was far higher than other journals. For example, newspapers such as the Daily News only sold 6,000 copies at this time, and even the largest selling newspaper, The Times only sold 70,000 copies. In the Christmas Number of The Illustrated London News, 1855, the first pictures in color were published.

In the year 1879, The ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS claimed to be the fastest woodcut-printing establishment in the world. The Ingram Rotary machine had been invented. It printed both sides of the paper at once and turned out 6,500 copies per hour. It required only four men to operate it, whereas thirty men and five machines were needed previously

 The ILN held a commanding position in the market place. It was seriously challenged by The GRAPHIC in 1870. Although it never reached the circulation of the ILN. it did take a good market share until the turn of the century.

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