Vintage 1961 Civil War Centennial Series Lincoln ✉️ Embossed Stamped Envelope

What Was DIXIPEX IV? ✉️ DIXIPEX IV Civil War Series Cover: Lincoln Calls for 75,000 Volunteers, Washington, D.C., April 15, 1961

Size: 6 1/2" x 3 3/4" ~ Unaddressed.

Lincoln's famous profile behind the Stars and Stripes and a smoking field cannon, framed by RALLY ROUND THE FLAG ~ BOYS. This is a vintage 1961 Civil War Centennial cachet cover from the DIXIPEX IV Civil War Series, with a 4-cent stamp cancelled WASHINGTON, D.C., APR 15, 9 AM, 1961, one hundred years to the day after President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers. I love a cover that's postmarked on the exact anniversary, that's the whole point of it!

🔍 What's on it

In raised gold lettering at the top, PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN ISSUES CALL FOR 75,000 VOLUNTEERS. Below, the cachet in dark ink: Lincoln's bearded profile with a U.S. flag in front of it and a cannon firing a puff of smoke, with RALLY ROUND THE running down the left side and FLAG ~ BOYS ★ along the bottom. Then 1861 - WASHINGTON, D. C. - 1861, TO PUT DOWN REBELLION and DIXIPEX IV CIVIL WAR SERIES. Up in the corner, the 4-cent stamp and a round WASHINGTON APR 15 9 AM 1961 D.C. postmark with four cancel bars. Some covers have the flag in the cachet printed in red, white and blue, and some in dark ink only. The envelopes are unaddressed.

📮 The stamps

These covers were made up with different 4-cent stamps, and you can pick your style from the menu:

The Lincoln stamp is the 1959 Lincoln Sesquicentennial issue, showing part of Daniel Chester French's great seated statue in the Lincoln Memorial. It was issued in Washington on May 30, 1959, the anniversary of the Memorial's dedication, with the first day ceremony held right at the Memorial.

The quote stamp is the American Credo issue with Lincoln's words, "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves," from an April 1859 letter to Henry L. Pierce. It came out in New York on November 19, 1960, the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.

The flag stamp is the 49-star flag, issued at Auburn, New York on July 4, 1959, the day the 49-star flag debuted after Alaska became a state.

🥁 April 15, 1861 and "Rally Round the Flag"

The cover remembers one of the biggest days of the war. The Confederate guns opened on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, and on April 15 President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion. A hundred years later, during the Civil War Centennial, these DIXIPEX covers were cancelled in Washington on April 15, 1961, right on the anniversary. The words around the picture come from George F. Root's 1862 song "The Battle Cry of Freedom," better known as "Rally 'Round the Flag." It ran through the Union camps like wildfire, sold more than 700,000 copies of sheet music, and was the campaign song for Lincoln and Johnson in 1864.

DIXIPEX was a Southern stamp show, "Dixie" plus the "-pex" collectors put on their exhibitions, and a DIXIPEX II cover from Birmingham, Alabama in 1959 turns up too.

🏡 Display

This looks great framed in a study, a den or a classroom, and it's a perfect gift for a Civil War buff, a Lincoln collector, a stamp collector, or a history teacher.