Civil War Monitor

Friday Funny

• Fathering RecruitmentRead More

  Category: Friday Funny Posted: 8/24/2012 Author: Laura June Davis | 

  Titled, "A Good Way for Fathers of Families to Aid Recruiting," this July 1862 Harper's Weekly cartoon is a playful take on Union recruitment efforts.

• Hercules of the UnionRead More

  Category: Friday Funny Posted: 8/17/2012 Author: Laura June Davis | 

  Today's Friday Funny is a celebration of Union General Winfield Scott, cast here as the mythical Hercules slaying a secessionist hydra. Aiding Scott in his epic battle is the great club of "Liberty and Union." Each of the hydra's seven heads represent a prominent Southern leader and their major vice or crime.

• Dark ArtilleryRead More

  Category: Friday Funny Posted: 6/29/2012 Author: Laura June Davis | 

  Happy Friday! Today's Civil War cartoon is a Frank Leslie drawing entitled "Dark Artillery" or "How to make the contrabands useful."

• The New Orleans PlumRead More

  Category: Friday Funny Posted: 6/22/2012 Author: Laura June Davis | 

  A contemporary take on the famous Mother Goose tale, "Little Jack Horner," this illustration casts President Abraham Lincoln as Jack Horner who is seemingly stuck in a corner by the Civil War.

• Not Up To TimeRead More

  Category: Friday Funny Posted: 6/15/2012 Author: Laura June Davis | 

  Good afternoon! Today's Friday Funny is an 1862 piece from the London weekly magazine, Punch.

• Masterly InactivityRead More

  Category: Friday Funny Posted: 6/8/2012 Author: Laura June Davis | 

  Good afternoon! This Frank Leslie cartoon parodies the extended military standoff between Union General George B. McClellan’s Army of Potomac and Confederate General P.G.T  Beauregard’s Army of the Shenandoah during the fall and winter of 1861.

• Sinbad Lincoln and the Old Man of the SeaRead More

  Category: Friday Funny Posted: 6/1/2012 Author: Laura June Davis | 

  A clear critique of Gideon Welles, the Union Secretary of the Navy, this 1862 cartoon suggests that the naval department is weighing down Lincoln?s administration and that the Federal navy is sorely lacking; along the horizon the CSS Virginia and CSS Alabama sit unchallenged and unopposed

• Neutrality or Death?Read More

  Category: Friday Funny Posted: 5/25/2012 Author: Laura June Davis | 

  Good Morning! Today's Friday Funny comes to us from the June 29, 1861 edition of Harper's Weekly. The caption reads, "Governor Magoffin's neutrality means holding the Cock of the Walk (Uncle Sam) while the Confederate Cat (Jeff Davis) kills off his Chickens."

• Why Don't You Take It?Read More

  Category: Friday Funny Posted: 5/18/2012 Author: Laura June Davis | 

  <p>Good morning! Today's Friday Funny is an 1861 Currier & Ives sketch commenting on the Union's substantial advantage in terms war materiel. </p>

• The "Light Guard"Read More

  Category: Friday Funny Posted: 5/11/2012 Author: Laura June Davis | 

  Today's Friday Funny is an 1861 Harper's Weekly cartoon. Entitled ?Costume Suggested for the Brave Stay-at-Home Light Guard," this sketch mockingly questions the masculinity of Union men who did not voluntarily enlist into military service.

• The Blockade on the "Connecticut Plan"Read More

  Category: Friday Funny Posted: 5/4/2012 Author: Laura June Davis | 

  <p>Good Morning! To celebrate the end of another long work week, we bring you a "Friday Funny." Today's Civil War era cartoon is an 1862 Currier & Ives sketch entitled, 'The Blockade on the "Connecticut Plan.'"</p>

• Bowling with BeauregardRead More

  Category: Friday Funny Posted: 4/27/2012 Author: Laura June Davis | 

  Good afternoon! Here's a little Friday Funny to celebrate the end of the work week.