Learning about Civil War recruitment with digital historical ephemera

This poster might be used to teach about the recruitment of Union soldiers during the Civil War. This piece of historical ephemera is available from the collection An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Printed Ephemera at the Library of Congress' American Memory online at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbpe.06901800. The poster is a call for recruits to the Union army in Reading, Massachusetts. The rhetorical language used on the poster can tell us a lot about how military and local officials recruited new soldiers.

Notice the rhetorical call to duty pitched as a challenge to manhood and as a subtle reminder of the sacrifice of others.

NOW OR NEVER
"Listen, young heroes! your country is calling!
Time strikes the hour for the brave and the true!
Now, while the foremost are fighting and falling,
Fill up the ranks that have opened for you!"

But in case this emotional appeal is not enough, each recruit is offered a cash incentive to sign up.

BOUNTY FROM THE TOWN,..........$100

" BY SUBSCRIPTION,..........10

" FROM UNITED STATES,..........25

ONE MONTH'S ADVANCE PAY FROM U. S.,..........13

Total Cash Advance,..........$148

This recruitment poster uses a very different approach.

Instead of the soaring rhetoric and appeal to civic duty, here we see an almost playful effort to draw out you men interested in the skills of riflery. This poster is also available in the American Time Capsule collection at American Memory online at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbpe.12303000.

These two posters are part of a subset of 20 posters in the collection An American Time Capsule at American Memory that are classified with the note "Civil War Posters." Among these posters are 16 broadsides advertising local Union army recruiting efforts including public rallies, military demonstrations, information sessions, and draft notices. One of the posters advertises a meeting of women in support of the war effort. The three other posters are public editorials encouraging military enlistment. The 20 posters can be accessed by searching the Time Capsule collection (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/rbpehtml/) at American Memory using the exact phrase "Civil War Posters" in the "Search Descriptive Information: (Bibliographic Records):" search box at the top of the search page for his collection.

I have upload gif image versions of these 20 posters to Flickr, available at http://www.flickr.com//photos/12792050@N00/ as well as in the photstream below.