PBA Galleries

Single sheet broadside printed in black. Text surrounded by ornamental border. 34.5x17 cm (13½x7").

A rare Confederate broadside advertising a concert organized by the "Ladies of Charleston" to raise funds for the construction of a gunboat for the Confederate navy. Although not mentioned by name, the vessel in question was the CSS Palmetto State, an ironclad ram built by Cameron and Company of Charleston in 1862. OCLC records only two copies, one being at the Boston Athenaeum and the other at the University of South Carolina. Not in Parrish and Willingham. Notable for its rarity as well as its documentation of the contribution of women to the Confederate war effort.

The ladies of Charleston raised $30,000 toward the total construction cost of $200,000, by means of fairs, concerts, and the sale of gunboat quilts, modeling their effort on a similar one carried out by the ladies of New Orleans. The program for the concert included such numbers as God Save the South and My Maryland, along with works by Beethoven, Shubert and others