
A fairly extensive collection of Civil War-era sheet music recently was offered in a Western New York auction. There were many previously-unseen varieties, but the key item was the “Grand Secession March. Composed for & dedicated to the Charleston Delegation”. The chromolithograph cover featuring the palmetto palm and a lone star was printed by A. Hoen & Company of Baltimore. The publisher was Thomas J. Caulfield who submitted the work for copyright to the District Court of Washington, D.C. in December of 1860. The cover has an embossed blind stamp for the retailer “George F. Cole Pianos and Melodeons Charleston. So. Ca.” It runs eight pages, including the covers. For those interested in Lincolniana, collecting Confederate ephemera is a logical adjunct and, few items are more coveted than those related to the first state to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860.