Soon after the outbreak of the War Between the States, printers on both sides of the conflict began creating commemorative cards of the leaders of their respective armies. These cards were packed with plugs of tobacco, bolts of burlap, barrels of oats and similar consumer products such as would be bought by young boys and adolescents of the day.
Schoolyard games using the cards such as "Smack the Federals" and "Johnny Reb's A-Peekin'" were invented and soon especially rare cards or those of the most successful generals became valuable commodities. Towards the end of the war as inflation in the Confederacy grew unchecked and Confederate currency became increasingly worthless, these cards even began to be used as an erstwhile currency. Three Stonewall Jacksons or a Robert E. Lee and two Richard Ewells were good for two days' worth of hardtack and jug of cider.
Young boys were not alone in collecting these cards, either. While it was frowned upon in polite society for young ladies to be seen in possession of such items, still many a card found its way to the dimmer corner of a fashionable maiden's hope chest.
This print is a reproduction of a proof sheet of a popular series of chromo-lithograph cards that were in circulation at the end of the war. They are reproduced as faithfully as surviving sources make possible.
These prints are available either as a full proofsheet of twelve cards including the "Beards in Battle" masthead, or as individual cards (tobacco plug not included.)*
* It is possible that most of this history is made up, but I am admitting nothing.
