Seal of the Confederate States

2025-05-06T19:52:46Z

107.116.168.52: /* Design */Corrected spelling of capitol

{{Short description|none}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2017}}
{{Use mdy dates|date= January 2017}}
{{Infobox emblem
|name = Seal of the Confederate States
|image = Seal of the Confederate States.svg
|alt = Equestrian portrait of Washington (after the statue which surmounts his monument in the capitol square, at Richmond,) surrounded with a wreath composed of the principal agricultural products of the Confederacy, (cotton, tobacco, sugar cane, corn, wheat and rice,) and having around its margin the words: "The Confederate States of America, twenty-second February, eighteen hundred and sixty-two," with the following motto: "Deo vindice"
|image_width = 220
|armiger = [[Confederate States of America]]
|year_adopted = {{start date|1863|04|30}}
|motto = {{langx|la|[[Deo vindice]]}}
|use = On the [[Confederate States dollar|national currency]] in 1864
}}
The '''Seal of the Confederate States''' was used to authenticate certain documents issued by the federal  government of the [[Confederate States of America]].<ref name="Matthews1863">{{cite book |author= |editor-last=Matthews |editor-first=James M. |date=1863 |title=The Statutes at Large of the Confederate States of America, Passed at the Third Session of the First Congress; 1863 |url=https://archive.org/stream/statutesatlargeo22conf#page/166/mode/2up |location=Richmond |publisher=R. M. Smith, Printer to Congress |page=167 |ol=25389078M |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> The phrase is used both for the physical [[Seal (emblem)|seal]] itself (which was kept by the [[Confederate States Secretary of State|Confederate Secretary of State]]), and more generally for the design impressed upon it. On May 20, 1863, C.S. Secretary of State [[Judah P. Benjamin]] instructed [[James M. Mason|James Mason]] to arrange for its manufacture in London.<ref>{{cite book |last=Beers |first=Henry Putney |date=1986 |title=The Confederacy: A Guide to the Archives of the Government of the Confederate States of America |location=Washington, DC |publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration|NARA]] |pages=7–8, 74 |isbn=0-911333-18-5 |lccn=86008362 |oclc=13425465 |ol=2715333M}}</ref> The seal was first used publicly in 1864.

==Design==
[[File:Virginia Washington Monument 2011.JPG|left|thumb|[[Virginia Washington Monument|Statue of Washington]] at [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]]]]
The Seal of the Confederate States prominently features the [[Virginia Washington Monument|Statue of Washington]] in the capitol square at [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]].<ref name="Matthews1863" /> In the seal, [[George Washington]] is surrounded with a wreath made of some of the main agricultural products of the Confederacy: [[wheat]], [[Maize|corn]], [[tobacco]], [[cotton]], [[rice]], and [[sugarcane|sugar cane]]. The top margin features the words 'The Confederate States of America: 22 February 1862'. This date reflects the establishment of the federal  government under the new [[Constitution of the Confederate States|Confederate Constitution]] when [[Jefferson Davis]] was inaugurated as the [[President of the Confederate States of America|president of the Confederate States]] on [[Presidents' Day|Washington's birthday]] (February 22), 1862, in the capital square at Richmond, then the Confederacy's capitol.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/collection/object.asp?ID=677 |title=Great Seal of the Confederacy |publisher=[[National Museum of American History]] |accessdate=June 22, 2013}}</ref> The bottom margin contains the national motto, ''[[Deo vindice]]'', meaning '(With) [[God in Christianity|God]] (as) our defender/[[protector (title)|protector]]'.{{efn|name=translation|The translation is open to some interpretation.}} Confederate Senator [[Thomas Jenkins Semmes|Thomas Semmes]], in proposing the motto, took pains to stress that both the [[Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States|provisional]] and the permanent Confederate constitution "had deviated in the most emphatic manner from the spirit that presided over the construction of the [[Constitution of the United States]], which is silent on the subject of the Deity."<ref name="SHSP1888">{{cite book |editor-last=Brock |editor-first=R. A. |title=Southern Historical Society Papers |url=https://archive.org/details/southernhistoricv16sout |volume=XVI |location=Richmond, Va. |date=January–December 1888 |oclc=61523496 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/southernhistoricv16sout/page/416 416]–422 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}} {{PD-notice}}</ref>

==History==
[[File:CSA-T64-$500-1864.jpg|thumb|left|Seal on a 1864 [[Confederate States dollar|CS$500 banknote]]]]
According to the ''Richmond Whig'' of September 25, 1862, a design that passed the [[Confederate States Congress|Senate]] represented in the foreground a Confederate soldier, in position to [[Charge (warfare)|charge]] [[bayonet]]; in the middle distance, a woman with a child in front of a church, both with hands uplifted in the attitude of prayer; for a background, a homestead in the plain, with mountains in the distance beneath the [[Noon#Solar noon|meridian sun]]; the whole surrounded by a wreath composed of the stalks of sugar-cane, the rice, the cotton and the tobacco plants, the margin inscribed with the words 'Seal of the Confederate States of America' above, and 'Our Homes and Constitutions' beneath. This seal was never used.<ref>{{cite book |last=Preble |first=George Henry |date=1880 |author-link=George Henry Preble |url=https://archive.org/details/historyflagunit00prebgoog |title=History of the flag of the United States of America, and of the naval and yacht-club signals, seals, and arms, and principal national songs of the United States, with a chronicle of the symbols, standards, banners, and flags of ancient and modern nations |edition=2nd Revised |location=Boston |publisher=A. Williams and Company |lccn=war09000098 |oclc=551167 |ol=29991M |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyflagunit00prebgoog/page/n584 525] |accessdate=December 29, 2019 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}} {{PD-notice}}</ref>

The final design was approved on April 30, 1863,<ref name="Matthews1863" /> and a set of embossing dies ordered from London engraver [[Joseph Shepherd Wyon|Joseph Wyon]].<ref name="Sigillologia1873">{{cite book |author= |title=Sigillologia. Being Some Account of the Great or Broad Seal of the Confederate States of America. A Monograph |url=https://archive.org/details/sigillologiabein00pick |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Kervand & Towers |date=1873 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sigillologiabein00pick/page/8 8]-11 |lccn=10019533 |ol=25400537M |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> The seal was first used publicly in 1864. The dies eventually reached Richmond before the end of the war.<ref name="SHSP1888" /> However, due to the risks of running the [[Union blockade]], the accompanying embossing press was only shipped as far as [[Bermuda]].<ref name="BNT">{{cite book |author= |title=The Bermuda National Trust Museum at the Globe Hotel: Teacher Resource Guide |url=https://www.bnt.bm/images/documents/globe_hotel.pdf |date=2014 |publisher=[[Bermuda National Trust]] |page=16}}</ref> The dies (crafted in silver) were thus unlikely to ever have been used in any official capacity. Both sets of artifacts initially passed through private ownership before ultimately entering museum collections.<ref name="Sigillologia1873" /> The seal is kept at Richmond's [[American Civil War Museum]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Great Seal of the Confederacy |url=https://acwm.org/collection/archives/political-life/great-seal-confederacy |website=[[American Civil War Museum]] |access-date=December 29, 2019}}</ref> The [[Machine press|press]] is in the [[Bermuda National Trust|BNT]] Museum at the Globe Hotel, [[St. George's, Bermuda|St. George's]].<ref name="BNT" />

==Gallery==
<gallery class="center" caption="Images of the Seal of the Confederate States" widths="180px" heights="120px">
File:Confederate Seal Electrotype.jpg|[[Electrotyping|Electrotype]]
File:ConfederateSeal.jpg|[[Replica]]
</gallery>

==See also== 
* [[Flags of the Confederate States of America|Flag of the Confederate States]]
* [[National symbols of the Confederate States of America|National symbols of the Confederate States]]

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |author= |date=1880 |title=Documentary History of the Flag and Seal of the Confederate States of America, 1861-'65 |url=https://archive.org/details/documentaryhisto00thia |location=Washington |others=Compiled by Raphael P. Thian |oclc=27903837 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}

* [http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/uscivilwar/highlights/confederateseal/confederatestatesseal.html Seal of the Confederate States] at the [[British Library]]
* [https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2014645208/ Seal of the Confederate States] at the [[Library of Congress]]
* [https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_412912 Seal of the Confederate States] at the [[National Museum of American History]]
* [http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/selections/confed/seal.html Seal of the Confederate States] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209192421/http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/selections/confed/seal.html |date=December 9, 2018 }} at the [[University of Georgia]]


{{Portal bar|American Civil War|Heraldry|North America}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Confederate States, Seal Of The}}
[[Category:1863 establishments in the Confederate States of America|Seal]]
[[Category:George Washington in art]]
[[Category:National seals]]
[[Category:National symbols of the Confederate States of America|Seal]]
[[Category:Symbols introduced in 1863]]

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Seal of the Confederate States