Fr 353-358 Hero of Atlanta Note

The Fr. 353-358 Hero of Atlanta Note is a classic Civil War era note.

Specifications

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Background
“Gone with the Wind” is the most popular Civil War novel and movie in American history. The book by Margaret Mitchell and movie by David O. Selznick are familiar to hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people around the globe. Both tell the sad demise of an ambitious heroine, a wily privateer, an heroic soldier and the girl he left behind against the technicolor backdrop of a city put to the torch and a way of life gone forever.

Ms. Mitchell’s book won a Pulitzer Prize. It is estimated 30 million copies of her southern romance have been sold. Many have seen the 1939 movie based on it several, even dozens of times. It won nine Academy Awards, and has been rereleased and rebroadcast repeatedly. Total box office revenues world wide are pegged at $600 million, and many of them at 10-cent and 25-cent pre-inflation prices.

The film starred Vivien Leigh as heroine Scarlett O’Hara, Clark Gable as Rhett Butler, Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes, and Olivia de Havilland as Melanie Hamilton. While her narrative dealt dramatically with the personal details of characters caught up in momentous events, Ms. Mitchell also looked at the broader picture which ruled her characters’ destiny.

This backdrop, of course, climaxes with the northern Army’s invasion of the “Deep South” during the Civil War. Principally, this is General Sherman’s army’s rather uncivil slash and burn race across Georgia to the Sea, with Atlanta and Scarlett’s father’s plantation Tara dead in its path.

With so much theatrical melancholy, it is not surprising that collectors would like to add a U.S. note directly tied to the back story of this popular entertainment vehicle, such as the “Hero of Atlanta” note shown.

History
After more than three years of armed conflict, in late spring 1864, General William Tecumseh Sherman's army entered northwest Georgia with the intention of destroying rebel resistance and military resources in the state. Sherman’s army numbered approximately 100,000 soldiers.

With Sherman, at his right hand as Commander of the Army of the Tennessee, was Major General William Birdseye McPherson, who is depicted on Series 1890-1891 $2 U.S. Treasury Notes, the so-called “Coin Notes” because “In Coin” appears prominently on their face.

McPherson, from Ohio was an 1853 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, who served as General U.S. Grant’s chief engineer in Grant’s western campaign in Tennessee. After Grant was given command of the Union armies in the East, and Sherman command of all Union armies in the West, McPherson was given command of the Army of the Tennessee on March 12, 1864.

Sherman’s forces captured Chattanooga, TN in late 1863 and waited out the winter. Sherman’s “march” south began May 7, 1864, when his army entered Georgia near the key railhead at Ringold, GA, only 115 miles northwest of his intended target, Atlanta. Sherman was opposed by Confederate commander General Joseph E. Johnston’s rebel army which was much smaller.

The two armies clashed at Rocky Face, and Dalton, as Sherman proceeded inexorably south down the key railroad supply line, the Western & Atlantic Railroad. At Dalton, Sherman was only 100 miles from Atlanta as the southern forces continually fell back. McPherson’s forces numbered about 24,000 men at arms. He was tasked by Sherman with a flanking movement against Johnson towards Resaca, another 16 miles closer to Atlanta. The hope was this would force Johnston’s forces to retreat even deeper towards Atlanta.

Despite what military historians view as serious flaws in Sherman’s plan, the principal one being the undersized force at McPherson’s command, his troops engaged Johnson’s superior numbers at Resaca on May 15th, pushing his left flank onto Calhoun, Kingston, Pumpkinville Creek, and through Dallas.

Southern forces attempted to check this northern advance, but northern forces were continually reinforced from Tennessee. From action around Dallas, northwest of Atlanta, on May 25th at the Battle of New Hope Church, residents of Atlanta could hear their first rolling thunder of northern cannon fire, sending shudders through the citizenry.

The Battle of New Hope Church proved a southern victory. Additional skirmishing ensued there for several days, before Sherman withdrew his forces to Kennesaw Mountain. The battle there lasted for weeks as Confederates dug in. Kennesaw Mountain was only two miles from Marietta, now an Atlanta suburb. On July 2nd in another flanking movement, McPherson’s forces occupied the town of Marietta.

Two weeks later Confederate President Jefferson Davis replaced Johnston with John Bell Hood, who had been McPherson’s roommate at West Point. McPherson advanced. On the afternoon of July 21st, he captured the outer earthworks surrounding Atlanta, and positioned himself on the high ground above the city.

The next day the Battle of Atlanta began. In the afternoon under fire while riding to the assistance of his troops near Decatur (another suburb of Atlanta today), a Confederate sharpshooter shot and killed McPherson on horseback. A couple days later, William Tecumseh Sherman wrote his wife, "I lost my right bower in McPherson." Still later he wrote, "McPherson's death was a great loss to me. I depended much on him."

The note on which Union hero and casualty of the Battle of Atlanta James Birdseye McPherson appears was authorized July 14, 1890, for the purchase of silver bullion under provisions of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. Ironically, this law was authored by William Tecumseh Sherman’s brother Senator John Sherman.

It is thus entirely fitting that Sherman’s right hand man should grace this impressive note, which was redeemable in silver or gold coin at the choice of the Secretary of the Treasury. The McPherson portrait was engraved by Charles Burt.

Collecting
Three signature combinations of the Series 1890 variety, with the fancy engraved back like the Fr. 353 shown, are distinguished by Treasury Seal design (either large brown or small red). All (Fr. 353-355) catalog from $400 upward to five figures. Approximately 5 million of these notes were printed. The scarcest of the three, representing only 10% of the issue, is Fr. 354, which is pegged at about $1,000 to $15,000 for a crisp Unc. example. All have red serial numbers.

Series 1891 McPherson bills all have small red seals, and also three signature combinations. These have a plainer back and more modest prices, generally in the range of $300-$3,000. Nearly 20 million of Series 1891 $2 notes of all varieties were issued. All have blue serial numbers.

McPherson was the highest ranking Union officer killed in the Atlanta campaign. The U.S. Army named its military headquarters in Southwest Atlanta after him, at which the present author served for 17 months. So while Scarlett and her pals remain fictional heroes, McPherson was a real hero at Atlanta. Whether a collector is a Yankee or a Son of the South, a McPherson type note is within the reach of about any pocketbook, and just the bill to bookmark your very own copy of “Gone With the Wind.”