Civil War-Era Patriotic Advertising Broadside

New Store…Dry Goods! Groceries, and General Merchandise. Philadelphia: Duross Bros., 1861. Letterpress broadside printed in red and blue. Signed in type by D.M. Dick. ~23 1/2 x 18 inches.

Large, fabulously illustrated broadside featuring a young man holding a gigantic 30-star flag alongside a spread-winged eagle with a riband reading “Bargains Bargains.” Although printed in Philadelphia, the store was located in Iowa, calling “attention to the citizens of Dubuque and Jackson Counties.”

The proprietor D[avid] M. Dick appears in the 12 July 1861 issue of the Muscatine Evening Journal (Iowa), in a report of July 10th “meeting of the Governor’s Guards, Capt. Estle, and Ellsworth Zouave Cadets” where Dick is recorded as the secretary. The store was apparently short-lived, at least under Dick’s proprietorship as he enlisted on 21 September 1861 as a private and was mustered into Company H of the 11th Iowa Infantry.

A letter written to the Muscatine Weekly Journal and published on 30 May 1862 notes that Dick was currently in hospital, suggesting that he was possibly injured during the Battle of Shiloh, where the 11th Iowa battled with the 1st Brigade, 1st Division. David M. Dick would also see 2nd Corinth, Port Gibson, and much of the Vicksburg Campaign, Raymond, Champion Hill,

He was promoted to 1st lieutenant and transferred to Company I of the 63rd USCT on 1 October 1863, before transferring again on 24 November 1863 to the 64th USCT as a quartermaster, where he saw out the rest of the war and early Reconstruction, mustering out with the regiment on 13 March 1866.

A terrific broadside issued by a patriotic Iowan with a noble service record. Western Theatre ephemera is scarce.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Broadsides, Prints, Ephemera]