The War of 1812: USS Constitution

Today’s featured “stamps of the day” on various social media websites honors the year 1862 in the US Civil War. One stamp depicts the Battle of New Orleans, the first significant achievement of the U.S. Navy in the war, while the other depicts the Battle of Antietam, which marked the bloodiest day of the war.The “Battle of New Orleans” stamp is a reproduction of an 1862 colored lithograph depicting Admiral David G. Farragut’s fleet passing Forts Jackson and St. Phillip on the way toward New Orleans. The “Battle of Antietam” stamp is a reproduction of an 1887 painting by Thure de Thulstrup and is one of a series of popular prints commissioned in the 1880s to commemorate the Civil War.

With this stamp, the U.S. Postal Service commemorates the bicentennial of the War of 1812, a two-and-a-half year conflict with Great Britain that many Americans later came to view as the nation’s “Second War of Independence.”

For the stamp design, the Postal Service selected a long-admired painting of the famed USS Constitution by Michele Felice Cornè, circa 1803. Constitution acquired the nickname “Old Ironsides” during a victorious battle with a ship of the Royal Navy at the beginning of the War of 1812. The majestic warship — which is today docked at the historic Charlestown Navy Yard in Massachusetts — became a symbol of the young nation’s naval power and fierce independence.