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Reconstruction Era |
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| “We Fights Mit Sigel” |
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Source: Harper’s Weekly |
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Date:
November 6, 1869, p. 720
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Click to see
a large version of this cartoon |
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Complete HarpWeek Explanation:
In the November 6, 1869 issue of Harper’s Weekly, a pithy little
drawing, “We Fights Mit Sigel,” depicts Franz Sigel, a former Union general and
Republican nominee for New York secretary of state, leading an unlikely platoon
of Republican warriors into battle against the “Sham Democracy” of the “Tammany
Ring.” Sigel was a refugee from the failed liberal revolution in Germany in
1848 who became beloved by his German-American troops during the Civil War;
hence, the caption proudly mimicking a German accent. At the time of this
cartoon, Greeley was the Republican candidate for state comptroller in New
York. Sigel is supported first by Nast, his porte crayon at the ready; then by
President Ulysses S. Grant, cigar clenched in his teeth; Horace Greeley, a step
behind Nast; poet William Cullen Bryant, editor of the New York Evening Post;
and George Jones, publisher and new editor of The New York Times. In
addition to Nast, Harper’s Weekly is represented by a large banner in the
rear. That year, all the Republican candidates for statewide office in New York
were defeated handily, although Greeley managed to outpoll Sigel.
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Background: 1859 - 1871
