About This Stamp
The Civil War (1861-1865), the most wrenching chapter in American history, claimed the lives of more than 620,000 soldiers and brought vast changes to the country. The Postal Service™ concludes its commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the war by issuing a souvenir sheet with two stamp designs for 2015. One stamp depicts the Battle of Five Forks, near Petersburg, Virginia, on April 1, 1865. The other stamp depicts Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9. Art director Phil Jordan selected historic paintings for the stamp designs. The Battle of Five Forks stamp is a reproduction of a painting, circa 1885, by French artist Paul Dominique Philippoteaux. The Appomattox Court House stamp is a reproduction of the 1895 painting “Peace in Union” by Thomas Nast, depicting Robert E. Lee’s surrender. For the background image on the souvenir sheet, Jordan used a photograph of a number of Federal rifles stacked in the vicinity of Petersburg, Virginia, during the siege. The 12-stamp souvenir sheet includes comments on the war by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, and Union General Joshua L. Chamberlain. It also includes lines parodying the lyrics of Patrick S. Gilmore’s famous Civil War song, “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.” The Battle of Five Forks and the Appomattox Court House stamps are being issued as Forever® stamps. These Forever® stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Artist, Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
Phil Jordan
Phil Jordan grew up in New Bern, North Carolina, and attended East Carolina University. After Army service in Alaska, he graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in visual communications. He worked in advertising and in design at a trade association before joining Beveridge and Associates, Inc., where he provided art direction for corporate, institutional, and government design projects. A partner in the firm, he left after 18 years to establish his own design firm where he managed projects for USAir, NASA, McGraw-Hill, IBM, and Smithsonian Books, among others. He was Design Director of Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine for 15 years. His work appeared in numerous exhibitions and publications such as Graphis and Communications Arts. A past president of the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, he was an art director for the U.S. Postal Service from 1991 to 2014. A resident of Falls Church, Virginia, he is a retired glider pilot and a member of the Skyline Soaring Club.