The Copperhead publication The Old Guard was a "monthly journal devoted to the principles of 1776 and 1787".  Published in New York, by Burr, it attacked President Abraham Lincoln in every number, while defending slavery and the right of secession. It claimed to be "the only magazine published in the United States which is devoted to a fearless and uncompromising exposure of the monstrous crimes and frauds of the party in power." Lincoln was often referred to as "Abraham I"; the conflict was "the Lincoln War" fought by "the Abolition Army".

Included here are 36 issues covering 1863, 1864 and 1865. The publication promoted all the peace movements of 1863; each issue featured an engraved portrait of a Copperhead leader like Clement Vallandigham, Horatio Seymour or Fernando Wood. In 1864, The Old Guard became a campaign journal for General George McClellan and the Peace Democrats who lost to Lincoln. While continuing its pro-South, anti-black position in 1865, it did have a black-bordered, last-minute insert in its May issue in which it expressed regret over Lincoln's death and condemned John Wilkes Booth.