Pieces of Fort Sumter Flag Attached to Provenance Note from First Civil War Hero

Description: BATTLE OF FORT SUMTER. Almost immediately after his inauguration, President Abraham Lincoln was confronted with surprise information: Major Robert Anderson was reporting that only six weeks of rations remained at Fort Sumter. As the situation grew more dire, Lincoln informed the governor of South Carolina, as he refused to recognize the newly formed Confederate States of America, that he would attempt to resupply the troops at Fort Sumter. This action resulted in an ultimatum from the Confederacy: surrender the fort. Anderson refused to surrender to the commander of Confederate forces in Charleston, General P.G.T. Beauregard, and beginning at 4:30 AM on April 12, 1861, the Confederates bombarded the fort from artillery batteries surrounding the harbor starting the Civil War. TWO PIECES OF BLUE AND RED FABRIC FROM THE FORT SUMTER FLAG TAKEN DURING THE BATTLE BY SERGEANT PETER HART, THE FIRST HERO OF THE CIVIL WAR, AND ATTACHED TO A NOTE OF PROVENANCE HANDWRITTEN BY HART: “FROM OLD FLAG ON FORT SUMTER.” Two pieces of blue and red fabric, measuring 2.5 by 1.25 inches, from the Fort Sumter flag taken during the battle by Sergeant Peter Hart (circa 1823-1892) and attached to a note of provenance handwritten by Hart: “From old Flag on Fort Sumter.” Beautifully matted and framed under UV glass with an original photograph taken and annotated by Hart of the damage to “Fort Sumter, Old Sally-port” to an overall size of 13.75 by 10.25 inches and accompanied with original 1892 newspaper clippings on the Fort Sumter flag and Hart’s obituary. BEAUTIFULLY MATTED AND FRAMED WITH AN ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AND ANNOTATED BY HART OF THE DAMAGE TO “FORT SUMTER, OLD SALLY-PORT” Hart served under Anderson during the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848 and later left the service and joined the police force in New York City. As tensions between the North and South escalated, Anderson’s wife contacted Hart and requested that he escort her to Charleston, SC to visit her husband who was stationed at Fort Sumter. Still at Fort Sumter at the outbreak of the Civil War, Hart elected to remain as a civilian to assist his former commander. On the afternoon of April 12, 1861, he retrieved and reattached the fallen American flag dislodged by enemy shelling from its flagstaff over Fort Sumter. When the fort was evacuated two days later, Hart again played a pivotal role in rescuing the flag and keeping it with him until February 1865 when it was raised once again over the fort. For his actions on reattaching the fallen flag, Hart was dubbed the “First Hero of the Civil War.”

Price: 6875 USD

Location: Spartanburg, South Carolina

End Time: 2025-01-19T15:56:00.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD