Fort Sumter Garrison Flag

Flag Information: This is the 33 star flag that flew over the garrison at Fort Sumter, SC at the time of its bombardment by Confederate troops on April 12 & 13, 1861.  On April 14, as the small troop of Union soldiers was allowed to retreat with honor, their Commander, Major Robert Anderson, lowered the flag vowing to one day fly it over the garrison again. In February of 1865, Fort Sumter was abandoned by Confederate troops but at the direct order of President Lincoln the flag was not to be returned to the garrison until April 14, exactly four years to the day after it was lowered.  A large group of Union officials intended to sail to the ceremony, including President Lincoln. However, when the Confederacy surrendered on April 9, President Lincoln decided that his attendance would have been flaunting the Union victory and he remained in Washington.  The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher delivered a powerful oration to crowds of Union supporters as the flag was raised and he prayed that, “As long as the sun or stars endure, may it wave over a nation neither enslaved nor enslaving.”  The joy was short-lived however, for that very night at Ford’s Theater, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.