REPLACING THE FLAG UPON

SUMTER

O

N the 20th of December, 1860, the ordinance of secession was passed by the State of

South Carolina. Immediately the State set about taking over the national property within its borders, particularly the forts in Charleston. harbor. Major Robert Anderson, a Southern officer loyal to the Government and commanding a small garrison in Fort Moultrie, hastily, on the night of the 26th of December, removed to Fort Sumter, a much stronger but unfinished fortress in the middle of the harbor, hoping to maintain his position there until reinforced. Before aid could be received from President Lincoln, who had informed Governor Pickens of his intention, a formal demand for the surrender of the fort was made by General Beauregard, commanding the Southern forces. This being promptly refused by Major Anderson, an order to reduce the fort was given by the Confederate Government.

On the morning of Friday, the 12th of April, 1861, at half-past four, the first shot was fired upon Sumter. The War of the Rebellion was begun. For two days the assault continued. Then, after a most gallant defense by the little garrison of seventy men, Major Anderson was compelled to accept terms of evacuation. On Sunday afternoon, April 14th, he

marched from the fort with colors flying and drums beating, and saluting with fifty guns the flag of his country, as it was lowered.

Governor Pickens, at the time, addressing the populace declared boastfully:

"We have defeated their twenty millions. We have humbled the flag of the United States before the Palmetto and Confederate, and so long as I have the honor to preside as your chief magistrate, so help me God, there is no power on this earth shall ever lower from that fortress those flags, unless they be lowered and trailed in a sea of blood. I can here say to you it is the first time in the history of this country that the stars and stripes have been humbled. That flag has never before been lowered before any nation on this earth. But today it has been humbled and humbled before the glorious little State of South Carolina."

Little did the Governor realize the import of the humbling of his country's banner. Little did he foresee the march of events from that fateful incident. Little did he reckon on the indignation and solemn consecration of the twenty millions whom his state had "defeated." Little did he conceive in that hour of exultation that there had been ushered in the most pitiless storm of civil strife it is probable the world had ever beheld, and that four years hence, at the state convention at Columbia assembled under the direction of the President of the United States, he was to arise amid the ashes of that once beautiful

FORT SUMTER MEMORIAL

capital and by resolution of the delegates of the people of his state ordain "implicit obedience to the Constitution of the United States and all laws made in pursuance thereof," and renew his personal oath of allegiance to the Government his clouded insight had led him to forswear.

Within two months of the completion of four years of fratricide, namely, on the 18th of February, 1865, Union troops occupied the proud city of Charleston, the cradle of the Rebellion. This the beginning of the end. The President, realizing that the fall of the Confederacy was near at hand, determined to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the evacuation of Fort Sumter by replanting the old flag of 1861, with imposing ceremonies, upon the ruins of the fortress, and accordingly the following order was issued:

General Orders No. 50,

War Department, Adjutant-General's Office,

Washington, March 27, 1865.

Ordered: First, That at the hour of noon, on the 14th day of April, 1865, Brevet Major-General Anderson will raise and plant upon the ruins of Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, the same United States flag which floated over the battlements of that fort during the rebel assault, and which was lowered and saluted by him, and the small force of his command, when the works were evacuated on the 14th of April, 1861.

Second, That the flag, when raised, be saluted by one hundred guns from Fort Sumter, and by a national salute from every fort and rebel battery that fired upon Fort Sumter.

Third, That suitable ceremonies be had upon the occasion, under the direction of Major-General William T. Sherman, whose military operations compelled the rebels to evacuate Charleston, or, in his absence, under the charge of Major-General Q. A. Gilmore, commanding the Department. Among the ceremonies will be the delivery of an address by the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher.

Fourth, That the naval forces at Charleston, and their commander on that station, be invited to participate in the ceremonies of the occasion.

Official.

By order of the President of the United States. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War.

E. D. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant-General. In the midst of the preparations for this celebration came the news of the capture of Richmond and Petersburg, the surrender of Lee and the death of the Rebellion. Mighty was the enthusiasm created by this news in the already deeply stirred audience of five thousand soldiers, sailors and citizens who had assembled in the battered and shapeless fortress lying like some monster of the deep in the center