THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF FORT SUMTER: ROBERT ANDERSON’S TWICE-SIGNED TRIBUTE TO PETER HART. "THE MAN WHO HELD THE FLAG ALOFT"

Vignetted bust-length albumen carte-de-visite portrait of Robert Anderson. New York: A. Lewis, circa 1862. Signed by Anderson on both recto and verso of the mount.

An important commemorative CDV, twice inscribed by Major Robert Anderson (1805–1871) and presented to his former sergeant, Peter Hart, who served alongside him during the opening battle of the American Civil War at Fort Sumter in April 1861.

The recto bears Anderson’s presentation inscription in his hand: “To Peter Hart who served with me in Mexico and Ft. Sumpter S.C. – From his friend / Robert Anderson,” while the verso is likewise signed and dated: “Your friend / Robert Anderson / N. York / April 12. 1862.” Together, the inscriptions firmly establish the photograph as a deliberate anniversary keepsake, given exactly one year after the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter, the event that marked the formal outbreak of the Civil War.

Anderson assumed command of Union forces in Charleston Harbor in December 1860, following South Carolina’s secession from the Union. After tensions escalated under the previous commander, Secretary of War John B. Floyd appointed Anderson in the hope that his Southern background (he was a native Kentuckian and former slaveholder) might help calm the increasingly volatile situation. Instead, recognizing the military vulnerability of Fort Moultrie, Anderson made the consequential decision to shift his small garrison to Fort Sumter, whose stronger defensive position soon made it the focal point of the secession crisis.

On 12 April 1861, Confederate batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter. Though the engagement caused remarkably few fatalities, it ended in Anderson’s surrender and became one of the defining symbolic episodes of the war. Far from diminishing his standing, Anderson’s steadfast defense transformed him into a celebrated Union figure, admired throughout the North for his conduct under siege.

Peter Hart’s association with Anderson lends this photograph particular importance. Hart had served under Anderson as a sergeant in the 3rd U.S. Artillery during the Mexican War before leaving military life for the New York City Police Department. According to later accounts, Mrs. Anderson personally sought him out and asked him to join her husband at Fort Sumter, recalling his earlier loyalty and service. Hart reportedly traveled south but, unable to enter the fort officially as a soldier, gained admission as a laborer or carpenter. Once inside, he remained during the bombardment. Tradition held that when the garrison flag was shot down on the second day of the attack, Hart fastened it to a spar attached to a gun carriage so that it could continue to fly, an act remembered as one of conspicuous bravery amid the opening violence of the war.

Presented to Hart on the first anniversary of Fort Sumter’s fall, this carte-de-visite commemorates not only Anderson’s role in one of the most famous episodes of the Civil War, but also the bond between commander and subordinate forged in Mexico and renewed under fire at Charleston. Anderson and Hart would ultimately return to Fort Sumter in April 1865, where the same flag that had once fallen in defeat was raised again in victory.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Cased Images, Union Cases, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Carte de Visites, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-visite, Cartes-de-visite, CDV, Cabinet Cards, Stereoviews, Stereocards]