Attractively presented Fort Sumter relics, including:

1. Flagstaff relic, mounted on period red paper with period die-cut American Flag with riband reading "I'll Float Again O'er Sumter" and gilt-lettered black morocco label reading "Piece of the Fort Sumter Flagstaff".

2. Full length albumen carte-de-visite (CDV) studio portrait of Peter Hart.

3. Autograph note signed by J.S. Reigart. N.p., n.d. Recording the provenance of the relic, the note reads in full: "Piece of the Fort Sumter Flagstaff. Presented to I.S. Reigart April 1861, by Mr Peter Hart the man who nailed the Flag to the Fort Sumter Flagstaff after it had been shot away by the South Carolina Rebels in Charleston Harbor. April 12th + 13th 1861."

The note states that the relic flagstaff was presented to J.S. Reigart in April 1861 by Peter Hart, the man who famously nailed the United States "Union" flag to the Fort Sumter flagstaff after it had been shot away during battle. Hart was a veteran artillery sergeant who served in the Mexican-American war under Major Robert Anderson. At the start of the Civil War, he was a civilian patrolman of the Metropolitan Police Department in New York, and when asked, agreed to escort Major Anderson's wife to Fort Sumter in early 1861.

After surviving the ordeal, Hart became a celebrity once his story was shared by Major Robert Anderson and others who survived the 34-hour assault that began the Civil War.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Secession, Fort Sumter, Relics, Ephemera, Historic Photography, Early Photography, CDV, Carte de Visite, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-Visite]