Much-needed R&R: Three Fort Sumter flags are headed for a cool, dark place after years on display. Here's more about the banners

US storm flag, top, garrison flag, lower left, Palmetto Guard (NPS)

Three Fort Sumter flags – among them the U.S. flag that waved during its bombardment -- have been on display for at least 20 years, powerful symbols of a nation torn apart and brought back together.

Gunfire wasn’t their only enemy: saltwater spay, humidity and light took a toll on the flags. Now it’s time to give them some down time. Today and Wednesday, gloved curators will carefully remove the fragile banners from exhibit.

“It is long overdue for them to be rested,” said Brett Spaulding, chief of interpretation for Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park in Charleston, S.C. “Light is an issue for all textiles that are on display. To help preserve them, it’s common practice to rest artifacts.”

The museum on the island will be closed both days; the grounds of the fort and bookstore will remain open and ranger programs will operate normally, officials said.

Storm flag flies above the fort on April 14, 1865 (Library of Congress)

The flags are among the most famous of the Civil War: The 33-star U.S. garrison flag flew over the fort until it sustained wind damage on April 11, 1861, hours before Rebel artillery effectively began the Civil War. Its smaller successor, the storm flag, flew during the 34 hours of the attack.

Both were removed from the island by Union Maj. Robert Anderson after he surrendered. The storm flag immediately became a patriotic symbol for the remainder of the conflict and raised the status of the Star-Spangled Banner to what we know today.

The Palmetto Guard flag was the first Confederate flag to fly over the fort after the departure of the US Army on April 14, 1861. 

(NPS photo)

The storm and Palmetto Guard flags have been at the Fort Sumter museum. The garrison flag is at the Fort Sumter Visitor Center (above) at Liberty Square in downtown Charleston.

All underwent conservation before they went on display. “Despite taking great care to protect the artifacts they are best preserved when stored in a clean, dark, cool, and dry environment for periods of rest,” the park said in a news release. 

Here is more about the three flags:

U.S. 33-star garrison flag (wool bunting, 24 feet by 19 feet)

This was the larger of two U.S. flags to fly over Sumter in April 1861. When the Civil War began, the United States flag had 33 stars: one representing each state in the Union. After Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln had to decide whether to leave all 33 stars on the flag or to remove those of the seceded states. Since Lincoln's mission was to preserve the Union, no stars were removed.

The garrison flag flew as tensions rose before the bombardment. By the evening of April 11, hours from the exchange of artillery, the larger banner suffered extreme wind damage and it was taken down. It has lost the most material of the three historic flags.

McCrone Associates, which partnered with the NPS to authenticate the flags, wrote this about the project:

“A crucial finding was that the fibers were characterized by “glass rod fracture,” indicative of severe photo degradation -- findings verified through micro chemical tests, as well. Thus, museum personnel were strongly advised to keep the rolling up and unrolling of the flags to an absolute minimum. 

"The severe climatic conditions of an ocean island, together with prolonged exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun, were responsible for irreversible damage to the integrity of the individual fibers, so that every movement of the flags resulted in countless more broken fibers. These facts, together with the constant whipping in the wind, accounted for the missing portions of the garrison flag.”

Remarkably, the blue canton of the tattered flag is largely intact.

U.S. 33-star storm flag (14 feet by 8 feet)

(NPS photo)

While it flew only three days over the fort, this banner was the sturdier banner and was taken by Anderson to New York City a week after the surrender for a rally. He was celebrated as a hero. The storm flag later was the object of fundraising across the country for the Federal war effort.

Anderson said of the flags in 1863, according to the Post and Courier newspaper:

 “I feel that no one can love and ... keep as carefully as I do this sacred relic, and it is my earnest wish that when Fort Sumter shall be again our own, I may be permitted by the government to there once more unfurl it, or should I die before that time, that it may be wrapped around my body when it is borne to its last resting place ...”

On April 14, 1865, five years after the garrison surrender, Anderson (left) returned to Fort Sumter as the storm flag was raised. Charleston had been under Union occupation for two months and the liberated black population had put on parades.

“Lincoln had pushed for the April 14 ceremony and was invited to attend, but with the break-neck speed of events in Virginia following the fall of Richmond, the president opted to stay in Washington instead,” according to Emerging Civil War. 

“The flag ceremony went on without him. That evening, at Ford’s Theater, John Wilkes Booth put a bullet in Lincoln’s head. Had the president gone to Charleston, how different might things have played out.”

In 1905, the garrison and storm flags were donated by Anderson’s family to the War Department.

Palmetto Guard Flag (9 feet by 6 feet)

From the National Park Service: As victorious Confederates entered Fort Sumter, John Styles Bird Jr., a private in the South Carolina militia unit known as the Palmetto Guard, placed his unit's flag on the parapet facing Charleston.

Palmetto Guard flag on display at Fort Sumter Museum (NPS)

The single star signified the independent Republic of South Carolina and the tree harkened back to the Revolutionary War. The fort remained in Confederate hands for the next four years until evacuation in February 1865.

John Styles Ashe, son of John Styles Bird Jr., donated it to the National Park Service. They were transferred to the National Park Service at Fort Sumter in 1954, according to the Post and Courier.

No timetable for them to be put back on display

Spaulding, the interpretive ranger, told the Picket in an email that there are no current plans to replace the flags. “Later this year, we will look to develop temporary displays to occupy the empty space.”

He said it is not currently known whether significant work is needed or will be done on the three flags.

“For right now they are only being stored and preservation will take place at a later undetermined time. At this time, no date has been set for the return of the flags” to exhibit.