Compelling Civil War artifacts are among 100 objects the Atlanta History Center is highlighting to mark its centennial. Among them: USCT flag, ammo crate, a girl's diary, Sherman calling card, Cleburne sword, a Union map and a revolver

Solomon Luckie, Union map of Atlanta, detail of 127th USCT flag, sketch for Cyclorama (Courtesy AHC)

Through items big (the locomotive Texas weighing in at 53,000 pound) and small (less than an ounce for Gen. William T. Sherman’s calling card), nearly 20 Civil War-related artifacts are featured in “Atlanta in 100 Objects,” a book and accompanying exhibition that opens Saturday at the Atlanta History Center.

The AHC, celebrating its 100 anniversary this year, is inviting visitors to examine artifacts in galleries, rooms and exhibits across its 33 acres. There is a big variety, from a disco ball and Peachtree Street sign (below right, AHC) to a letter from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and an Atlanta Crackers baseball jersey.

While many of the Civil War items, including the calling card and a map used by Sherman’s troops, are now on display, others (a diary by a 10-year old Atlanta girl and the fascinating flag of an African-American regiment) won’t debut or return until the July opening of “More Perfect Union: The American Civil War Era.”

Officials say visitors will see photographs of the Civil War objects being unveiled during the summer. That exhibition will feature breathtaking artifacts and a broader discussion of issues that engage the republic to this day: our belief systems, victory, defeat, reconciliation and the evolving meaning of freedom.

If you can’t travel to the history center by the end of the year to see the 100 objects, the $24.95 coffee table book (left) features photographs and descriptions “that offer a vibrant portrait of Atlanta through the objects that define it.”

The finely produced volume offers just a snippet of what's at the history center. There are thousands of items in the history center's collection, including those pertaining to Reconstruction and civil rights.

Here’s a closer look at the “Atlanta in 100 Objects” artifacts that are directly related to the Civil War.

Much of the information is from the AHC book, while other portions are from previous Picket reporting on these artifacts, many of which have been at the museum for some time.

Adapting the first map of Atlanta for military use

You know how annoying it can be: Unfolding and folding a road map often leads to rips in the paper. Commanders in the Army of the Cumberland besieging Atlanta were issued a linen version -- preventing that problem.

British-born engineer and cartographer Edward A. Vincent made a map for the young city of Atlanta in 1853. Of course, Atlanta was a much smaller town (about 2,600 residents) and Vincent created a circle with a one-mile radius.

“Vincent beautifully illustrated the curved lines that gave Atlanta streets their unusual layout,” a caption in the book states. The Western & Atlantic’s Zero Milepost was in the center (more on that below).

Sherman’s army adapted Vincent’s creation (he also designed Union Station). The one held by the AHC was made July 25, 1864. It was drawn and printed in the field by the topographical engineer office for the Army of the Cumberland, commanded by Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas.

The map is currently on exhibit in McElreath Hall on the AHC campus.

The other two large Federal armies in Georgia were the Army of the Ohio and the Army of the Tennessee. (Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center; click to enlarge)

Solomon and Nancy Luckie

Amid the bustle of Civil War Atlanta, 40 residents were an anomaly. Neither white nor enslaved, they were free blacks -- but they were not free in the fullest sense of the word. The residents toiled under restrictions and were always under a cloud of uncertainty.

Among them were successful barber and bathhouse owner Solomon Luckie, his wife Nancy (left, courtesy AHC) and their three children. The AHC has portraits of the couple; in his, Solomon wears a waistcoat, jacket and gold pinkie ring.

Luckie’s success story ended on Aug. 9, 1864, when one of thousands of Union artillery shells raining on besieged Atlanta hit a lamppost. Shrapnel struck the businessman, who was conversing with white businessmen at the intersection of Whitehall (Peachtree) and Alabama streets. He died hours later.

The lamppost for years was at the Underground Atlanta venue. It was moved to the AHC nearly a decade ago. It can be seen in an upstairs gallery associated with the Cyclorama.

Nancy and their children survived the war. “His descendants would live to see decades of success and struggles for Black Atlantans,” the book says of Solomon.

The two original portraits are not on display but copies are displayed with the lamppost.

Zero Milepost

The granite post that marked the birth of Atlanta and survived the Civil War today sits next to the locomotive Texas at the AHC.

Zero Milepost (Picket photo, right) was placed in the 1850s at the southeastern terminus of the Western & Atlantic Railroad in what is now downtown Atlanta, near Georgia State University. “It was this railroad that provided the impetus for the beginning and subsequent growth of the city of Atlanta and marks the center of the city from which the Atlanta city limits were measured,” says the National Park Service.

The Western & Atlantic was vital for the Confederacy, sending both supplies and troops to the front.

For 70 years, the marker sat in the open, but the growth of the city’s viaduct system led to the Central Avenue Bridge above it and the feature was enclosed in a building in the 1980s. With the exception of a few groups, the marker had not been visible to the public since 1994.

In 2018, the milepost was moved to the history center, sparking criticism by preservation and civic groups. A replica was left in the remote site. The museum and state officials said the original needed protection from planned construction work

At the time, an official with the Atlanta Preservation Center said news of the move was a dark day for preservation. “It is always better to leave things in their original location,” said David Mitchell.

The replica milestone as of this writing is inaccessible because of some kind of project being done ahead of the World Cup.

Battle of Atlanta revolver

In 2006, descendants of Union artillery Capt. Francis DeGress discovered a small pocket revolver (Picket photo, below) that their great-grandfather carried into the Battle of Atlanta on July 22, 1864.

In the Cyclorama painting, galloping furiously to the rescue of Union troops who were briefly overrun at the Troup Hurt house is Maj. Gen. John A. “Black Jack” Logan, head of the Army of the Tennessee. Behind him is a revolver-toting DeGress.

DeGress, already a respected veteran, is about to become a folk hero to the Northern cause. He retakes the four 20-pounder Parrott guns that briefly fell into Confederate hands.

“He is an example of the sort of mid-level officer who was a natural leader, on whom the troops really came to depend. On whom the battle depended,” said AHC senior military historian and curator Gordon Jones.

The 1863 weapon was made by L.W. Pond Machine & Foundry Company in Worcester, Mass. It has been on display with other artifacts in the Cyclorama galleries.

According to “100 Objects,” descendants found a letter by artist Theodore Davis, a witness to the battle, friend of DeGress and a historical adviser to the Cyclorama painters. “The letter revealed that it was Davis who recommended DeGress’s dramatic pose with this revolver.”

Capt. Francis DeGress gallops behind Maj. Gen. Logan (Picket photo)

Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama painting and sketch

There’s a lot that can be said of the immense painting, which was made in the 1880s by mostly German artists with the American Panorama Company. Photos are helpful, but you really have to see this depiction in person to appreciate the artistry and chaos of battle.

Visitors at the AHC today stand or sit on a viewing platform and enjoy a powerful presentation projected onto the painting (Picket photo, right).

The book includes a foldout, 360-degree view of the painting and a preliminary sketch of the focal point – the furious fighting at the Troup Hurt house.

The Cyclorama, which was painted in Milwaukee to show a Union victory, was later modified and misinterpreted in Atlanta as showing a Southern triumph – however brief.

“Through the Cyclorama (visitors) can explore the larger question of how our memory and knowledge about the past can be shaped or mis-shaped, in the convergence of history, art, entertainment and myth,” says the book.

Patrick Cleburne’s presentation sword

One of the most compelling items in the former “Turning Point” exhibit was a sword presented by Rebel troops to Irish-born Confederate Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne. It is expected to come back on view.

An unknown maker produced the sword in Solingen, Prussia, circa 1864. Hammond Marshall of Atlanta, a dentist and jewelry maker, engraved the weapon.

(Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center)

Soldiers of the 15^th Arkansas Infantry – Cleburne’s adopted state -- presented him the sword on April 18, 1864. The scabbard features an Irish harp and the state seal of Arkansas is on the blade.

Cleburne was among six Confederate generals killed later that year at Franklin, Tenn. Before he set out, the officer uttered, “Well if we are to die, let us die like men.”

The “100 Objects” book features this postscript:

“Cleburne staff sent the sword to his fiancée, Susan Tarleton, in Alabama. It remained in the Tarleton family until 1944. It was discovered in an umbrellas stand in a New England antique store in the 1950s, after which it was purchased and donated to Atlanta History Center.”

The sword will be back in the public eye in July when "More Perfect Union" debuts.

Sherman’s photographer George N. Barnard

The AHC in 2024 purchased a rare copy of George N. Barnard’s “Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign,” thought to belong to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman and signed in 1886 by his son Philemon.

Barnard traveled twice in 1864 to Atlanta following the Confederate surrender. The volume -- featuring 10 x 13 inches images -- includes scenes of the occupation of Nashville, the 1864 battles around Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain, the Atlanta Campaign, Savannah, Ga., and South Carolina. In May 1866, Barnard traced the route of Sherman's North Georgia campaign, taking pictures at Resaca and elsewhere.

(Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center)

Keith F. Davis, the leading authority on Barnard, said the photographer ranks among the top echelon of Civil War photographers – Gardner, O’Sullivan, Cook, Rees, Reekie, Gibson and Brady. “None of them surpassed Barnard in terms of technical or creative skill,” says Davis, a photography curator, author and collector. “It’s hard to say that any one of them was 'the best' but Barnard was second to none.” 

Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association, said Barnard's contract with the Army called for him to principally take photos of fortifications, and he took many.

“We're lucky that he had time to take photos of the Ponder house, car shed, etc.” says Crawford, who has led many tours of  key sites in Civil War Atlanta.

The “100 Objects” book includes this summary of the difficult work:

“Working with glass negatives, Barnard required a portable field darkroom and time to set up, chemically prepare the plates, expose the image, and develop the negative – all performed on site. Transported in wagons over dirt roads, the glass negatives were always at risk for breakage. His photographs are not enlargements, they are the same size as the glass negative, some as large as 12-by-15 images.”

The volume will be displayed in July. Visitors will be able to use a digital display to flip through its pages.

Civil War diary – Carrie Berry

“We were fritened almost to death last night. Some mean soldiers set several houses on fire in different parts of the town. I could not go to sleep for fear that they would set our house on fire. We all dred the next few days to come for they said that they would set the last house on fire if they had to leave this place.”

Thus read the Nov. 12, 1864, journal entry of Carrie Berry, a 10-year-old girl living in Atlanta during the fall and occupation of the city. Hers is a very personal account of the shelling of her neighborhood, hiding in the family cellar and taking care of younger siblings.

(Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center)

In between were the seemingly mundane tasks of sewing and ironing. Carrie kept this diary from  August 1864 to January 1865.

The Berry family lived on Harris Street about a mile from the heart of downtown.

“Berry records her desires, reminding us that she is still a child,” according to the book.

In August 1864, she writes, ‘How I wish the federals would quit shelling us so that we could get out and get some fresh air. “Days earlier, she shared that it was her birthday, “But I did not have a cake – times were too hard so I celebrated with ironing.’”

Berry, who later married and had three children, died in 1921. She is buried at Oakland Cemetery, the resting place for Civil War soldiers and civilians alike.

The diary will go on display in July when “More Perfect Union” opens.

Confederate ammunition crate

(Photo courtesey Atlanta History Center)

On Aug. 20, 1960, construction workers digging the roadbed for interstate highways I-75 and I-85 near downtown Atlanta uncovered one of the largest assortments of Confederate artifacts in Atlanta’s history.

According to the history center, the find is known in local tradition as the “Expressway Cache.” (I was unfamiliar with the term). It was at a site that was near four railroad lines during the Civil War. Buried in the mud of a collapsed underground timber and earth supply depot were hundreds of muskets, projectile, railroad tools and other supplies.

The Atlanta Journal said “a mad scramble” of workers, highway department employees and onlookers looted the site.

This well-preserved crate, likely made in 1864, has a shipping address on one side: “To Gen’l Johnston / Atalanta (sic) / GA.”.

Look for it in July when the new Civil War exhibit opens.

Locomotive Texas

A line of text in “100 Objects” makes a pretty grand assertion:

“Given Atlanta’s establishment as a railroad hub, the 1856 locomotive Texas is perhaps the most significant object in the city.”

The Texas is lit up at night and is visible from the road (Civil War Picket photo)

The Texas, saved from destruction years after its prominent role in “The Great Locomotive Chase,” can be seen through an AHC window along West Paces Ferry Road.

While it is most famous for the Andrews Raid in 1862, the steam locomotive – which was at Grant Park before it was restored in 2017 and relocated to the AHC – symbolizes something else about the city.

AHC officials have long stressed the engine tells a much larger story of the postwar growth of the city, and they decided to paint it in an 1886 scheme, rather than the bright colors it wore at Grant Park -- in part because its surviving parts date closer to that year than the Civil War.

Like the locomotive General, the object of the chase, the Texas was saved (in 1907) from the scrap heap. The General presides at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Marietta, Ga. The Texas and General are the sole surviving locomotives of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, which played a large part in Atlanta’s early development.

Silk regimental flag of the 127^th USCT

A prize artifact acquired in 2019 by the Atlanta History Center captures the essence of why about 180,000 African Americans volunteered in the Union army during the Civil War. It will go on display in July, officials said.

“We Will Prove Ourselves Men” reads the motto on the striking flag that belonged to the 127^th Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops, which was formed in Pennsylvania of free men and some who had escaped bondage. The reverse side features a bald eagle and the national motto, “E Pluribus Unum” –out of many, one.

(Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center)

This is one of three surviving examples of at least 12 USCT flags painted by David Bustill Bowser.

The 127^th trained at Camp William Penn near Philadelphia in 1864. It took part in combat during the siege of Petersburg and the surrender at Appomattox. USCT units -- which helped turn the tide in several campaigns and battles -- were led by white officers and it took time for soldiers to receive pay equal to their white counterparts.

They had limited opportunities and faced racism within the Union army. Some freed men captured by Confederate units were sold into slavery and in some instances, such as at Fort Pillow, black troops were victims of racially motivated atrocities.

Carpetbag

In the South, two terms of derision came to the fore in the years following the Civil War.

A scalawag was a white Southerner who did not conform to postwar expectations. They backed Reconstruction policies and, usually, the Republican Party.

Carpetbaggers were outsiders and, as the AHC says, “travelers from the North who came to the South to profit off the war; ravage local populations; and take advantage of efforts to rebuild the region’s economy, politics and social order.”

The AHC has a small carpetbag in its collection and describes such items this way:

“As the network of railways spread in the US during the prewar period, trains were connecting peoples and places quickly and efficiently. As a result, small industry developed to supply cheap travel bags. The bags were made from secondhand carpet scraps and sold for one or two dollars.”

The carpetbag currently is displayed in the "Gatheround" gallery.

Grand Army of the Republic reunion pot

The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a large fraternal organization made up of Civil War Union veterans.

This commemorative Boston bean pot was presented to GAR members in Savannah, Ga., by veterans from Beverly, Mass. Three sides are adorned with the coats of arms of the states of Georgia and Massachusetts, as well as that of the Grand Army of the Republic. (Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center)

According to the AHC, the pot was given in gratitude for the care of a grave of a Beverly veteran, Erastus B. Davis, who died in Georgia in 1887. Savannah veterans decorated his unmarked grave, pledging to “keep it in proper order and mount it with the flag for which he offered up his life.”

A chaplain at one graveside service for a veteran said, “The blue and the gray … now lie side by side. All strife has been ended and only the olive branch prevails.”

The GAR pot will go in display in July.

Gen. William T. Sherman’s calling card

In the 19^th century, these small items were the equivalent of today’s business cards, though most did not include contact information.

That’s because they were often mailed or given out at battlefields, veteran reunions and public events. Former generals dispensed them as a sign of goodwill, rather than the pursuit of business.

Such was the case in January 1879, when William T. Sherman returned to Atlanta for the first since he vanquished his foes there. Over three days, Sherman met with local and state officials and gave out cards. 

“Sherman received a warm welcome. Atlantans gathered at the train station to welcome the Commanding General of the United States Army, with only the occasional sly comment about fire,” says “Atlanta in 100 Objects.”

The card is currently on display at McElreath Hall on the AHC campus.

Other items with ties to the Civil War

-- Death mask of railroad engineer Lemuel P. Grant, who designed Confederate fortifications protecting Atlanta. It is on display in the AHC lobby atrium. 

-- Wallet, library card and driver’s license for Margaret Mitchell Marsh, author of “Gone With the Wind”

-- Wilbur Kurtz’s easel. The artist and historian (right) in the 1930s oversaw the restoration of The Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama and the addition of diorama figures. The easel currently is positioned near the locomotive Texas.                                         

The AHC says patrons can enhance their experience through the Bloomberg Connects app, which offers additional audio and visual storytelling to enhance the “100 Objects” show.

Our flag was still there: 'The Demon of Unrest' brings attention to the march to war, Fort Sumter's brave commander and the return of Old Glory after Union triumph

Souvenir from April 1865 flag-raising (Courtesy Glen Hayes), Peter Hart puts flag back up during 1861 bombardment

If you look closely at the illustration on the dust jacket for Erick Larson’s “The Demon of Unrest,” you will notice something small, but colorful at dead center. The object is surrounded by Fort Sumter’s brick walls, flames and smoke and the bright streaks of incoming artillery fire.

It's the U.S. flag flying defiantly as garrison commander Col. Robert Anderson and his soldiers bravely withstand the furious Confederate bombardment that launched the Civil War in April 1861. Anderson felt not only the burden of defending the bastion, but also safeguarding the American flag. He surrendered only after his supplies were depleted, parts of the interior were on fire and his exhausted, outnumbered troops could not carry on.

I read Larson’s compelling book a couple months back and thought back to two posts I have written about the National Park Service taking three historic Fort Sumter flags off display last year to give them time to rest from exposure to light. Among them is the 20-foot-by 10-foot storm flag, which flew during the 34-hour bombardment.

As Larson recounts, Anderson told Confederates hours before the attack he would not fire “unless compelled to do so by some hostile act against this fort or the flag of my Government."

Some members of the flag-removal team in front of the storm flag at Fort Sumter (NPS photo)

Rebel batteries, naturally, took aim at the storm flag, which has 33 stars, once the early-morning assault began, and they eventually brought it down.

“A ball or shell shattered its staff and the great flag collapsed into the smoke below. ‘Then arose the loudest and longest shout of joy – as if this downfall of the flag, with its cause, was the representation of our victory,’ Southern firebrand Edmund Ruffin wrote in his diary,” Larson writes.

The flag, to the Union garrison, was “a tactile representation of nationhood” and must be made to fly again. (Robert Anderson, left)

“Sumter’s unofficial infantryman, Peter Hart, the New York City police officer who had accompanied Anderson’s wife on her surprise visit to the fort, set off through the smoke and fire and came back with a long spar to replace the shattered flagstaff,” Larson writes. “Hart also retrieved the flag and nailed it by its edge to the spar. He then fixed the spar to a gun carriage on the parapet level, all this while fully exposed to Confederate fire. Once again the wind caught the flag. It did not fly as high as it had, but at intervals wind gusts created temporary clearings that revealed the flag gamely flying amid striations of smoke.”

Confederates treated Anderson and his men honorably after the surrender, and he took the storm flag with him. It 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. Anderson was treated as a hero in North.

As Military Images publisher Ronald S. Coddington wrote, Anderson later told an acquaintance of the flag: “I knew that it would never come down in disgrace.”

In a twist of fate, Anderson, a retired general, returned to Charleston at war’s end to raise the flag again over the battered fortress (more about that below). An aside: Visitors to the fort today who take the first boat river over in the morning can help rangers raise the U.S. flag.

Q&A with Fort Sumter staffer about impact of book

I recently asked Brett Spaulding, chief of interpretation for Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park, about the renewed interest on the site brought by “The Demon of Unrest.” (At right, damaged flagpole after Confederate bombardment, Library of Congress)

Q. I am curious as to what kind of attention or questions the book has posed to rangers at the park. Do guests or historians bring up particular aspects of the book's scholarship?

A. “The Demon of Unrest” is frequently mentioned by visitors to Fort Sumter as a reason for their interest in visiting our site. Common questions are about the mindsets of the major players of the pre-Civil War standoff – the courage and inner conflict of Major Robert Anderson, and the march to war among both hardcore secessionists and typical white Charlestonians.

Q. Did the park provide any resources or materials for Larson? Did the staff learn new things from the book that might be helpful with interpretation?

A. Fort Sumter & Fort Moultrie NHP was not involved in the research or writing of “The Demon of Unrest”, though writer Erik Larson visited the fort in the spring of 2024. The book reinforced existing research on the environment of pre-war Charleston, and helped visitors make connections between influential “fire-eater” secessionists and the crisis at Fort Sumter.

Q. The storm flag in particular: Have you learned anything new about it? What details does the park have on its status and location during the bombardment?

A. The book, unfortunately, gives an inaccurate impression of which of our historic flags flew during the bombardment. On page 10, Larson refers to Anderson, within an hour of the bombardment, raising a flag “twenty feet high by thirty-six long” over Fort Sumter. However, a New York Times article dated May 21, 1861, citing conversations with Major Anderson, specifically states that Anderson flew the smaller of his two flags. The smaller of the two flags in our collection, the storm flag, measures ten by twenty feet and was the original flag that flew during the bombardment. Based on historic images of the fort, we believe the flagpole’s original location to be near the left flank of the fort, not far from the fort’s modern-day entrance. (The larger garrison flag was taken down shortly before the bombardment and replaced by the sturdier storm flag.)

Storm flag, top, garrison flag and the Confederate Palmetto Guard flag (NPS)

Q. The Palmetto Guard flag -- Have you learned anything new about it? Did Edmund Ruffin carry it into the fort and hold it during Anderson's surrender? Do you have any idea where it was made and when?

A. We do not have further information on the origins of the Palmetto Guard flag. The earliest citation we have found for it is The New York Times article of December 1, 1860.

Edmund Ruffin’s presence in the Palmetto Guard is backed up by the historical record. We do not have evidence to dispute that the Guard chose to let Ruffin bear the flag – he was a well-known secessionist leader and had been given the honor of firing the first shot from their battery. Contemporary accounts do place Ruffin in the fort on April 14, the day of the ceremony.

Q. Can you please tell me where all three flags are currently being stored, and in what fashion (tube, flat, etc.)? (At left, one of the flags being removed in 2023, NPS photo)

A. The Palmetto flag and the storm flag are both stored in our curatorial facility. The garrison flag is stored in a trusted specialty art storage facility in Texas via government contract due to its immense size and more fragile nature. All three flags are stored and were professionally packed by a team of conservators, museum staff and art movers. The flags are interleaved with and wrapped with archival materials and are stored rolled an archival tube for preservation purposes. 

Q.  I know the Harpers Ferry Center experts have said they all will need some kind of work, mounts, repairs, new frames, etc. at some point. Has any of that work begun, or is it too early?

A. The garrison flag specifically has been identified as needing additional conservation work. Plans for this work have been prepared but will not go into effect until the permanent home for this flag is ready (this includes facility and exhibit renovations). This is to ensure the flag is packed and moved as few times as possible while it transitions from its current storage unit to the conservation lab, and finally to its permanent home. We are currently speculating that this work may be able to be scheduled in approximately three years.

Q. How long do you think each banner will be kept in the dark, so to speak?

A. Currently, the answer to this question is uncertain. The park does not plan on returning any flags to exhibit at Fort Sumter specifically due to the difficulty with accessing this site in the event of an emergency, and the higher difficulty with safely moving the flags to and from this site. The flags could go on exhibit at other sites and through other means. The most likely involves ongoing plans for a redesign of exhibit spaces at Liberty Square. 

Q. Has any decision or further discussion been had on the fate of the three flags?

A. Discussions about the flags are active and ongoing. The park is devoted to ensuring that all flags are properly cared for and stored. The garrison flag has been the largest point of discussion and planning since it is the only flag currently off site and in need of conservation. The Palmetto and storm flags are both stable, and their future plans will be determined when exhibit renovations are scheduled and planned.

POSTSCRIPT: Collector has flag-raising relic

Storm flag (waving behind white pole) about to be raised in 1865 (Library of Congress)

Glen Hayes of New York has collected Gettysburg artifacts and memorabilia for about 57 years (more on that in a future post), but he also has a few Fort Sumter-related items.

The most prominent is a souvenir from April 14, 1865, when Anderson, 59, and his son returned to the fort to again raise the storm flag he took with him in 1861. In June 2023, Military Images magazine wrote about ferns, loose flowers and bouquets that had been placed near the flag before its raising, a symbol of a restored union.

Hayes bought the relic that features mounted remnants of the flora and a portrait of Anderson and an uncommon photograph taken inside the fort that day, showing the large flag attached to two poles decorated with bunting.

The Military Images article states Anderson cried and told the large crowd that it had been “the cherished wish of my heart” to restore the flag to its rightful place. With him was Peter Hart, the man who reattached the flag during the bombardment four years before.

Photo of Robert Anderson by Brady (Courtesy Glen Hayes) / Storm flag (Library of Congress)

“With the reading of Psalms concluded, Hart stepped forward carrying a mailbag that contained the original flag, nail holes and all. At this the crowd broke into a tumult of cheers. Three Navy sailors attached the flag to a halyard; they added roses, mock orange blossoms, and an evergreen wreath,” wrote Larson.

Hayes told the Picket in an email he bought the item from a relic dealer in about 1981. The caption reads: “Some of the leaves & ferns that fell from the boquet on the flag raised in position from where the Confederates made us take it down at Fort Sumpter SC in the Civil War. 1865”

The maker of the collage is not known.

“I purchased it because it was a good example of the end of the Civil War. Also, the relic is what you would call a ‘silent witness’ to the events of that day,” Hayes said. “Also, because it had the uncommon scene of the actual flag as it was being raised. It is ironic looking at the picture and seeing all the happy people in the photo, they not knowing that that evening Pres. Lincoln would be assassinated. Also, that Lincoln had been invited to the ceremony but couldn't attend. How history could have changed if he went.”

Gun tool for Austrian weapon (Courtesy Glen Hayes)

Hayes years ago acquired a piece of wood from the Star of the West, a vessel Confederates fired upon in January 1861 when it attempted to supply the Federal garrison, an episode thoroughly documented in “The Demon of Unrest.”

The other item is a gun tool for a model 1854 Austrian Lorenz rifle. “Both sides used that rifle but seeing how the Confederates occupied Fort Sumter for 4 years it was probably from a Confederate soldier,” Hayes told the Picket.

'Sound trumpets! Let our bloody colors wave!: Professor using fellowship to learn more about how Americans turned to Shakespeare to interpret the Civil War

1864 cartoon depicting George McClellan and Abraham Lincoln in a "Hamlet" scene

From the White House desk of President Abraham Lincoln to book shelves in homes across America, the works of William Shakespeare were omnipresent during the Civil War.

Lincoln favored “Macbeth,” soldiers staged Shakespearean plays and people in North and South used the bard’s writings to justify their cause and express their deepest emotions at a time of great sacrifice and loss.

Now, a Massachusetts Historical Society fellowship is helping a history professor conduct research for a book she’s writing about reading habits and practices during the Civil War, particularly in regard to the works of Shakespeare.

Dr. Sarah Gardner, distinguished professor of history at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., is the recipient of the Suzanne and Caleb Loring Fellowship. The fellowship is entitled “Shakespeare Fights the American Civil War.”

Dr. Gardner has received more than 15 grants and fellowships (Mercer University)

She spent part of the summer at the historical society, which specializes in Union war efforts. Next June, she will travel to the Boston Athenaeum, which focuses on the Confederate side and has print materials, including newspapers, journal articles, books and poems.

“I became interested in Shakespeare because Shakespeare was popular with the Civil War generation,” the cultural historian told the Picket in an email. “He was evoked in speeches, he was popular on the lecture circuit, his plays were performed by amateur and by professional actors, allusions were deployed in magazines and in short and long fiction. I am largely interested in the ways soldiers and people on the home front used Shakespeare in their correspondence and diaries.”

Gardner, a cultural historian, has taught courses and written about the American South, the Civil War and Reconstruction. She gave three lectures in 2021 at Penn State University.

“Civil War-era Americans … turned to Shakespeare for universal truths,” said a preview of the series. “Shakespeare, they believed, spoke to abiding concerns, such as the soul of genius, the power of the imagination, and of the heroic individual’s ability to determine an event’s outcome.”

Both sides during the Civil War interpreted Shakespeare in a way advantageous to them.

“I haven't seen any meaningful difference between Unionists' and Confederates' uses of Shakespeare. And they don't always cite Shakespeare to defend a cause,” Gardner told the Picket.

Hamlet and Macbeth were especially popular with Civil War Americans.  

As Gardner and other scholars point out, Shakespeare had a lot to say about war. Two lines from  “Richard II” and “Macbeth” on the subject.

“He is come to open
The purple testament of bleeding war.”

And

“When the hurly-burly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.”

“Macbeth” apparently was Lincoln’s favorite. As an essay published on the National Endowment for the Humanities website says, the president did not suffer the weight of guilt and excesses as did Macbeth – who spoke of powerlessness.

“Instead, he got something far more abstract from Macbeth’s famous soliloquy. Throughout his life, Lincoln was deeply attracted to the idea of unchanging destiny, and used this ‘predestination’ mindset to help him survive even the most traumatic of events. In many ways, he saw his presidential legacy not as the result of well-ordered strategy and political planning, but as the sheer result of some higher order of which he was merely an often unwitting tool.” 

Ironically, Lincoln, a theatergoer, was assassinated by an actor who played Macbeth: John Wilkes Booth. (At right, Booth brothers, John at left, in 1864 for "Julius Caesar.")

One of the most-famous cartoons of the Civil War was the “Chicago Nominee,” drawn by Justin H. Howard. It shows Union Gen. George McClellan, who ran against Lincoln in 1864, depicted as Hamlet in the graveyard scene.

“Instead of the skull of court jester Yorick, McClellan addresses the head of President Abraham Lincoln, his Republican opponent. Governor Horatio Seymour of New York is cast as Hamlet’s friend Horatio, and the grave digger is a famished Irish immigrant,” says a description of the cartoon by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“In 1862 Lincoln removed General McClellan, who had been in command of the Union army, from active duty after he failed to achieve a decisive victory at Antietam -- the bloodiest battle in American military history. The caption at the bottom of the image alludes to false newspaper reports that Lincoln had acted with inappropriate levity while touring the Civil War battlefield at Antietam.

The caption borrows an Act IV line from “Hamlet”: “I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest. Where be your gibes now?”

Frederick Douglass was another big fan of Shakespeare. After the war, he was at a dinner with Powhatan Beaty, an African-American Medal of Honor recipient who became an actor, notably playing Macbeth.

A Mercer University news release about the fellowship says Gardner is reading letters, diaries and books to learn more what they read, much of which was from Shakespeare. People often used the author’s words to describe their experiences during the Civil War.

“I’m really interested in how people think and how they make sense of the world,” the professor and author said in the release. “The history of emotions allows us to enter a world removed from us, either by time or place. Everyone experiences joy or pain, but they experience them differently. We can better understand our historical actors by appealing to the history of emotions.”