“Cutting Down the U.S. Flagstaff, Under the Direction of Major Anderson, At For Moultrie, Charleston Harbor, S.C. on Christmas Night, 1860”1,2,3
This is an artist’s imagined rendering of an actual event.
Fort Moultrie 1809-19304
(An) imagined scene, this one representing the “Cutting down [of] the U.S. flagstaff, under the direction of Major Anderson at Fort Moultrie, Charleston Harbor, S.C., on Christmas Night, 1860.” Although the Major himself is depicted as the officer wearing a kepi, sheathed sword, and epaulettes at the lower right-hand corner of this engraving, Moultrie’s flagpole was in reality not cut down until the day after he had evacuated the fort with its main garrison. Instead, this work was done by the engineer Capt. John G. Foster early on the morning of December 27, 1860 — who moreover felled the flagstaff in the opposite direction to that shown here, toppling it outward over the southern parapet so as to crack or “spring” its length of wood, thus rendering it unusable for reinstallation by the South Carolinian forces.
Note: also that while the fort’s West Barracks behind the toiling artillerymen are accurately rendered, the flagstaff itself stood atop the terreplein above Moultrie’s main flight of stairs — not lower down at its Parade-Ground level, as depicted here.
- “Cutting Down the U.S. Flagstaff.” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. January 19, 1861.
Note: I have not been able to find this issue of the paper anywhere online, which is pretty remarkable, since many of the images from the issue are widely available. - Special handed-tinted off-prints were also sold separately. Numerous originals held today by public institutions and in private collections.
- This image has been digitally adjusted for one or more of the following:
– fade correction,
– color, contrast, and/or saturation enhancement
– selected spot and/or scratch removal
– cropped for composition and/or to accentuate subject - Battlefields in Motion – Fort Moultrie 1809-1930 – A Chronological List of Maps & Photos. Accessed December 25, 2020. http://moultrie.battlefieldsinmotion.com/Old-Photos-and-Maps.html.