Monday, September 15, 2014

Celebrating Old Glory on the 200 Birthday of Its Song-- Part 2: Fort Sumter and Lincoln Flags

FORT SUMTER FLAG, CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

"On April 12, 1861, a U.S. flag with 33 stars arranged in a diamond shape flew above Charleston Harbor's Fort Sumter while Confederate troops shelled the Union-held fort.

"The battle ignited the Civil War, and the surviving flag, now displayed at Fort Sumter National Monument remains a powerful relic of America's bloodiest conflict."

THE LINCOLN FLAG, MILFORD, PENNSYLVANIA

"This flag served a grisly, practical task on April 14, 1865, when President Abraham Lincoln lay dying in Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., after being shot in the head by assassin John Wilkes Booth.

"'Someone decided it wasn't appropriate for him to be lying on the bare floor so they crumbled up the large flag that had decorated the front of his his box and stuck it under his head,' says Lori Strelecki, 49, the curator of the Columns Museum for the Pike County Historical Society.

"Each year, some 3,000 visitors view the flag, which was donated to the PCHS in 1954 by the grandson of Ford Theater's stage manager."


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