An account
The flag goes back up: 14 April 1865
Northern excursionists sailed to Charleston to watch Robert Anderson raise the same flag he had hauled down four years earlier. At least two photographers were aboard.
On 14 April 1865, four years to the day after the surrender, Robert Anderson raised over Fort Sumter the flag he had taken away with him. The occasion was staged as a national celebration; steamers were chartered to bring northern celebrants down to watch.
W. E. James of Brooklyn was on one of them, the Oceanus. His stereograph of the ceremony is at the Library of Congress, and the mount carries his name and address in full: photographed by W. E. James, no. 267 Fulton Street, Brooklyn. By the account of the collection devoted to his work he made the trip on assignment from Anthony & Company of New York — a claim this section has not been able to verify independently.
A second photographer was there with a stereo camera on glass. The Library of Congress credits the negative to J. F. Coonley, and says exactly where the credit comes from: he was identified in 99 Historic Images of Civil War Charleston, published by the Center for Civil War Photography in 2009. The negative itself does not carry his name.
Why it matters who was there
The flag-raising is one of the most photographed single events of the war in Charleston, and one of the most confidently misattributed. Every surviving view of it was made by somebody standing in a crowd, and the crowd contained working photographers from at least two cities. A picture of the ceremony is not evidence of who made it.
That evening, in Washington, Abraham Lincoln was shot.
The works
- Charleston, South Carolina. Flag-raising ceremony at Fort Sumter1865 Apr. 14. · Jacob Frank CoonleyAttributedLibrary of Congress · LC-B811- 3143 [P&P]
- Raising the flag at Fort Sumter, April /14/65 / photographed by W.E. James, no. 267 Fulton Street, Brooklyn[Brooklyn] : [W.E. James, no. 267 Fulton Street] [14 April 1865] · William E. JamesVerifiedLibrary of Congress · LOT 14110-11, no. 7 (H) [P&P]
The photographers
Jacob Frank Coonley William E. James
Statement by statement
- VerifiedW. E. James photographed the flag-raising and published it under his own Brooklyn imprint.Library of Congress
- AttributedThe Library of Congress credits J. F. Coonley with a stereo negative of the ceremony, on the authority of the Center for Civil War Photography.Library of Congress 99 Historic Images of Civil War Charleston
- UnverifiedJames traveled on the steamer Oceanus, on assignment from Anthony & Company.The William E. James Stereograph Collection
Sources
- Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/
- Garry Adelman, John Richter and Bob Zeller, eds., 99 Historic Images of Civil War Charleston (Center for Civil War Photography, 2009). https://www.civilwarphotography.org/
- The William E. James Stereograph Collection. https://wejames.com/
Last reviewed 2026-08-30 (Claude, for Historical Publications LLC).