Work
The Confederate flag over Fort Sumter, 15 April 1861
Interior of Fort Sumter with a Confederate flag flying and soldiers at a cannon.
The Confederate flag flying over Fort Sumter on 15 April 1861, the day after the Federal garrison marched out, with troops preparing to load a cannon. It is the earliest photograph in this section, and among the earliest photographs of the war anywhere.
The catalog dates the item 16 April; the summary describes the flag flying on 15 April, and Zeller places Pelot at the fort on the 15th. Both dates are printed here as the record gives them.
On the attribution
The Library of Congress credits Pelot as photographer and states where the credit comes from: “Creator information from The Blue and Greay [sic] in Black and White by Bob Zeller, p. 42-44. (Pelot was assistant to Jess H. Bolles.)” The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Charleston Museum attribute the April 1861 series to Pelot and Bolles jointly.
The repository’s notes
Title from item. Creator information from The Blue and Greay [sic] in Black and White by Bob Zeller, p. 42-44. (Pelot was assistant to Jess H. Bolles.)
Research notes
The catalog’s spelling of Zeller’s title and of Bolles’s forename is transcribed here exactly as the Library prints it.
The record
Sources
- Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/
- Bob Zeller, The Blue and Gray in Black and White: A History of Civil War Photography (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2005).
- “17 April 1861: Two stereo views of Fort Sumter,” Civil War Day by Day, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 17 April 2011, with a correction posted in the comments by Bob Zeller. Item: folder 222(b), Miscellaneous Pictures, #4090. https://web.lib.unc.edu/civilwar/index.php/2011/04/17/17-april-1861-two-stereo-views-of-fort-sumter/