The Parapet and the Flag

A sodded earthwork under a United States flag, the muzzle of a heavy gun just entering the frame, squared timbers lying in the foreground — the second of three 1865 plates the Library of Congress titles Fort Johnson and locates, contradictorily, on Morris Island.

Whichever island held it, the photograph's subject is the change of ownership: the flag on the staff, the work kept in repair, the timber down for whatever the new garrison meant to build. The place question is stated plainly in the record here and stays open.