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ROBERT ANDERSON, Signed Carte de Visite, c. 1863 by Photographer Matthew Brady

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:1,100.00 USD Estimated At:1,800.00 - 2,000.00 USD
ROBERT ANDERSON, Signed Carte de Visite, c. 1863 by Photographer Matthew Brady
Autographs
Rare “Robert Anderson” Signed Carte de Visite Photograph
ROBERT ANDERSON (1805-1871). Civil War Union Hero, Commander who surrendered Fort Sumter to Southerners following their bombardment of the South Carolinian fort in April 1861.
c. 1863 Civil War Period, Carte de Visite Photograph, by Photographer Matthew Brady, boldly Signed, “Robert Anderson - Major Gen. USA” in the lower margin being under his image, Choice Very Fine. This original Matthew Brady Carte de Visite measures 2.5" x 4” and has excellent tone and contrast to the image, with an outstanding rich brown signature being slightly clipped at the corner tips for prior album placement. Matthew Brady's famous studio stamp appears below the signature, as well as upon the verso.

Days after Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox and the effective conclusion of the Civil War, Anderson returned to Charleston in the uniform of a Brevet Major General (ranking as of February 3, 1865) and, four years after lowering the 33-star flag in surrender, raised it in triumph over the recaptured but badly battered Fort Sumter during ceremonies there (The same evening, April 14, 1865, President Abraham.

A great image, with an impressive appearance making this rare “Robert Anderson” Signed Carte de Visite Photograph excellent for display. Lincoln was assassinated).
When South Carolina seceded In December 1860, Major Anderson, a pro-Slavery, former slave-owner from Kentucky, remained loyal to the Union. He was the commanding officer of United States Army forces in Charleston, South Carolina—the last remaining important Union post in the Deep South.

Acting without orders, he moved his small garrison from Fort Moultrie, which was indefensible, to the more modern, more defensible, Fort Sumter in the middle of Charleston Harbor. South Carolina leaders cried betrayal, while the North celebrated with enormous excitement at this show of defiance against secessionism.

In February 1861 the Confederate States of America was formed and took charge. Jefferson Davis, the Confederate President, ordered the fort be captured. The artillery attack was commanded by Brig. Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard, who had been Anderson's student at West Point. The attack began April 12, 1861, and continued until Anderson, badly outnumbered and outgunned, surrendered the fort on April 14. The battle began the American Civil War. No one was killed in the battle on either side, but one Union soldier was killed and one mortally wounded during a 100-gun salute.

The modern meaning of the American flag, according to Adam Goodheart (2011), was forged in December 1860, when Anderson, acting without orders, moved the American garrison from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, in defiance of the overwhelming power of the new Confederate States of America. Goodheart argues this was the opening move of the Civil War, and the flag was used throughout the North to symbolize American nationalism and rejection of secessionism.

Before that day, the flag had served mostly as a military ensign or a convenient marking of American territory, flown from forts, embassies, and ships, and displayed on special occasions like the Fourth of July. But in the weeks after Major Anderson's surprising stand, it became something different. Suddenly the Stars and Stripes flew -- as it does today, and especially as it did after September 11 -- from houses, from storefronts, from churches; above the village greens and college quads. For the first time American flags were mass-produced rather than individually stitched and even so, manufacturers could not keep up with demand. As the long winter of 1861 turned into spring, that old flag meant something new. The abstraction of the Union clause was transfigured into a physical thing: strips of cloth that millions of people would fight for, and many thousands die for.

Robert Anderson's telegram announcing the surrender of Fort Sumter. Anderson's actions in defense of American nationalism made him an immediate national hero. He was promoted to brigadier general, effective May 15. Anderson took the fort's 33-star flag with him to New York City, where he participated in a Union Square patriotic rally that was the largest public gathering in North America up to that time.

Days after Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox and the effective conclusion of the Civil War, Anderson returned to Charleston in the uniform of a Brevet Major General (ranking as of February 3, 1865) and, four years after lowering the 33-star flag in surrender, raised it in triumph over the recaptured but badly battered Fort Sumter during ceremonies there (The same evening, April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated).