Pocket Knife Taken during Battle Fort Sumter - LOA from First Hero of Civil War

Description

BATTLE OF FORT SUMTER
.  Almost immediately after his inauguration, President Abraham Lincoln was confronted with surprise information: Major Robert Anderson was reporting that only six weeks of rations remained at Fort Sumter.  As the situation grew more dire, Lincoln informed the governor of South Carolina, as he refused to recognize the newly formed Confederate States of America, that he would attempt to resupply the troops at Fort Sumter.  This action resulted in an ultimatum from the Confederacy…surrender the fort. Anderson refused to surrender to the commander of Confederate forces in Charleston, Brig. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, and beginning at 4:30 A.M. on April 12, 1861, the Confederates bombarded the fort from artillery batteries surrounding the harbor.  The Civil War had begun.
ORIGINAL POCKET KNIFE TAKEN BY SERGEANT PETER HART DURING THE BATTLE OF FORT SUMTER ON APRIL 12, 1861
Original pocket knife taken by Sergeant Peter Hart during the Battle of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861.  Hart (circa 1823-1892) served under Robert Anderson during the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848 and later left the service and joined the police force in New York City.  As tensions between the North and South escalated, Anderson’s wife contacted Hart and requested that he escort her to Charleston, SC to visit her husband who was stationed at Fort Sumter.  Still at Fort Sumter at the outbreak of the Civil War, Hart elected to remain as a civilian to assist his former commander. On the afternoon of April 12, 1861, he retrieved and reattached the fallen American flag dislodged by enemy shelling from its flagstaff over Fort Sumter.  When the fort was evacuated two days later, Hart again played a pivotal role in rescuing the flag and keeping it with him until February 1865 when it was raised once again over the fort. For his actions on reattaching the fallen flag, Hart was dubbed the “First Hero of the Civil War.”
HART RETRIEVED AND REATTACHED THE FALLEN AMERICAN FLAG DISLODGED BY ENEMY SHELLING DURING THE BATTLE AND HE WAS LATER DUBBED THE “FIRST HERO OF THE CIVIL WAR” FOR HIS ACTIONS
The knife originally came from Hart’s shadowbox of Fort Sumter artifacts and is accompanied with an extensive amount of impeccable documentation which includes the following:
- Copy of a letter of authenticity from Hart that reads in full: “This piece of iron is brought from Fort Sumter in April 12, 1865.  The last time I was in the Fort when I hoisted the same old flag we fought under in 1861. Sergt. Peter Hart.”
- Copy of Hart’s obituary primarily focusing on his military and Fort Sumter service.
- Copy of photographs taken and annotated by Hart of Fort Sumter before the bombardment and during the flag raising ceremonies of 1865.
- Copy of a CDV of a well-dressed and bearded Hart.
- Photograph of Hart’s personally owned and made shadowbox where the knife can be seen at the bottom.