A detail of the Saint-Gaudens memorial to the Mass. 54th Regiment and Col. Robert Gould Shaw, completed in 1897 (remember the film Glory?). It faces the State House on Beacon Hill. Actually this is from a maquette at his studio in Cornish, NH, part of a lovely estate run by the Park Service and def. worth a visit. The Boston monument is one of the most splendid pieces of public art in the country.
Storming Fort Wagner by Allison and Kurz, 1863
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Currier & Ives, The Bombardment of Fort Sumter
150 years ago, today, the flag pictured above was taken down from Fort Sumter. 146 years ago today, it flew again over that same fort. On that second occasion, Henry Ward Beecher offered these words:
On this solemn and joyful day, we again lift to the breeze our fathers’ flag, now, again, the banner of the United States, with the fervent prayer that God would crown it with honor, protect it from treason, and send it down to our children…. Terrible in battle, may it be beneficent in peace [and] as long as the sun endures, or the stars, may it wave over a nation neither enslaved nor enslaving…. We lift up our banner, and dedicate it to peace, Union, and liberty, now and forevermore.
VARIETY . SPICE . LIFE 