Our Heaven Born Banner: 1861

'A pro-Union patriotic print based on Frederic Edwin Church's oil painting 'Our Banner in the Sky,' which in turn was inspired by the highly publicized Confederate insult to the flag at Fort Sumter in April 1861 and by a sermon by Henry Ward Beecher published shortly thereafter. The print shows a lone Zouave sentry watching from a promontory as the dawn breaks, his rifle and bayonet forming the staff of an American flag formed by the sky's light. In the distance is a fort, probably Sumter.' Lithograph by Sarony, Major & Knapp, 1861.