Up for sale is an 1866 Original Stamped CDV Photo Of FORT SUMTER in Charleston Harbor South Carolina. The reverse has Frank Mammoth Photograph and Ferrotype Rooms in Philadelphia. This is a fairly famous photo, namely because this is an image of the Fort where the First Shots of the Civil War were fired. For that reason, this image is often replicated and reappears in various steroview forms. Many years later this same photo can be seen in high school to graduate school textbooks.

All of the subsequent photos often reference a steroview as the original photo for this image. This includes the Library of Congress which has a copyright of 1909 for this image. According to the stamp on the reverse, this photo is from April 1866, 40 years before the copyright was issued for the stereo view.

I am also including an Underwood & Underwood Stereo View of the same image. I have included images of the front and back of the photo from Underwood.

So based on my research, this is the version of this photo I have seen, both in the LOC, Library Searches, Publicly listed Private Collections and Museums all reference the 1909 as the date the copyright was filed. I have not seen another CDV of this same image, in any condition, from 1866.

CONDITION:

Light signs of age on front

Small stain on the reverse

The negative number was changed on the reverse and re-written in pen

Otherwise the photo is in remarkable condition, especially considering it’s age

Please view the photos carefully as they are an important part of the description.  Please email if you have any questions or need clarification so you can be satisfied with your purchase.

You are four miles below the city; Charleston itself is away at your right. James Island is off at the left beyond the fort. Morris Island is behind you.

This is where the first shots were exchanged in the Civil War. Major Anderson, a Kentuckian by birth, transferred the U. S. garrison down here from Fort Moultrie, Dee. 26, 1860, six days after South Carolina's secession. Supplies sent him from the north were fired on off Morris Island (behind you) and prevented from reaching bim;

Governor

Pickens formally demanded the evacuation of the fort. Anderson refused. The scanty stipplies had nearly come to an end by the frist of April, 1861, and meanwhile, South Carolina had niced and concentrated a volunteer force of abo 7000 men.

Batteries were constructed over on Morris Island only three quarters of a mile away, commanding the weakest side of this fort, and others were made ready at Fort Moultrie farther up the harbor.

President Lincoln notified Governor Pickens that provisions would be forwarded for the Fort Sumter garrison and that if these wore peaceably allowed to enter no additional troops would be sent, but that in any case they would enter. On the other hand, Governor Pickens authorized General Beauregard to demand the surrender of the fort to South Carolinean authority.

The demand was made April 11th. April 12th Major Anderson refused. Early the next moring Beauregard opened fire upon the fort and for thirty-six hours a storm of shot and shell poured from the South Carolina batteries, answered by Sumter as long as the garrison's dwindling supplies of food could be made to hold out; no lives were lost, but for lack of food Major Anderson was obliged to evacuate the fort on April 14th, carrying the Stars and Stripes away with him to New York.

Just four years later, April 14, 1865, the same commander raised the same flag once more in its old place.