Flag: C.S.A. Flag (Miniature, First National Pattern)
Catalogue No. 86.1586.1
(PN10215-10217)
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Provenance Reconstruction:

A note found with this miniature flag states that it was "removed from the reference room by Floyd 4/12/85 viz. request from Alice Knierim." The flag was removed from an envelope upon which was written "This flag was sent by my sister after the fall of "Fort Sumpter," said to have been the first flag run up there on a cannon. Mrs. Jas. Spence, Nee Anna C. Price of Union town, Alabama. 3/21/16." At the time Mrs. Spence donated the flag to the Alabama Department of Archives and History, she was living in Tuscaloosa.

The association between this flag and Ft. Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina is unclear. The first unit to occupy the fort following the surrender on April 14,1861 was the Palmetto Guard. A flag carried by them and reported to be the first raised by Confederates, is in the collection of Ft. Sumter National Monument. Perhaps this small souvenir first national flag was sent to illustrate the one raised during official ceremonies along with the South Carolina flag on April 15, 1861.

Sources:
       Curator's Object Files, Civil War Flags, Alabama Department of Archives and History.
       U.S. Department of the Interior. National Park Service, Fort Sumter. Anvil of War. Division of Publications, 1984.