Our Banner in the Sky

This painting, based on an earlier oil sketch by Church, was inspired by the first military engagement of the American Civil War—the bombardment and capture of Fort Sumter, South Carolina, by Southern forces in April 1861. Fort Sumter’s battle-scarred American flag quickly became an important propaganda symbol for Union army recruitment. Here, Church symbolically resurrected the flag over the Northern landscape that served as the favored subject of the Hudson River School artists.