Bauly, William (1801-1880) - Our heaven born banner c.1861

A pro-Union patriotic print, evidently based on Frederic Edwin Church's small oil painting "Our Banner in the Sky". Church's painting was inspired by the highly publicised Confederate insult to the American flag at Fort Sumter in April 1861 and by a sermon by Henry Ward Beecher published shortly thereafter. 

"Our Heaven Born Banner" shows a lone Zouave sentry watching from a promontory as the dawn breaks in the distance. His rifle and bayonet form the staff of an American flag whose design and colours are formed by the sky's light. Below, in the distance, is a fort, probably Sumter. The print is accompanied by eight lines of verse: When Freedom from her mountain height / Unfurled her standard to the air, / She tore the azure robe of night / And set the stars of glory there. / She mingled with its gorgeous dyes / The milky baldrick of the skies, / And striped its pure celestial white / With streakings of the morning light. 

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