Dennis Lyall (American, American, B. 1946) "Flag Attacked At Fort Sumter" Signed lower middle. Oil on Canvas painting. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. This painting was originally published on the Fleetwood Commerative Cover for Old Glory's Proudest Moments postmarked on the anniversary April 12, 2002. After the adoption of the Constitution, two fundamental but opposing beliefs about the nature of the Union persisted -- that it was a voluntary Union of independent sovereign states; and that once admitted to the Union, a state had formed a permanent, unbreakable bond. When the controversy over the "peculiar institution" of slavery reached its climax, the question was put to the acid test. After the election of Abraham Lincoln as president, states began seceding from the Union and soon established a Confederacy, modeled on the weak early American Confederation which the Constitution had replaced. Many Southerners believed that Lincoln would not fight, but the president resolved to settle the issue. Most forts in the South had already been seized by the secessionists, but Fort Sumter remained under Union control in Charleston harbor, and Lincoln refused to surrender it to South Carolina in exchange for Virginia's loyalty. At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, Edmund Ruffin yanked a lanyard at the command of General Pierre T. Beauregard, and the assault on Fort Sumter began. A mortar roared and its shell curved upward in a graceful parabola, tracing its flight by a flaming fuse, and fell until it exploded just above the Stars and Stripes. At that very moment the American Civil War began with a symbolic and a real assault on the flag and its Union. The bombardment continued for 34 hours with little effect on the garrison until, short of food and ammunition, the Fort surrendered. Image Size: 15 x 12.5 in. Overall Size: 17 x 15 in. Unframed. (B16987)