Robert Anderson's actions in defense of Fort…
May 1861 CE
He is promoted to brigadier general in the Regular Army, effective May 15.
Anderson takes the fort's thirty-three-star flag with him to New York City, where he participates in a Union Square patriotic rally that is the largest public gathering in North America up to this time.
Eyewitnesses estimate that as many as one hundred thousand flags quickly go on display across the city.
During the war the flag will be used throughout the North to symbolize American nationalism and rejection of secessionism.