The retaking of Charleston was the cause of celebration throughout the free states. The flag lowered at the surrender of Fort Sumter in 1861, at the outset of the Civil War, had been treated as an heirloom, housed in a specially-made case and exhibited at patriotic events to assist in fundraising. Now the same officer who had lowered it was sent to Charleston to raise it back up. Chartered boats brought hundreds of attendees from as far as New York. (Blacks were on a separate boat, with a Black captain.) Keynote speaker was America's most famous clergyman, Henry Ward Beecher, brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe. William Lloyd Garrison and many reporters also attended. The episode has been largely forgotten because that night, April 14, President Lincoln was assassinated.