Thank You to Board VP Steve Berman and the Firefighters of Station 30 for their help stringing new lines to proudly fly our flag!
A History of Flag Day
The red and white and starry blue – is freedom’s shield and hope.
– John Philip Sousa
Today, June, 14th, is a birthday that we sometimes over look. I don’t mean the “birthday” of the US Army or the president. It is the birthday of the American flag. Flag Day is a good time to think about some of the unique spots the American flag flies; there are six on the moon, one sits atop Mount Everest, the Mars Rovers all sport one and one is even hurtling through space, beyond our solar system, on Voyager. Our flag is how America signs her name.
Have you ever wondered about the story of the creation of our nation’s flag? In elementary school, most of us heard the tale about Betsy Ross sewing the first flag. Betsy’s story is only one of the “legends” surrounding our flag’s origin. And, as is often the case, the real facts are much more interesting than folklore.
In 1775, when the Revolutionary War began, there was no American army. It was the colonial militias who took on the British military. Each of the militias fought under their own flag. These flags were emblazoned with symbols: Rattlesnakes, Pine Trees, Armored Fists and slogans like “Don’t Tread on Me” and “Liberty or Death.”
On January, 1st, 1776, the Continental Congress established the Continental Army which would be commanded by George Washington. One of Washington’s first acts, as General of the Army, was to hoist the first national flag, the Grand Union Flag, over his command post. This flag featured 13 red and white stripes and an English Union Jack in the upper left-hand corner. However, this flag caused confusion on the battlefield because of its similarity to the English flag. Beyond the battlefield, American colonists wanted a flag that was distinctly different from England’s.
Enter Betsy Ross. Her story is one of triumph through adversity. First of all, Betsy’s real name wasn’t Betsy; it was Elizabeth. When she was young, she entered a flag she designed in a sewing contest at a fair in her home town, Philadelphia. Betsy crafted a flag with a moon, the Liberty Bell and ten stars. As was the fashion at the time, the stars were all six pointed, Betsy’s flag took third place.
She lost two husbands in the Revolutionary War. During the conflict the British appropriated her house to lodge soldiers. After the English soldiers left, Betsy made cloth powder pouches for the Continental Army. Through out the Revolution, she managed to run her own upholstery business, which she continued operating for several decades after the war.
Upholsterers in colonial America not only worked on furniture but did all manner of sewing work, which for some included making flags.
In her later years, Betsy, often told her children and grandchildren of a day in May 1776, when George Washington, Robert Morris, and George Ross called at her home. Robert Morris, was a land owner and perhaps the wealthiest citizen in the Colonies. Colonel George Ross was a respected Philadelphian and the uncle of Betsy’s late first husband, John Ross.
Betsy and General Washington were acquaintances. They both attended the same church in Philadelphia and sat in adjoining pews. Betsy had also made lace ruffles for some of Washington’s shirts.
According to Betsy, Washington reached into his coat pocket and took out a paper with a crude sketch of a flag with 13 red and white stripes as well as 13 six pointed stars on a blue background. Looking at the sketch, Betsy, pointed out a few defects in the design she pointed out that their design was square. She told the men a flag should be one third longer than its width, she pointed out that the stars were scattered promiscuously over the blue field. She said the stars ought to be either arranged in lines or in some adopted form as a circle, or a star, and that the stars were six-pointed in the drawing, and she suggested that they should be five pointed.
The men protested the five pointed stars were too difficult to make. Betsy deftly folded a piece of paper, and with a single snip of her scissors she produced a symmetrical five-pointed star. Impressed, her visitors agreed the stars should be five-pointed, and she set to work sewing the first American flag.
That’s Betsy’s tale, but historians like to rely on primary documentation to substantiate facts. In the case of Betsy Ross and the flag, supporting documentation has been difficult to locate. But, in the scant evidence supporting Betsy’s claim, one item stands out. Archival records reveal that on May 29, 1777, the Pennsylvania State Navy Board records read in part, “An Order on William Webb to Elizabeth Ross, for fourteen pounds, twelve shillings, two pence for making ships colors & put into William Richards’ stores.” This document proves that Betsy Ross was certainly a flag maker. Although this doesn’t necessarily mean she sewed the first flag, it’s clear she was involved in making early American flags.
On June 14, 1777, while the outcome War of Independence hung in the balance, the Continental Congress adopted the following resolution, “Resolved, that the Flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternating red and white; that the Union be represented by thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation.” The flag was first carried in battle at Brandywine, Pa., in September 1777. It first flew over foreign territory in early 1778, at Nassau, Bahama Islands, where Americans captured a fort from the British.
But, Betsy’s claim of helping design and sew the first flag is not the only one. Some historians feel Francis Hopkinson deserves credit. Although he’s not as famous in American lore as Betsy Ross, Hopkinson was a representative from New Jersey in the Continental Congress and also a signer of the Declaration of Independence. His design had the thirteen stars arranged in a “staggered” pattern, but there is no original example or drawing of his flag. However, we do have the bill he sent the Treasury Board for his design. The Treasury Board rejected Hopkinson’s request, responding that the flag was a collaborative effort and that Hopkinson was “not the only person” who contributed to the design.
The most intriguing piece of evidence supporting Betsy comes from Samuel Wetherill. He was a neighbor and good friend. Wetherill family’s oral tradition holds that he visited Betsy shortly after her meeting with Washington, Morris and Ross. She told him what had just transpired.
Wetherill, recognizing the historic import of that meeting, asked if he could keep the paper 5-pointed star which Betsy had cut for Washington, Morris and Ross. She gave it to him. In 1925, the Wetherill family safe was opened and inside was that 5-pointed star. Until recently, that star was exhibited at the Free Quaker Meeting House, a few blocks from the Betsy Ross House. It has since gone missing.
There are a few other American flags that are just as important to our nation as the “Betsy Ross” flag; the Star Spangled Banner and Old Glory. The stories of both of these flags also deserve to be remembered on Flag Day.
In the early years of the 19th century, numerous disagreements between the United States and Britain had led the US to declare war on Britain. The British Navy, at the time, the mightiest in the world, began lining up outside Chesapeake Bay, threatening to halt shipping traffic into the port of Baltimore.
Major General George Armistead was the US Army commander at Fort McHenry at the mouth of Baltimore harbor on the Chesapeake. He wanted to send a strong message that America was going to defend its harbors. One way to do this was to put up an oversized American flag above Fort McHenry.
Armistead knew just where to go for his flag. Flag maker Mary Pickersgill of Baltimore, Maryland. Mary’s mother had been a flag maker during the Revolutionary War, a profession and passion that she passed down to her daughter. Following in the footsteps of her mother, Mary opened a flag shop and catered to a military clientele.
The order General Armistead gave to Mary Pickersgill was for a garrison flag measuring 30 by 42 feet with 15 stars and 15 stripes. It was a large flag, and he wanted it as soon as possible.
With these instructions, Pickersgill called in all the help she could. Mary was joined by her elderly mother, three nieces, and 13 year old, Grace Wisher, an indentured African American servant in the Pickersgill home. The flag was delivered to General Armistead six weeks later. One of the interesting aspects of the flag is that the stars are set on one of the points, instead of two.
The Pickersgill shop was responsible for making one of America’s most famous flags—the flag that inspired our national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner. Mary Pickersgill became famous for making that flag. The fact that she was aided by an African American has only come to light recently. Though none of Pickersgill’s flag making team has ever had much attention, it is difficult to ferret out Grace Wisher’s story.
What historians do known about Grace is this: Wisher was the daughter of a free black woman too poor to support her children. She was able to get 10 year old Grace an apprenticeship with Pickersgill. In return for teaching Grace a trade, Pickersgill gained a servant for six years. There is still much to be discovered about Grace Wisher. Her indenture contract is one of the only found artifacts documenting her existence. Remembering people such as Grace Wisher and continuing to pursue piecing together her personal history, along with others, is a way to recognize individuals who, though often erased from history, have helped shape the very fabric of our country.
But did you know that in the early days of our country the flag was not seen as a universal symbol of our nation by American citizens. The modern meaning of our flag was forged in December 1860 when Major Robert Anderson, acting without orders, moved the U.S. Army garrison from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, and raised the Stars and Stripes in defiance of the new Confederate States of America.
Before that day, the flag had served mostly as a military ensign or a convenient marking of American territory, flown from forts, embassies, and ships, and displayed on special occasions like the Fourth of July. But, in the weeks after Major Anderson’s surprising stand at Fort Sumter, it became something different. The flag was used throughout the North to symbolize American nationalism and the rejection of secessionism. For the first time American flags began to be mass-produced rather than individually stitched. Even with mass production, manufacturers could not keep up with demand for flags. As the long winter of 1861 turned into spring, our flag took on a new meaning. The abstraction of the Union cause was transformed into a physical thing: a banner that people would fight for, and many thousands die for.
There is one more famous American flag to share with you. Have you ever wondered how the flag got the nicknamed “Old Glory”?
In 1831, Captain William Driver, a shipmaster from Salem, Massachusetts, was about to embark on one of his many world voyages. Before his departure, friends presented Capt. Driver with a flag of 24 stars. As the banner opened to the ocean breeze, Driver exclaimed, “I name her “Old Glory,'” and Old Glory subsequently accompanied the captain on his all voyages.
Captain Driver quit the sea in 1837 taking his treasured flag from his sailing days with him. He settled in Nashville, Tennessee. On patriotic days he displayed Old Glory proudly from a rope extending from his house to a tree across the street. By the time the Civil War broke out, nearly everyone in and around Nashville was familiar Captain Driver’s “Old Glory.”
When Tennessee seceded from the Union in 1861, Driver feared that Old Glory would be confiscated and destroyed by the Confederates. He hid the flag by having it sewn inside a comforter on his bed. The Rebels were determined to destroy his flag, and repeatedly searched his home, but could discover no trace of the banner.
The Union army captured Nashville, in 1862, and raised the American flag over the capitol building. It was a rather small flag and immediately folks began asking Captain Driver if “Old Glory” still existed. Happy to have Union soldiers with him this time, Captain Driver went home and began ripping at the seams of his bedcover. As the stitches holding the quilt-top to the batting unraveled, the onlookers peered inside and saw the 24-starred original “Old Glory”!
Captain Driver gently gathered up the old flag and returned with the soldiers to the capital. Though he was sixty years old, the Driver climbed the tower to replace the smaller flag. The Sixth Ohio Regiment cheered and saluted – and later, the regiment adopted the nickname “Old Glory” as the motto of the unit, telling and retelling the story of Captain Driver’s devotion to the flag we honor even today. His “Old Glory” became the nickname for all American flags.
Flag Day was first celebrated in 1877, on our flag’s 100th birthday. But, the idea of an annual day specifically celebrating the Flag is believed to have first originated in 1886 when Bernard Cigrand proposed an annual observance of the birth of the flag in an article he penned titled, “The Fourteenth of June” and published in the old Chicago “Argus” newspaper. It was another thirty years before Flag Day became a national observance. President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation calling for a nationwide observance of Flag Day on June, 14th, 1916. However, Flag Day did not become official until August 1949, when President Harry Truman signed legislation from Congress that proclaimed June, 14th, as Flag Day. In 1966, Congress also requested that the President issue annually a proclamation designating the week in which June, 14th occurs as National Flag Week.
Flag Day, is a day for all Americans to celebrate and show respect for our flag, its designers and makers. Our flag is representative of our independence and our unity as a nation, with liberty and justice for all.
This year let us be reminded of what the day represents. Our flag has never been just a flag. Our flag is a time capsule that embodies the very essence of what it means to be American. Our flag is recognized on the 14th of June because that day in 1777 marked the beginning of its unparalleled journey of representing the past, present, and future of the United States of America.
– Historian John Copeland