Tuesday, June 14, is Flag Day, commemorating the adoption by Congress. of the red, white and blue flag with 13 stars on June 14, 1777. President Harry S. Truman designated the day as National Flag Day in 1949.
The American Legion, founded in 1919 after the conclusion of World War I, will celebrate Flag Day with its auxiliary units nationwide. Many units will host special events and work with their posts to dispose of unserviceable flags.
The American Legion asks people to remember the following:
* When hoisting or lowering the flag, salute or place a hand over your heart.
* The flag should not be displayed on rainy days, unless it is an all-purpose flag.
* When lowered, the flag should never touch anything beneath it.
The authentic “Old Glory”
The name “Old Glory” was loudly proclaimed in 1824 by Capt. William Driver as he hoisted the flag given to him as a birthday present. The flag would accompany Driver on his numerous voyages around the world. When he gave up seafaring and moved inland to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1837, Driver continued to display the flag proudly by hanging it from a locust tree.
He even updated the flag in 1861 to reflect 34 stars and added an anchor in the corner to indicate his sea service. When Tennessee seceded from the Union, Driver had the foresight to hide the flag and had his daughter conceal it inside a quilt, which was overlooked in numerous raids on his house.
“Old Glory” remained in the quilt until Feb. 25, 1862, when Gen. Ulysses S. Grant captured Fort Donelson and occupied Nashville. On that day, Driver uncovered the flag, marched through the streets to the Capitol building, climbed to its dome and hoisted the flag.
Through the perilous fight?
The “Star-Spangled Banner” flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write what became our national anthem may not have flown through the night. Experts say the massive, 30-by-42-foot flag was taken down when it rained because the soaked woolen banner would be too heavy for the flagpole to hold.
During the battle and stormy night, a 17-by-25-foot flag flew in its place. The larger flag was raised after the storm passed in the morning.
Historical snips
In June 1813, Maj. George Armistead took command of Fort McHenry. Armistead commissioned Mary Pickersgill, a Baltimore flag-maker, to sew the two flags. She was assisted by her daughter, two nieces and an indentured African American girl. After the War of 1812 ended, the Armistead family kept the flag.
The Armistead family received frequent requests for pieces of their flag, but reserved the treasured fragments for veterans, government officials and other honored citizens. As Georgiana Armistead Appleton noted, “had we given all that we have been importuned for little would be left to show.” More than 200-square-feet of the flag was eventually given away, including one of the stars.
How it got to the Smithsonian
Pickersgill stitched it from a combination of dyed English wool bunting (red and white stripes and blue union) and white cotton (stars).
At the death of Armistead’s widow in 1861, the flag was bequeathed to his daughter, Georgiana Armistead Appleton, who recognized that it held national as well as familial significance. As its owner, she permitted the flag to be publicly exhibited on several occasions.
Eben Appleton, Armistead’s grandson, inherited the flag from his mother in 1878. Faced with the public’s increasing curiosity about the flag, he began to seek an appropriate repository. In 1907, Appleton lent the historic flag to the Smithsonian Institution, and in 1912 he offered the flag as a permanent gift to the nation.
A couple common questions about the U.S. flag:
Question: How are unserviceable flags destroyed?
Answer: The advisory Flag Code suggests that “when a flag has served its useful purpose, it should be destroyed, preferably by burning.” For individual citizens, this should be done discreetly so the act of destruction is not perceived as a protest or desecration. Many American Legion posts conduct disposal of unserviceable flag ceremonies on Flag Day. This ceremony creates a particularly dignified and solemn occasion for the retirement of unserviceable flags.
Q: Can the flag be washed or dry-cleaned?
A: Yes. There are no provisions of the Flag Code which prohibit such care. The decision to wash or dry-clean would be dependent on the material.
Q: What should the position of the flag be when displayed from a staff in a church, public auditorium or other public meeting place, whether indoors or outdoors, on a platform or on the floor at ground level?
A: When used on a speaker’s platform, the flag, if displayed flat, should be displayed above and behind the speaker. When displayed from a staff in a church, public auditorium or meeting place, the flag should hold the position of superior prominence, in advance of the audience, and in the position of honor at the clergyman’s or speaker’s right as he faces the audience.
Prior to the Flag Code changes in 1976, the display procedure was somewhat different. Now the staffed flag should always be placed to the right of the speaker (observer’s left) without regard to a platform or floor level.
To learn more about celebrating Flag Day and flag etiquette, go to alaforveterans.org.
Rejected designs
Before the 50-star flag design of today was selected, more than 3,000 design submissions from Americans flooded the White House during President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency. Submissions for 49-star flags were initially received in 1953 and designs for the 50-star flag weren’t set up until 1959.
___
(c) 2022 Daily Breeze
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
