As Scouts, we frequently honor the American flag. Whether it be at our troop meetings, performing flag ceremonies for the community, or even retiring a flag, respect for the American flag is one of the cornerstones of our lives as Scouts. It therefore surprises me that so few of my peers know about Flag Day, the day in which we, as Americans, honor the Star and Stripes. In response to this, today I shall seek to inform our beloved readers of the origins of Flag Day and the various changes through which our flag has gone.
Flag Day takes place on June 14, as this was when the original 13 Star Flag was approved by the Second Continental Congress in 1777. However, despite this historic event taking place less than a year after our country was founded, it would take 172 years after the first American flag was approved to make it an observance. On the way to observance, there were several who wanted Flag Day to be celebrated around the nation. One such patriot was Benjamin Cigrand, a schoolteacher in Wisconsin. In 1885, Cigrand urged his students to observe Flag Day on June 14. He didn’t stop there though, he went on to publish an essay in a Chicago newspaper, urging all Americans to take part in the observance of Flag Day. In 1916, president Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Flag Day a national observance, as did president Calvin Coolidge in 1927. Despite these proclamations, Flag Day was not created a national observance until August 3, 1949, when Congress approved the national observance of Flag Day. But by this point, our wonderful flag had changed so much that the flag they approved in 1777 was very different from the one celebrated in 1949 (Flag Day, Encyclopedia Britannica).
Compared to the original 13 star flag, we know one that has been changed tremendously. After the American flag’s first approval in 1777, the American flag has been altered to best represent the republic as it was. However, given that there have been 27 versions of the American Flag, I will be selective in the flags that I inform our readers about. These will be the ones that accompanied changes within the United States. The first change in our nation’s flag came in 1795 when Vermont and Kentucky were added to the Union. This flag actually had fifteen stars and fifteen stripes . The next major change occurred in 1818. This flag included five new stars, representing Tennessee, which became a state in 1796; Ohio, which became a state in 1803; Louisiana, which joined the union in 1812; Indiana, which joined in 1816; and Mississippi, which was admitted in 1817. The 1818 flag had 20 stars, but reverted back to the flag’s original 13 stripes (so it remained). The next edition came in 1819 with the admittance of Illinois as a state, so the flag now had twenty-six stars. Over the next 71 years, new flags were added rather frequently as our nation expanded West.
In 1890, however, many new stars were added to the flag at once. This forty-three star flag represented the recent admissions of North Dakota (1889), South Dakota (1889), Montana (1889), Washington (1889), and Idaho (July 3, 1890) into the United States. This was also thirteen years since the last flag change in 1877, thus reflecting a slowing in the expansion of America. Aptly, the age of constant change to the American flag had ended, and the next changes particularly worthy of mention are those that reflected the non-continental expansion of the United States. These changes came in 1959, when Alaska was admitted as a state, and 1960 when Hawaii entered the Union. With the entrance of Hawaii, our flag had reached its current state, with fifty stars and thirteen stripes. With all of the changes that our flag has undergone to reflect its people, it is only right that we hold a high respect for it.
