Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-06-23
An d dcial Bulletin soon to be Issi ed
Regarding the American
Flag.
Changes Made by Congress in the Ar
rangement of the Stars and
Stripes.
The Origin of the Design in Doubt
The Army and Navy Regu-
latiOnS.

-. Washington special to New York
lines: The quartermaster general OF the
army has been so bothered with questions
regarding the American flag that he has
Issued bulletin which is intended TO
| meet tie numerous aud diversified queries
that come to his Office from the patriotic
curious. The statements are the result of
research on the part of the clerks of the
| department, and may be accepted as &C
curate, or, at least as official. The bulletin,
| which will soon be issued. bears the stir
ring title, The Stars and Stripes" and
is as follows:
The American congress, in session at
Philadelphia, established by its resolution
OF June IA, 1777, a national flag for the
| United States of America. The resolution
was as follows:
Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen
United States be thirteen stripes, alternate
red and white; that the union be thirteen
stars, white in a blue field, representing a
new constellation
Although nearly a year previous, July
4, l776, these thirteen United States had
been declared independent, this resolution
Is the first Legislative action recorded re
latlng to national flag for the new
sovereignty.
| The use Of thirteen stripes was not a
Lew feature, as they had been introduced
Tin alternate white and blue) On the pper
left hand corner of a standard presented
to the Philadelphia Light Horse by its
captain in the early part of ITS, and
moreover the Union flag of the thirteen
united colonies raised at Washington s
headquarters, at Cam bridge, Jan. 2, 1915,
bad the thirteen stripes just as they are
this day, but it also had the crosses of st
George and st. Andrew on blue ground
IN the corner. There is no satisfactory
evlderce, however, that any flag bearing
the Union OF the stars had been in public
use before the revolution of June, 1777.
WHO DESIGNED THEM?
It is not known to whom the credit of
designing the stars and stripes is due. It
is claimed that a Mrs John Ross, an up
holsterer VINO res ded at Arch street, Phi
adelphla, Was the maker of the 6rst flag
| combining the stars and stripes. Her
descendants assert that a committee of
congress. accompanied by General Wash
ington, who was in Philadelphia in June,
1776, called upon Mrs. Ross and engaged
her to make the flag from a rough draw
ing, which, at her suggestion, was re-
drawn by General Washington with a
pencil in her back paror, and the flag
thus designed was adopted by congress.
| Although the resolution establishing
the flag was not officially promulgated by
the st cretary of Congress until Sept. 3,
| 1777, if seems well authenticated that the
stars and stripes we're at the of battle
the Brandywine, Sep. IL, 1777, and thence
forward during all the battles of the revo-
| luton.
Soon after its adoption the new flag
was hoisted on the naval vessels of the
United States. The ship Ranger, bear
ing the stars and stripes and commanded
by Capt. Paul Jones. arrived at a French
port about Dec. 1, 1777 and her flag re-
ceived Oh Feb. IA, 1878, the first Statue
ever paid to the American flag by foreign
naval vessels.
The lag remained unchanged for about
| eighteen years after its adoption By this
time two more states vermont and Ken-
tncky) had been admitted to the Union,
and on Jan. Is, 1894, congress enacted
that from and after the 1st day of May,
1895, the flag of the United States be
fifteen stripes, aIsernatered and white;
that the union be fifteen stars, white in d
blue field
This flag was the national banner from
1895 TO 1913, during which period occur
red the war of 1912 with Great Britain
By 1918 five additional states Tennessee,
Louislan, Indiana and Mississippi had
been admitted into the Union, and there
fore further change in the flag seemed
required. After considerable discussion
in congress on the subject, the act of April
4, 1918, was passed, which provided:
| l. ''ThaG from and after the 4th day of
July next, the flag of the United States be
thirteen horizontal stripes, alternate red
and white; that the union have twenty
stars, white in a blue field"
| 2. That on admission of every new
state into the Union one star be added to
the union of the flag. and that such addi-
ton shall take effect on the 4th day of
July next succeeding such admission.
The return to the thirteen stripes of the
| 1777 flag was due, in measure, to the re-
verence for the standard of the revolution,
but it was also due to the fact that furth-
er increase of the number Of stripes would
have made the width of the flag out of
proportion to its length unless the stripes
were narrowed, and this would have I'M
paired their distinctness when seen from a
| distance. A newspaper or the time said:
The early custom was to insert the stars
in parallel rows across the blue field and
this custom has, it is believed, been OBJ
| served IN tie navy at least, since 1918, at
which time the president ordered the stars
to be arranged in such manner on the
national flag used in the navy. In the
army, too, it is believed The stars have
always been arranged in horizontal rows
| across the blue field, but not always in
i vertical rows; the effect, however, being
ABOUT the same as in the naval flag.
Hereafter there will be no difference in
the arrangement between the army and
the navy, as an agreement has been arriv-
ed at between the war and navy depart
ments on the subject.
Since July 4, 1891, the arrangement of
stars In the flag of the army and ensigns
in the navy is as follows: