Happy Birthday USA!!!

Happy Birthday USA!!!

June 14th is a pivotal day of history marked on the calendar for the United States of America. Not only is it Flag Day it is also the birthday of the United States Army.

Those two historical facts are good enough to mark on the calendar as a day of recognizing the American flag and the fight and sacrifices the United States Army have done to protect and defend her since 1775. Flag Day in the USA is a day to local and state governments issue proclamations and resolutions recognizing this history.

The story of Old Glory is part of American history and is worthy of retelling here. The following is from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“Old Glory’’
The name “Old Glory” was first applied to the U.S. flag by a young sea captain who lived in Salem, Mass. On his twenty-first birthday, March 17, 1824, Capt. William Driver was presented a beautiful flag by his mother and a group of local young ladies. Driver was delighted with the gift. He exclaimed, “I name her ‘Old Glory.’” Then Old Glory accompanied the captain on his many voyages.

Captain Driver quit the sea in 1837 and settled in Nashville, Tenn. On patriotic days, he displayed Old Glory proudly from a rope extending from his house to a tree across the street. After Tennessee seceded from the Union in 1861, Captain Driver hid Old Glory by sewing the flag inside a comforter. When Union soldiers entered Nashville on February 25, 1862, Driver removed Old Glory from its hiding place, carried the flag to the state capitol building, and proudly raised it for all to see.

Shortly before his death, the old sea captain placed a small bundle into the arms of his daughter. He said to her, “Mary Jane, this is my ship flag, Old Glory. It has been my constant companion. I love it as a mother loves her child. Cherish it as I have cherished it.”

The flag remained as a precious heirloom in the Driver family until 1922. Then it was sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where it is carefully preserved under glass today.

LINK

The United States Army began as volunteers to assist armed Americans who were fighting the British in Massachusetts and New York in the Spring of 1775. In May of 1775 the delegates of the Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to do something about the growing problem of revolution against British rule. They decided to raise an army to support the armed Americans already fighting the British.

On 14 June 1775, Congress "Resolved, That six companies of expert riflemen, be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia… and as soon as completed, shall march and join the army near Boston, to be there employed as light infantry, under the command of the chief Officer in that army."

The next day June 15 1775, Congress chose a chief Officer to be appointed to lead the Army. George Washington was the man chosen for the job he was tasked to command all the Continental forces and begin to lay the foundation for “The American army.”

With words that sound hauntingly familiar two hundred forty-five years later, "The delegates of the United Colonies … reposing special trust and confidence in the patriotism, valor, conduct, and fidelity” of George Washington, issued its first commission by appointing him “General and Commander in chief of the Army of the United Colonies, and of all the forces now raised, or to be raised by them, and of all others who shall voluntarily offer their services, and join the Defense of American liberty, and for repelling every hostile invasion…” LINK

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P.S. I know "America's Birthday" is not June 14 but is July 4th.  However everything in the USA can be argued for or against.  Technically the United States of America is formed under the Constitution which was voted on September 17, 1787, after Delaware was the first state to ratify it New Hampshire made the Constitution official on June 21 1788.  But nobody bothers to celebrate June 21 as Constitution Day or America's Birthday even though technically speaking it is more of a legal birthday then July 4 especially when you consider that Congress adopted Lee's resolution on June 7 and Thomas Jefferson began drafting the Declaration of Independence on June 11 and considering that Lee's resolution to declare independence was adopted on July 2, and July 4 was when they adopted the document which was mostly signed on August 2 1776 and the news of our declaring independence did not reach England until August 10; celebrating America's Birthday on July 4 is almost as if we collectively picked an important date along a wider and more important timeline of the American story and declared it good enough for a birthday. 

One thing is certain California raised their State Flag on June 14 1846.  However technically California celebrates her birthday sometime in September when it became "Official" as the 31st state in the Union due to the compromise of 1850 between Henry Clay and Daniel Webster.  To my knowledge California was the only state to ever enter the Union as a free state with borders that also stretched along the same latitudes of the Southern slave states. 

California's hidden Civil Wary history is fascinating and one I will also share in future blog posts.