U.S. Flags Online

On the evening of August 24, 1814, the British begin to burn Washington, D.C.

The destruction is such that the sky glows for miles around with flames. The Capitol building, Senate House, the President’s mansion – anything related to government and much that is not is burnt or destroyed.

Earlier that day, Dolley Madison had received word from her husband, President James Madison, to pack and leave their home. Immediately.

Dolley tried to comply. She really did. In fact, the guns of battle were not distant. Not at all! Oh dear! So much to do and as the afternoon wore on, you could hear the booming of cannon and the soldiers approaching – retreating Americans as well as the advancing Brits! Mr. Carroll, a friend sent to help her, was getting rather cross with the First Lady as she flatly refused to leave behind, in enemy hands, a life-size portrait of George Washington.

Oh! Tedious frame! Despite their efforts and the need for haste, the frame just would not be unscrewed from the wall! The only thing for it was to cut the painting out, which is exactly what she did.

It was only then, as she later wrote her sister, after putting “the precious portrait…in the hands of two gentlemen of New York, for safekeeping,” that the First Lady allowed herself to be rescued.

Later, only three weeks and 35 miles away from that day, the British prepare to take Fort McHenry. The fort sits at the entrance to Baltimore harbor, a worthy target as Baltimore is the young country’s third largest city. Having already captured the much smaller capitol and put the government to flight, the British can win this war by winning Baltimore, a sweet revenge on an impudent country that was but a colony some 30 years prior.

Defending Fort McHenry is Major George Armistead, uncle to the Confederate Civil War hero, Brigadier General Lewis Armistead who is best known for his brave leadership of the ill-fated Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg.

The weather is wet, so stormy that Major Armistead is not flying the large garrison flag but its smaller companion, a “signal” or “storm flag.” He had commissioned both flags a year prior from Baltimore flag maker Mary Pickersgill. The garrison flag measures 30’x42’. It has 15 stripes and 15 stars. Each stripe is two feet wide and each star is two feet in diameter.

It is so huge that in making it, Mrs. Pickersgill, her daughter, nieces, and an indentured servant had to sew it in a local malt house after hours, by candlelight.

It is so large that if you were to lay it out on a modern high school basketball court, its length would be exactly half the length of the court and its width, more than half the width of the court.

It is so large that it meets Major Armistead’s original desire to fly a banner “so large that the British will have no difficulty seeing it from a distance” (www.flaghouse.org).

But on this day, the weather is so poorly that Armistead decides to fly the smaller flag.

Shortly after sunrise on September 14, somewhere between 6:30 and 7 o’clock that morning, the British begin to blast Fort McHenry.

On one of the British warships is an American prisoner, Dr. William Beanes, and two Americans who are there on his behalf: Col. John Stuart Skinner and Francis Scott Key. Skinner and Key, arriving the night before under a military flag of truce, are there to persuade the British admiralty that Dr. Beanes should be released. Col. Skinner is a military diplomat whose job is just this: to negotiate prisoners’ release while Key, a Supreme Court lawyer, is a friend of Dr. Beanes.

They meet with Major General Robert Ross, and Admiral Alexander Cochrane aboard the HMS Tonnant. Ross is the very man responsible for the torching of Washington. Though initially not terribly keen on the idea, the British officers eventually agree to release Dr. Beanes. It probably helps that Skinner had brought letters with him written by British prisoners of war testifying to Dr. Beanes’ character and his good treatment of the wounded.

Although the officers agree to the release, they also decide that none of the Americans can leave until after the planned attack on Fort McHenry is over. Moved from one ship to another, it is from this curious perspective of being right there, in the heart of the enemy camp, that they pass their “friendly captivity,” watching helplessly as the enemy begins a 25-hour bombardment of Fort McHenry.

During the day, they occasionally see the storm flag through the increasingly dense smoke from the blasts of the bombs and mortars. This is their only way of knowing if the fort stands or if it has fallen. As the attack continues and day lengthens again into night, it becomes increasingly difficult to see if the flag – if the fort – has survived:

And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

The words to the national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, give, perhaps, the truest picture of what that battle was like. Although its author, the lawyer-poet, Key, and the diplomat, Skinner, along with the good Dr. Beanes, will be free when the attack is over, the truth is that the end of the battle also will foretell the war’s end – and with it, the future of the nation.

Francis Scott Key begins writing his poem, Defense of Fort McHenry, on the back of some papers he has in his pocket while on board ship. Nothing better describes the emotions of that moment when, at sunrise the next day, he desperately looks to see if the flag is still flying.

Although Key and his fellow Americans do not know it, for their keepers are not likely to tell them, the British withdrew earlier that morning after being unable to take the fort. Though Key and his colleagues do not see it, Major Armistead replaced the storm flag with the much larger garrison flag shortly before dawn. And, though Key and his comrades can not hear it, the garrison soldiers are firing their weapons in accompaniment to a rather rowdy rendition of Yankee Doodle.

As they search the skyline for a sign as to the outcome of the battle, the Americans finally see what they are looking for. Writes Key:

O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?

Three months after the British defeat at Fort McHenry, the Treaty of Ghent is signed, the official end to a war in which no new territories are gained by either side but a finality is given to the position the young democracy holds amongst the leading nations of the world.

When Key finishes his poem, he shows it to his brother-in-law who considers it a much finer song than poem and suggests a popular tune of the day to accompany it, albeit a drinking song. Within a week, Key’s words are in print and the poem, The Defense of Fort McHenry, soon turns into the song, The Star-Spangled Banner, drinking tune and all.

In 1889, the Navy makes The Star-Spangled Banner its official flag-raising song. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson establishes the precedent of having The Star-Spangled Banner played at formal government occasions, military and otherwise. But it is not until 1931 that The Star-Spangled Banner actually becomes the nation’s anthem.

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

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The dog days of August roared in Tennessee in 1920!

August 18, 1920

Seventy years after the first National Women’s Rights Convention was held in 1850, the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed, finally giving women the right to vote.

The amendment simply reads:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

But these two sentences were hard won despite the fact that 50 years prior, in 1870, Congress had passed the 15th Amendment, giving the right to vote to male citizens of color.

But letting women vote? We’d have to go through Prohibition first!

By the summer of 1920, 35 individual states had granted women the right to vote, Wyoming being the first in 1890. Just one more state was needed to ratify the amendment in order to make it Constitutional law.

Tennessee became that 36th state ¬but it took three roll calls. On the third round of voting, the youngest member of the state legislature, the 22-year old Republican (some accounts say he was 23), Harry Thomas Burn, unexpectedly changed his vote.

Burn had been wearing a red rose in his lapel, signifying that he was against giving women the right to vote. Those “for” the amendment wore yellow roses. When the voting began, red roses outnumbered yellow ones. Then the vote tied at 48 to 48 when Banks Turner changed his vote. Burn was sporting a red rose when he changed his vote in favor of the amendment.

Mayhem burst out. Local legend says that Burn was chased around the Capitol voting chamber by disappointed anti-suffragists. Some describe those chasing Burn as “a mob” which included, ironically, legislators as well as women who were against women having the right to vote!

The story goes that he ended up exiting the building through a window on the third floor, edging himself along the ledge of the Capitol, and finally hiding out in the attic.

What made Burn change his mind between the second and third vote? His mother, Febb Ensminger, had sent him a letter asking him to “do the right thing.”

Tennessee Governor A. H. Roberts signed the bill on August 24, 1920. The amendment formally became law on August 26. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby read the amendment into law.

Mrs. J. L. Burn’s letter to her son:

Dear Son:

Hurrah, and vote for suffrage! Don’t keep them in doubt. I noticed some of the speeches against. They were bitter. I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet. Don’t forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt [Carrie Chapman Catt] put the ‘rat’ in ratification.

Signed, Your Mother.

In a later speech to his colleagues, Burn is quoted as saying:

I know that a mother’s advice is safest for her boy to follow and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification. But I appreciate the fact that an opportunity as does seldom come to mortal man to free 17 million from political slavery was mine. I do it not for any personal glory but for the glory of my party. (NYT August 17, 1995)

Carrie Chapman Catt was a former president of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association and one of the party leaders who worked on getting the amendment passed.

Links
www.archives.gov/education/lessons/woman-suffrage/
www.blueshoenashville.com/suffragehistory.html
www.law.umkc.edu/…

In 1997, Beth Ann Hogan became the first coed to matriculate at the Virginia Military Institute.

On a musical note:
In 1969, Woodstock closed with Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix had wanted to be the final performer. Scheduled to begin at midnight at the end of Day 3, he did not take the stage until 9 a.m., kinda on Day 4!

Some of the songs he played during those two hours included:
Foxy Lady, Purple Haze, Hey Joe and, of course, the Star Spangled Banner.

Jefferson Airplane (now Jefferson Starship), Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Sha-Na-Na played on Day 3.

Richie Havens, The Incredible String Band, Ravi Shankar, Arlo Guthrie and Joan Baez played on Day 1.

Day 2 included Santana, Grateful Dead, The Who, and Janis Joplin.

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August 10, 1821
Missouri, after years of debate on its status as a potential “free” or “slave” state, finally enters the Union as the 24th state. Missouri is “slave.”

The year before, a “compromise” had been reached on the floor of Congress. Two territories were up for statehood: Maine and Missouri. On March 3, 1820, the Missouri Compromise dictated that Maine become a “free” state while Missouri would be “slave.” Three months later, a pro-slave state constitution is passed but it is not until 1821 that statehood becomes official.

During the Civil War, Missouri stays with the Union although, as a border state, tempers ran hot and loyalties were divided.

Missouri originally was part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

Link to Library of Congress:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/aug10.html

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August 9, 1936
Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics as well as breaking world records (individually as well as part of a team). He is the first American track and field athlete to win 4 golds at one Olympics.

His run in the 100-meter dash (10.3 seconds) became an Olympic record and tied the then-current world record. He set an Olympic record in the long jump (8.06 meters – over 26’) which was not broken until 1968 (New York Times, April 1, 1980). His run in the 200-meter dash (20.7 seconds) set another world record as did his team’s run in the 4 x 100-meter relay (39.8 seconds).

In the 200-meter dash, the silver medalist was Mack Robinson, older brother of 17-year old Jackie Robinson. Owens’ 200-meter and 100-meter run times were Olympic records until 1964 (NY Times).

Just one year before, at the Big Ten Conference Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Jesse Owens broke 3 world records in 45 minutes.

While that was on the track, off the track things were very different. Because of his race, he was not allowed to stay at the “whites only” hotel with his other teammates. In fact, he could not even enter the hotel through the front door.

At the Berlin Olympics, Hitler refused to shake hands with any of the black Olympian medalists. In fact, he actually left the stadium after three black Americans, Owens included, swept all the high-jump medals.

On the other hand, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt also did not acknowledge the conquering hero when the team returned home. While a phone call or White House invitation would not have been unusual, Owens received neither.

Presidents Ford and Carter redressed the situation with the Presidential Medal of Honor (1976) and the Living Legends Award (1979).

Owens died in 1980 of lung cancer. Yes, he was a smoker. When he won that first Olympic medal, he was a new father, married to his high school sweetheart.

In 1984, a street in Berlin was re-named in his honor, Jesse-Owens-Allee.

Link:
http://library.osu.edu/…
http://www.jesseowens.com

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On this date in 1968, Richard Nixon receives the Republican nomination for the presidency.

Six years later, on the very same date (and after a land-slide re-election victory over Democratic nominee George McGovern – winning 23.2% of the popular vote over McGovern), Richard Nixon resigns the office of the presidency of the United States:

I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.

Despite far reaching achievements in international affairs and environmental policy, Nixon turned out to be bankrupt in the ethics department and was impeached for abuse of the power as well as gross misconduct.

Here’s more irony involving the eighth day of the eighth month:
In 1863, Confederate General Robert E. Lee tries to resign on this day given his defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Believing he had mishandled the battle, Lee also believed resigning his post was the only honorable thing to do. In his letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Lee wrote:

I have been prompted by these reflections more than once since my return from Pennsylvania to propose to Your Excellency the propriety of selecting another commander for this army…. No one is more aware than myself of my inability for the duties of my position. I cannot even accomplish what I myself desire…. I, therefore, in all sincerity, request your Excellency to take measure to supply my place.

President Davis’ reply was a flat refusal:
To ask me to substitute you by someone … more fit to command, or who would possess more of the confidence of the army … is to demand an impossibility.

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Thus begin the dogged days of August:

On August 4, 1936, Jesse Owens wins the long jump in the Olympics, the Berlin Olympics presided over by Adolph Hitler and the politics of racism. This win was the first of four gold medals for Owens this week. (More to come.)

Jesse Owens is African American but he is, first and foremost, a superb athlete, one who could break world records even under this kind of intense political and psychological pressure.

Today in 1964, the bodies of three civil rights workers are found in a shallow grave in Mississippi:

• Michael Schwerner, 24, nicknamed “Goatee” and “Jew-Boy” by the KKK.

• Andrew Goodman, 20, like Schwerner, also from New York.

• James Chaney, 21, an African American from Mississippi.

Schwerner and Goodman had traveled to Mississippi on behalf of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality). They were helping to register African American voters. Chaney was a local man and recent CORE volunteer.

The three men disappeared June 21 after being released from jail on trumped up charges related to a recent church burning.

Given the violence accompanying efforts to register the black vote and organize citizens in support of civil rights, the disappearance of these men was national news and the subject of an FBI manhunt.

The code name for the investigation was MIBURN. It stood for “Mississippi Burning”, also the name of a movie about this same event

• Seven men were eventually convicted of the murder. These included a local police officer and the local KKK Imperial Wizard.

• Nine men were acquitted. The jury never could decide on the guilt of three others.

• The sentences for these convicted murderers ranged from 3-10 years.

The verdict, for the time, was considered a victory. The longest prison time anyone actually served was 6 years.

Judge Cox, the local judge responsible for the sentencing, said this after the trial:

“They killed one nigger, one Jew, and a white man. I gave them what I thought they deserved.”

On a happier note, and just to add balance to sports and politics, the birthday babes today are poets and musicians:

Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792

Louis Armstrong, 1901

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