06/14/2026
It's pretty difficult to believe now, but the American Flag wasn't always the ubiquitous symbol inevitably seen seen up and down main streets, residential neighborhoods, and public buildings and parks across the country. As recently as the 1850s, it was more of a relatively obscure military insignia, used to identify American ships at sea and forts at home.
Then, as with plenty of other aspects of American life, the Civil War changed everything.
Specifically, when Major Robert Anderson surrendered Fort Sumter to the Confederate forces at the very beginning of the conflict, one of the last things he did was lower the flag (practically cut to ribbons by artillery fire), ensuring its rescue and its transport north. A week later, it was flown from an equestrian statue of George Washington in New York City's Union Square amid an event attended by an estimated 100,000 people.
Thereafter, a remarkable thing happened: the flag became a rallying point throughout the north, used to signify support for the war effort, which ended with a thorough Confederate defeat at Appomattox and the reunification of the nation just a few years later.
The rest, as they say, is history, and the stars and stripes have been everywhere ever since -- including, obviously and prominently, on today's Flag Day. Through 26 modification as the stars played musical chairs while the country grew, it may have looked slightly different, but since then it has stood as a symbol of the promise of America: to serve as a beacon for the rest of the world, where a dizzying number of cultures, individuals, and traditions somehow have long collided to create something far more than just the sum of its parts.
