Cec, are you some kind of commie? Every true-blooded American knows that stars are added the flag only on July 4.[sup]1[/sup] Kansas, the 34th state, joined the Union in January of 1861, less than three months before the start of the Civil War. Its star would have been added later that year. The 33-star flag was correct at Fort Sumter.
Sheesh! For a guy who claims to know everything, you sure booted this one!
Eh, I’m having trouble following your quibble here, Dtilque.
Kansas became the 34th state in January, 1861.
Fort Sumter was April, 1861.
The 34th star would have been added in July, 1861. So the Fort Sumter flag, in April, still had only 33 stars.
What’s wrong with what Cecil said? I’m missing something. Are you quibbling about Cecil opining that it was “strange”? Cecil thinks many things are strange. How exactly did he “boot this one”?
Pic of the Ft. Sumter flag–he’s right, it does look like an “indescribable mess”.
Duck Duck Goose, I think dtilque was disagreeing with Cecil’s sarcastic comment “they weren’t big on details then”, which might seem to imply that a correct flag would have had 34 stars, whereas dtilque says that it was correct for the flag to have 33 stars, even though there were 34 states, since the flag would only have been changed on 4 July.
Thank you Arnold, that’s exactly the point I was making. Cecil’s humor was misplaced and in fact totally wrong. They were big on details then which is exactly why the flag didn’t have 34 stars.
Besides, it gave me a chance to call Cecil a commie, which is not an opportunity to be wasted.
Cite please? i.e. proof that on 3 July a 33-star flag was flown over Fort Sumter, and on 4 July it was replaced with a 34-star flag? Cecil may well be right in that people were lax about flag protocol in 1861. I fail to see how you have disproved that statement. So there!
Since Fort Sumter was in Rebel hands by July of 1861, they wouldn’t have flown either flag there.
While I can’t prove it, in general I would expect that Army posts would be fairly strict about flag protocol in those days. Some frontier posts may not get the word in time, but Fort Sumter was hardly that.
According to my NPS link, Fort Sumter never did fly a 34-star flag. First there was the 33-star U.S. flag in April 1861, then there were two different Confederate Flags, the “Stars and Bars” and then the “Stainless Banner”.
Then in February, 1865, after the Confederate evacuation of Charleston, the 35-star U.S. flag was raised over Fort Sumter.
Cecil thinks many things are strange. How exactly did he “boot this one”?