20 Star Flag - (1818-1819) (U.S.)

Last modified: 2004-07-10 by rick wyatt
Keywords: twenty | united states | william driver | great star |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors

by Mark Sensen, 4 December 1997

• Description of the flag
• William Driver
• Great Star

See also:

• History of the Stars and Stripes
• U.S. Historical flags
• United States of America

In 1818, five stars were added, representing Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee, bringing the total number of stars to 20. Congress proclaimed that one star for each new state would be added on the 4th of July following the state's admission to the union and there would be a return to thirteen stripes representing the thirteen original colonies.
Rick Wyatt, 5 April 1998

The famous "Old Glory" of Capt. William Driver was a 20-star flag, made by his daughters and preserved by the captain after he retired to Nashville, Tennessee. He hid it from Confederate forces during the Civil War and it now reposes, faded badly, in a museum where no photographs are permitted. That flag has the conventional four rows of five stars each.
William Dunning, 31 March 1998

by Blas Delgado Ortiz, 28 July 2001

This flag flew over the Capitol dome for at lease six months of 1818.
Blas Delgado Ortiz, 27 July 2001