© Underwood & Underwood 



GUARD TO THE STANDARD 



On silver bands, encircling the lance from which the regimental standard floats, are 

 engraved the names and dates of the battles in which that regiment has played its heroic 

 part. Each standard, therefore, epitomizes the glorious past of its command, and the men 

 over whom it waves would gladly give their lives rather than have these shining symbols of 

 victory tarnished by defeat (see page 308). 



bombardment of the batteries and the town of 

 Derne, Tripoli, by the Hornet, Nautilus, and 

 Argus, the landing party of marines and blue- 

 jackets stormed the principal works, and Lieu- 

 tenant O'Bannon of the marines and Midship- 

 man Mann hauled down the Tripolitan flag and 

 hoisted the fifteen stars and fifteen stripes in 

 its place. 



It was our ensign in the Battle of Lake Erie 

 (see 366) and was first carried in a man-of- 

 war by Captain Porter in the Essex, around 

 Cape of Good Hope, August, 1800, and by 

 Commodore Porter in the Essex around Cape 

 Horn on his famous cruise in 1813. It was the 

 flag flown by Jackson at New Orleans. _ 



8. The requirement that a new stripe be 

 added to the flag for each new State, however, 

 soon proved embarrassing, with the result that 

 U. S. Congress on April 4, 1818, . decided to 

 return to the original design of thirteen stripes, 

 and passed the following law : 



"Sec. I. Be it enacted, etc., That from and 



after after the fourth day of July next the flag 

 of the United States be thirteen horizontal 

 stripes, alternate red and white ; that the union 

 have twenty stars, white, on a blue field. 



"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That on the 

 admission of every new State into the Union 

 one star be added to the union of the flag, and 

 that such addition shall take effect on the 4th 

 of July next succeeding such admission." 



Twenty-eight States having been admitted 

 since the enactment of this law, our flag now 

 contains 48 stars. There have been numerous 

 laws enacted concerning the flag since that 

 time, but none of them has departed from the 

 fundamental principles of the law of 1818. 



It is interesting to note that the army for 

 many decades did not carry the Stars and 

 Stripes in battle, though it was used as a gar- 

 rison flag. The land forces carried what was 

 known as national colors, or standards, of blue, 

 with the coat-of-arms of the United States, 

 comprising an eagle surmounted by a number 



3 n 7 



