Five Things You Might Not Know About the U.S. Flag (in Honor of Flag Day)-- Part 4: Star-Spangled Banner Flag Had 15 Stripes

The flag immortalized by "The Star-Spangles Banner" had 15 stripes-- not 13!

In 1791, Vermont was admitted to the Union and Kentucky joined in 1792.  Congress passed the second Flag Act on January 13, 1794, authorizing a new national flag with 15 stars and stripes.

During the War of 1812, Mary Pickersgill, her daughter, two nieces and an indentured black girl made a giant flag for Baltimore's Fort McHenry.

On September 14, 1814, after withstanding a heavy British bombardment, the fort raised the giant flag.  This triumph inspired Francis Scott Key to write a poem which has since become known as our National Anthem.

--Cooter

DAR Celebrating Phebe Ashley Weed Today-- Part 2

The Battle of Hubbardton, led by Lt. General John Burgoyne, promised to destroy the village of Poultney.  While the men were busy defending the village, Beulah Wheeler Howe, Phebe's grandmother, and 12 other women, led all that could not fight to Fort Bennington -- over 50 miles away through wilderness to safety.

This extrordinary bravery of the of these thirteen women is still celebrated today woth a parade and festival in their honor called East Poultney Days.

Phebe's family relocated to New York where she married Amasa Mead, who had fought in the War of 1812, and had her first family.  A Kishwaukee Trail member is descended from her fifth child, Catherine Phebe Mead, born December 20, 1821.

Phebe's husband  died and she married John Weed.  They had three more children and she ran a very busy and happy household.

Phebe moved to be near her daughter, Catherine Phoebe Mead, sho married Frederick Morgan Webb.  They were residents of Marengo, Illinois, in the early 1850s.

--Cooter

DAR Celebrating the Life of Real Daughter Phebe Weed Today in Marengo, Illinois

On Sunday, August 14 at 1:30 PM, the Kishwaukee Trail Chapter NSDAR (Illinois) will have a ceremony at Old Marengo Cemetery in Marengo, Illinois.  They will mark the grave of Phebe Ashley Mead Weed, daughter of an American Revolutionary Patriot.

Phebe Ashley was born on Poultney, Vermont, the sixth child of 13 children.  Her uncle Thomas Ashley, Ethan Allen and Nehemiah Howe helped settle the small farming community where she grew up.

Phebe's father, William Ashley, served in the American Revolution and fought for our country's freedom in the Vermont militia.

Young Phebe grew up knowing that her grandmother, Beulah Wheeler Howe, was also a freedom fighter known for being among thirteen women who saved the children and citizens of Poultney from a British invasion.

--Brock-Perry

William Charles Fitzgerald, USN, Navy Cross Recipient, Vietnam War

From Wikipedia

I have been writing about the Guided Missile Destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) in the three previous posts and got to wondering about who the ship was named after.

William "Bill" C. Fitzgerald (January 28, 1938 to August 7, 1967) was a United States naval officer who was killed in action during the Vietnam War, while serving as an advisor to the Republic of Vietnam Navy.  He received the Navy Cross posthumously for his rile in fighting  off a Viet Cong attack.

From Vermont, his father was a career Navy man who retired as a chief petty officer.  After high school graduation, he followed his father's footsteps and enlisted in the Navy.  Seaman Fitzgerald eventually earned selection for officer training by appointment to the  U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis with the Class of 1963.  He excelled there.

Midshipmen Fitzgerald graduated and was commissioned into the U.S. Navy on June 5, 1963 and then reported to the destroyer USS Charles H. Roan (DD-853), where he rose from "boot ensign" to weapons department head.