Carl Memling - Our Flag

Copyright 1960, copyright renewed 1988 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Golden Books, an imprint of Random House Childrens Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. Originally published in the United States by Golden Press, Inc., New York, in 1960. Golden Books, A Golden Book, A Little Golden Book, the G colophon, and the distinctive gold spine are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. www.rhcbooks.com Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com Library of Congress Control Number: 2010927066 eISBN: 978-0-375-98869-1 v3.1_r1 E very country has its own flag. www.rhcbooks.com Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com Library of Congress Control Number: 2010927066 eISBN: 978-0-375-98869-1 v3.1_r1 E very country has its own flag.

When a ship at sea flies our flag, the ship is saying, I come from America. When you carry our flag, you are saying, I am an American. But our flag did not always look the way it looks today . Once, a long time ago, the people of America had many different flags. They lived in thirteen separate colonies. This boys flag meant I am from Maryland. This boys flag meant I am from Maryland.

Maryland was only one part of the big country that was to be the United States of America. The thirteen colonies were ruled by the king of England. They did not like being ruled by a king who lived so far away. They wanted to rule themselves. But first they had to fight a war against the British. They needed one flag that would stand for all the Americans fighting for freedom together. They needed one flag that would stand for all the Americans fighting for freedom together.

A drawing was made. It showed a flag colored red, white, and blue. There were thirteen red and white stripes. And thirteen white stars on a field of blue. The American flag was to have a star and a stripe for each one of the thirteen colonies. Who sewed our first flag? No one really knows.

But some people believe it was Betsy Ross. They say she took some bolts of cloth, and cut thirteen red and white stripes. She cut thirteen white stars and one large square of blue. And then Betsy Ross began to sew . At last the first Stars and Stripes was finished. The new flag was carried into battle for the first time when the American ship Ranger met a British warship at sea. The new flag was carried into battle for the first time when the American ship Ranger met a British warship at sea.

It was a hard fight, but the Ranger won. The American soldiers fought many battles against the British. The last one was at Yorktown in Virginia. The Americans had won the war. Now the world had a new countrythe United States of America. The new country began to grow.

Two new states joined it. And two more stars and two more stripes were added to the flag. Then the United States and England fought the War of 1812 . The brand-new flag, with fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, waved over Fort McHenry, near Baltimore, Maryland. All through the night British warships fired their cannon at the fort. But the flag did not go down.

The American soldiers would not surrender. And they won the battle. Every country has its own song. Our countrys song is The Star-Spangled Banner. It tells the story just told herethe story of the flag that was still flying when morning came at Fort McHenry. More states joined the country.

But more stripes on the flag would have made it look too crowded. Something had to be done. It was decided that the flag should always have thirteen stripesone for each of the thirteen original colonies.