[Guenevere]

It was an honor and privilege to watch this precious flag unfurled …….
I saw this years ago…..I heard they don’t do it anymore ( I don’t know) because the flag is so old and fragile.

[Vaquero]

CBS pisses on the flag on a daily basis

[Guenevere]

It always was a special treat to visit DC…..
…the museums are true treasures

Sadly I don’t know if I’ll ever go back…..
..perhaps when Trump is there for the long run he can and will restore the joy and respect of all that town has to offer

[grobdriver]

Key was aboard a ship in the harbor and squinted through smoke to see who had won, as the sun began to break. A large American flag was raised. Key saw it and wrote a poem that became the national anthem.

Which is why the National Anthem should be sung and played bright and cheery, as a celebration - not as a funeral dirge.

I hate 99% of the performances of our Anthem. People don't know how to sing it or play it (plus they have to throw in their own embellishments to show their skills - which usually suck - thereby detracting from the song).

[Ciaphas Cain]

I got to see the flag when I was six years old. That was in 1980. We got into the Smithsonian museum and the first thing I saw was that ENORMOUS flag on the far wall. It certainly made an impression on me.

[John S Mosby]

This wonderful flag, made by hand, huge (so that there would be no possibility of British not seeing it), is intertwined with American Patriot history. George Armistead, commander of Fort McHenry. His brother, Walker was Chief Engineer of the US Navy for many years.

Walker’s son, Lewis Armistead (close friends for years with Winfield Scott Hancock when both were out West in the US Army, both West Point USMA grads). When Secession came, Armistead joined the CSA and was a Brigadier Gen. leading troops under Johnston Pettigrew in the tragic last charge of the CSA (Pickett’s charge). Armistead fell mortally wounded at the central part of the Union line on the wall, a short distance from where Hancock had been severely wounded- and neither could meet thereafter from their wounds, Armistead dying two days later on July 5th, 1863.

The National Anthem- “The Star Spangled Banner” composed by Francis Scott Key in 1812. Another intermingling of history, is that Key’s son, Phillip (said to be the most handsome man in Washington) had an affair with Cong. Dan Sickle’s wife (a no-no cuckolding of the time, even as Sickles whored around on this same wife the standards of the time). Sickles, in public confronted Key on the street and shot him fatally. The trial resulted in acquittal on the basis of “temporary insanity”- the very first time this legal plea was made and accepted in the US! And future Secretary of War Stanton was one of his six attorneys.

Sickles became a Union major general before Gettysburg, and possibly responsible, against orders, for the failure of the final charge on July 3 of the CSA. Sickles went on to become Minister to Spain (and a huge scandal affair with former Queen Isabella- said to be a nymphomaniac!).

But the last of these interlinking people- Sickles returned to Congress and was largely responsible for establishing the Gettysburg National Military Park. A lifetime scoundrel, political crook (who, after 34 years weaseled the Medal of Honor for himself) Sickles a whacky ambitious, one could say crazy person who did some real good in the creation of the Gettysburg memorial which bound up many wounds in the Nation.

Only to have political animals of today re-visit them and pour salt to create divisions which they themselves created.
Ironic— all of this. Coffee recital over. Happy Independence Day!

[Midwesterner53]

I saw it years ago hanging on a wall in the museum and it would be uncovered for a few minutes each hour. So beautiful.

[jonrick46]

The "Star Spangled Banner" in a black and white photo taken in 1873 at the Boston Navy Yard. The flag was spread out and hung from third story windows for the picture that went into a book about the history of America's flags written by Admiral George Preble called "History of the Flag of the United States of America."