Something about flags.
When I was a kid, I had to spend some time on ships. One of the things I was taught was to recognize the flags of different ships docked or anchored in a harbor. It told you where they were from and if they were friendly or not. When I grew up I learned that in the Bronze Age, sails often told where a ship was from or signaled a message before it sailed into port. Theseus was supposed to put a sail up for his father when he returned from the labyrinth of Crete alive as a sign that all went well and he forgot leading to a tragedy. So flags or banners were signs. In the Dark and Middle Ages banners were important in warfare for soldiers to know who they were pledged to and whom they fought under as well as whom to fight.
Today we have bumper stickers and license plates, and oh yes...flags. Shouldn't we move beyond this?
= new reply since forum marked as read
Shouting the battle cry of freedom."
The "Battle Cry of Freedom" is a song written in 1862 by American composer George Frederick Root (1820–1895) during the American Civil War. A patriotic song advocating the cause of the Union, it became so popular that composer H. L. Schreiner and lyricist W. H. Barnes adapted it for the Confederacy. A modified Union version was used as the campaign song for the Lincoln-Johnson ticket in the 1864 presidential election, as well as Garfield in the 1880 U.S. presidential election.[1] The song was so popular that the music publisher had 14 printing presses going at one time and still could not keep up with demand. It is estimated that over 700,000 copies of this song were put in circulation. Louis Moreau Gottschalk thought so highly of the song that in his diary he confided that he thought "it should be our national anthem" and used it as the basis for his 1863 concert paraphrase for solo piano "Le Cri de délivrance," opus 55, and dedicated it to Root, who was a personal friend. Charles Ives quoted the song in his own patriotic song, "They Are There".[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Cry_of_Freedom
I think we make way too much of flags and nationalism, generally. I find nationalism and jingoism distasteful, manipulative and dangerous. But, that's beside the point.
As I have posted before, the Pledge of Allegiance even puts the flag first and the country second, which is odd. But, clearly, flags meant a lot during the Civil War and before.
