General Scott And The Stars And Stripes
:
INDEPENDENCE DAY
:
Good Stories For Great Holidays
BY E. D. TOWNSEND (ADAPTED)
One day, as the general was sitting at his table in the office, the
messenger announced that a person desired to see him a moment in order
to present a gift.
A German was introduced, who said that he was commissioned by a house in
New York to present General Scott with a small silk banner. It was very
handsome, of the size of a regimental flag, and was made of a s
ngle
piece of silk stamped with the Stars and Stripes of the proper colors.
The German said that the manufacturers who had sent the banner, wished
to express thus the great respect they felt for General Scott, and their
sense of his importance to the country in that perilous time.
The general was highly pleased, and, in accepting the gift, assured
the donors that the flag should hang in his room wherever he went, and
enshroud him when he died.
As soon as the man was gone, the general desired that the stars might be
counted to see if ALL the States were represented. They were ALL there.
The flag was then draped between the windows over the couch where the
general frequently reclined for rest during the day. It went with him in
his berth when he sailed for Europe, after his retirement, and enveloped
his coffin when he was interred at West Point.
(JULY 4)