Item Description
Original Item: One-of-a-kind. The 38-Star Flag became the Official United States Flag on July 4th, 1877 and was in service until July 5th, 1890. A star was added for the admission of Colorado (August 1st 1876) and was to last for 13 years. The five Presidents to serve under this flag were; Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881), James A. Garfield (1881), Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885), Grover Cleveland (1885-1889), and Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893).
Flag measures 119.5 inches x 67 inches and is in very good condition for its age with some small areas of wear and minor nips. It is constructed of a sturdy heavy weave wool and has 5 brass hang side grommets. The construction is multi-pieces with individual stars (both sides) and stripe panels. Overall a really nice example of a genuine 38-star flag as used during the Indian Wars of the American Western Expansion, issued just a years after the death George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn.
During this time the United States was finalizing the Western Expansion and the closing of the major conflicts with the Native America Indians. The series of conflicts in the western United States between Native Americans, American settlers, and the United States Army are generally known as the Indian Wars. Many of the most well-known of these conflicts occurred during and after the Civil War until the closing of the frontier in about 1890. However regions of the West that were settled before the Civil War, such as Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, California and Washington, saw significant conflicts prior to 1860.
Various statistics have been developed concerning the devastation of these wars on the peoples involved. One notable study by Gregory Michno used records dealing with figures "as a direct result of" engagements and concluded that "of the 21,586 total casualties tabulated in this survey, military personnel and civilians accounted for 6,596 (31%), while Indian casualties totaled about 14,990 (69%)." for the period of 1850–90. However, Michno says he "used the army's estimates in almost every case" and "the number of casualties in this study are inherently biased toward army estimations". His work includes almost nothing on "Indian war parties", and that "army records are often incomplete"; his work is a "workable" number, not a definitive account of events, since it excluded other figures.
According to Michno, more conflicts with Native Americans occurred in the states bordering Mexico than in the interior states. Arizona ranked highest, with 310 known battles fought within the state's boundaries between Americans and the natives. Also, when determining how many deaths resulted from the wars, in each of the American states, Arizona again ranked highest. At least 4,340 people were killed, including both the settlers and the Indians, over twice as many as occurred in Texas, the second highest-ranking state. Most of the deaths in Arizona were caused by the Apache. Michno also says that fifty-one percent of the Indian war battles between 1850 and 1890 took place in Arizona, Texas and New Mexico, as well as thirty-seven percent of the casualties in the country west of the Mississippi River.
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