The Flag Act of 1818

It provided for the modern rule of having thirteen horizontal stripes and having the number of stars match the current number of states. It also provided that subsequent changes in the number of stars be made on July 4, Independence Day. As the result of the lack of a Flag Act between 1794 and 1818, there were no official U.S. flags with sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, or nineteen stars. No flag laws were enacted to accompany the admission of new states to the Union during this period. The flag’s thirteen stripes represented the original colonies; its twenty stars symbolized the number of states in the Union at that time.  Reid arranged the 20 stars to form one large star on the blue canton of this flag. The arrangement of stars on American flags would not be standardized until 1912 when the flag was changed from 46 to 48 stars.

Although it did not become official until July 4, on April 13, 1818, a new flag was flown over the U.S. Capitol for the first time. The flag was mailed by naval officer and War of 1812 hero, Samuel Chester Reid. Congressman Peter H. Wendover and Reid had collaborated on a bill to standardize the addition of stars on the flag to correspond to states in the union. Reid designed the flag; his wife and her friends sewed it. Wendover arranged for the flag to be hoisted over the Capitol in Washington D.C. on the same day it was received there.