FORTISVEX 23 Star U.S. Flag 4x6 Feet Nylon - Made in USA with Brass Grommets

23 Star U.S. Flag History

The 23 Star American Flag brings two state additions into the national constellation at once. Its blue canton displays twenty-three white stars in four rows of six, five, six, and six, above thirteen alternating red and white stripes. This particular layout creates a nearly full rectangular field with a shorter second row. The star count recalls the Union after Alabama and Maine entered, while the stripes continue the reference to the original thirteen states.

Alabama became the twenty-second state on December 14, 1819, and Maine became the twenty-third on March 15, 1820. Both dates appear in the National Park Service’s admission chronology. Their stars were added together on July 4, 1820, in accordance with the annual update established by the 1818 Flag Act. This explains the jump from twenty-one to twenty-three in the official sequence: the flag did not receive a separate nationally prescribed twenty-two-star interval between Independence Days.

Maine’s admission also changed an older political relationship. Before statehood, it had been part of Massachusetts. The Maine Legislature’s constitutional history describes the 1819 separation vote, the convention that drafted a constitution that October, and its approval by voters in December. The constitution took effect with admission the following March. For a Maine-centered display, this flag therefore represents the culmination of a specific state-making process, rather than the first appearance of settlement or community in the region.

The wider national setting was the Missouri Compromise. The National Archives preserves the legislation and explains the attempt to maintain the political balance between slave and free states. Maine entered as a free state, while the compromise opened the way for Missouri to enter as a slave state and restricted slavery in other parts of the Louisiana Purchase. This context is essential to a complete account of the period: adding stars recorded the growth of the Union, but did not resolve the divisions within it.

The twenty-three-star count remained official through July 3, 1822, as recorded in the Smithsonian’s historical flag chronology. Missouri had become the twenty-fourth state on August 10, 1821, according to the U.S. Senate’s state timeline, so its star followed in July 1822. This makes the design useful for explaining both the politics and the timing of early statehood. Its observed row arrangement distinguishes this version without claiming that it duplicates a specific period artifact or that all twenty-three-star flags looked alike.

Explore the States Represented in This Flag

• Shop Alabama flags
• Maine history · Shop Maine flags