FORTISVEX 34 Star U.S. Flag 3x5 Feet Nylon - Made in USA with Brass Grommets

34 Star U.S. Flag History

Kansas entered the United States on January 29, 1861, becoming the thirty-fourth state. Its star became official on July 4, 1861, rather than on the day of admission. The difference matters: the Civil War began while the official national flag still carried thirty-three stars. The National Park Service identifies the flag over Fort Sumter during the April bombardment as a thirty-three-star flag, distinguishing that surviving artifact from the thirty-four-star design associated with the war’s next phase. The National Archives preserves successive Kansas constitutional proposals and admission legislation, documenting the political work behind the new state and its additional star. National Archives: Kansas statehood; National Park Service: Fort Sumter’s storm flag.

Thirty-four-star flags nevertheless appeared before their official July starting date. On February 22, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln raised a new flag at Independence Hall in Philadelphia that included Kansas’s star. The ceremony joined the newest state to the place associated with the Declaration of Independence and the nation’s founding. That documented event illustrates why a historical flag’s actual use and its official star-count period should not be treated as identical. National Park Service: Lincoln’s Philadelphia visit.

The stars also carried a pointed wartime meaning. The United States did not remove the stars of the seceding states. As the Smithsonian explains in its record of a surviving thirty-four-star national flag, the federal government regarded secession as illegal and continued to represent all the states. The flag therefore expressed a claim to an undivided Union, not simply a count of the states remaining under federal control. Smithsonian: United States National 34-Star Flag.

The illustrated design has five horizontal rows containing seven, seven, six, seven, and seven white stars, with thirteen alternating red and white stripes. This arrangement identifies the reproduction pictured here; it is not an attribution to Lincoln’s flag or to a particular regiment. The official thirty-four-star period ended July 3, 1863; the thirty-five-star flag recognizing West Virginia succeeded it on July 4, although older flags continued in service. Smithsonian: Civil War national flag.

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