ORIGIN OF “UNCLE SAM.”

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 15887, 27 July 1923, Page 7

ORIGIN OF “UNCLE SAM.”

The United States has been given

many nicknames, Such as ‘Brother Jonathan,’ ‘Yankee Doodle,’ and ‘Uncle Sam,’ but the latter has always been the most popular and best understood. As to its origin, says the Pall Mall Gazette, there has been much speculation, both as to the name and the familiar picture which typifies the country—the tall, lanky American with the long beard, the peculiar top hat, the flowing coat, and the long striped trousers strapped under his boots. As to the origin of ‘Uncle

Sam,‘ one story is to the effect that at ; the time of the war of 1812 there lived j in Troy, N.Y., a man named Samuel Wilson, familiarly known thereabouts j as ‘Uncle Sam,’ who was employed as | an inspector of pork and beef bought : by the Government. Among other : contractors who made purchases for the Government was one Elbert An- : derson, who having secured a 'large , contract ordered the cases to be marked with his own initials and ad- : dressed to the United States. The man ; who did the lettering marked these , packages ‘E.A.—U.S.’ and when some- ' one asked what the initials meant he : answered jestingly that he did not ; know, unless they meant Elbert An- • derson and Uncle Sam —meaning Uncle Sam Wilson. The joke spread first in the community where Uncle Sam Wilson was well known, and then in wider circles, until finally Uncle Sam came to stand for the United states. When Samuel Wilson died in

1864, aged 85, an Albany paper recalled the Uncle Sam story, and gave it as the true origin of the sobriquet. The story is so clumsy and improbable that it may safely be classed as untrue. Another and more probable account of the origin of Uncle Sam is that when a regiment of Light Dragoons was raised in 1908 the letters U.S.L.D. on their caps was interpreted by some wag to mean Uncle Sam’s Lazy Dogs. There is no record of the phrase Uncle Sam being used prior to 1812, but the expression Uncle Sam’s men occurred in the Lansingburg Gazette of September, 1813, and in the True American on October 1, 1813. The American Daily Advertiser of August 15, 1816, attributed the origin of Uncle Sam to the letters U.S.I.D. Just a year later the Albany Gazette said it arose during the war from the letters U.'S. on the soldiers’ knapsacks, and has come into general use. This was in 1817.