The woman often credited with sewing the first national U.S. flag — at the request of George Washington himself, her descendants claimed — might have been puzzled by Saturday's modern Flag Day.
In Betsy Ross' day, flags marked ships and told soldiers where they should move in the confusion of battlefield smoke and noise. The intense reverence many Americans feel for Old Glory arose from the Civil War, when the need to keep the banner aloft in battle led the Union army to treat the deadly job of flag bearer as a high honor — and men responded with fatal heroics.
