At the beginning of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln fervently urged the American people not to remove stars from the flag that represented the states succeeding from the Union. He wanted to show both the nation and the world that we were still a unified body. Despite Lincoln’s appeals, some anti-Southern patriots did as they pleased in regard to the number of stars on the Stars & Stripes. The 21 stars on this particular flag represent the 34 total states during the opening two years of the war (1861–1863), minus the 11 that officially seceded, as well as the two border states whose populations voted for secession, but did not officially secede from the Union.
The stars in this flag are arranged in what is known as a medallion configuration, which is a double wreath with a single center star. This particular double-wreath pattern is unusual because it lacks the stars that are usually found outside the outer wreath, in each corner of the canton.
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