As crazy as this might sound, it was on September 7, 1813 that "Uncle Sam" came to be synonymous with the United States. How? Well, according to my research, there was a character named Samuel Wilson, a meat packer who supplied beef to the US Army during the War of 1812. Allegedly, Wilson would stamp "U.S." on the barrels of meat intending it to stand for "United States" but the soldiers in the field started to refer to it as "Uncle Sam's meat." Voila! A nickname for a whole country was born. In September 1961, the US Congress recognized Samuel Wilson as the person responsible for creating the nickname that stuck. I wonder if Wilson or any of those soldiers ever imagined that Uncle Sam would have an African American president.
- Charlie
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