A Teenage Patriot Messenger

In June of 1781, late in the Revolutionary War, South Carolina was a stronghold of loyalist, pro-British sentiment. An epic battle was looming and a young 18-year-old woman named Emily Geiger was about to play a major role in it. 

Continental Army General Nathaniel Greene was camped near the Geiger home in upcountry South Carolina. He needed to get an urgent message to General Thomas Sumter (for whom the Civil War’s Fort Sumter was named). Young Emily, whose father was a strong supporter of the patriot cause, volunteered to carry the message. She carefully committed the note to memory and set off.

Riding on horseback through enemy territory, Emily was captured by the Redcoats and taken to Fort Granby. After being interrogated by British General Lord Francis Rawdon himself, she was ordered jailed. While waiting to be searched by a female loyalist, Emily ate General Greene’s message. With the written message gone, no incriminating evidence was found. After she told the British she was just traveling to her uncle’s house, Lord Rawdon was honor-bound to let her go.

Reaching General Sumter’s camp, Emily dutifully recounted her memorized message from General Greene. The two Continental Army units were then joined together for an assault that eventually rid South Carolina of British troops. 

Abagail Adams famously advised her husband John Adams to “remember the Ladies” of the Revolution. We, too, should remember and be thankful for young Emily Geiger.

The Teenager Who Gave Us Our Flag

As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States, we will see many a flag flutter over our skies. And, believe it or not, we owe the design of our current flag—with its array of 50 stars—to a kid from Lancaster, Ohio.

In 1958, America consisted of 48 states. Alaska and Hawaii were petitioning for statehood, but nothing was official. Nevertheless, high-schooler Robert Heft figured it was a foregone conclusion that there would soon be 50 states in the Union. So, he decided to come up with a new flag design for a school project. He worked tirelessly on his flag—fashioning red, white and blue cloth together to form what he thought the new flag should look like. Basically, it was the alternating rows of five and six stars that we know of today.

His teacher was not impressed. He gave Heft a grade of B- and said the design was not original and didn’t match the country’s actual 48-star flag. He did offer the kid an out. If he could get his new design approved in Washington, he’d change the grade.

By August of 1959, both Alaska and Hawaii had officially become states. The nation now needed a 50-star flag, and thousands of ideas flooded into Washington. President Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10834 establishing the design of the 50-star flag—which was identical to the one Heft sewed together on his grandparent’s kitchen table. Heft claimed that Ike himself called him from the White House to tell him he had selected the teenager’s design.

Oh, and Heft’s teacher later kept his word: the grade moved up from B- to A.