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Painting by Gilbert Stuart - Notice the black cockade on his hat

Father of Our Country

The official name of next Monday's holiday is "Washington's Birthday." The holiday has expanded over time to include other presidents of the United States (who and how many we're honoring changes depending on who you're talking to). Historically, however, the holiday was a commemoration of Washington's life.

The holiday started in 1800. George Washington died on December 14, 1799. He was not only our first president, but he was the first president to die. His death brought expressions of grief around the world. Mock funerals were held for him all over the US. In France, Napoleon ordered a ten-day requiem. And in Britain, the Royal Navy was ordered to lower flags at half-mast on its entire fleet.

A day of remembrance was immediately arranged for his birthday, February 22. Later, the date would be changed to the third Monday of February in order to create a three-day weekend.

George Washington as a young officer in the British Army

Father of Our Cockades

Probably more than any other, George Washington influenced the choice of the American military cockade. As commander in chief of the army, he originally ordered that military cockades be colored based on the soldiers' rank. When American army uniforms became more standardized, he reverted to the traditional black cockade that Americans had inherited from Britain. France joined us in fighting the British in 1778 and so Washington briefly added the French white to American black, symbolizing the two nations' cooperation.

By 1787 the war was over and regulations for the small standing army were issued for "cockades of black leather round with points four inches diameter."

Black leather or silk (for officers) with an American eagle in the center was to be the official military cockade for the next 75+ years.

Washington crossing the Delaware, depicted with a large black silk cockade

Washington himself was to wear a black patriotic cockade for the rest of his life. It was remembered in 1850 that, "At his levees, in Philadelphia, President Washington was clad in black velvet; his hair was powdered; and gathered back in a silk bag; yellow gloves, knee and shoe buckles, he held in his hand a cockaded hat, ornamented with a cockade, fringed about an inch deep with black feathers; a long sword in a white scabbard, with a polished steel hilt, hung at his hip."

The Fashion of Our Cockades

The black and white cockade style was adopted by regular citizens as well as the army. On July 4, 1798, the Philadelphia Centinel stated: "It has been repeatedly recommended, that our citizens wear in their hats on the day of Independence, the American Cockade, (which is a Rose, composed of black ribbon, with a white button, or fastening) and that the Ladies should add to the attraction of their dress...this symbol of their attachment to the government."

This color schemed was still being used by the time of the Civil War. Harper's Magazine noted in 1868 that, "In April [1861] he was traveling by railroad from Winchester west, and observed in the car six commissioners or emissaries from South Carolina and Georgia, each of them wearing conspicuously a black and white cockade. They received marked attention from the passengers, and from the people at the stations."

Allan Pinkerton mentioned the ladies who adopted this fashion. "Mrs. Warne displayed upon her breast, as did many of the ladies of Baltimore, the black and white cockade, which had been temporarily adopted as the emblem of secession."

Even though the South revived the black and white colors, by the time of the Civil War, the popular patriotic United States cockade was red, white and blue. However, both Union and Southern patriots claimed George Washington! His portrait was used on patriotic cockades in both North and South.

New York Daily Tribune, April 23, 1861

This advertisement in the New York Daily Tribune offers Washington Union Cockades at $0.25 each.

Wouldn't it be great to have prices like that today? Of course, if someone offered me an 1861 quarter for my Washington cockades, I'd be happy to take them up on it!

What cockade will you be wearing on Washington's Birthday?