A NOTE ON THE ORIGINS OF “UNCLE SAM,” 1810–1820

Conventional wisdom holds that “Uncle” Sam Wilson—a Troy, New York, meatpacker who, when he was supplying troops during the War of 1812, stamped his crates “U.S.”—inspired the federal government’s nickname; new evidence suggests, however, that the personification originated earlier, simply as a creative and colorful expansion of “U.S.”