---------- Forwarded message from H-War----------
Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 13:20:04 -0500
From: H-War Moderator Mark P. Parillo
To: Multiple recipients of list H-WAR
Subject: QUERY: 21-Gun Salutes

From: "Stanley D. Carpenter"
Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 12:38:26 -0400 (EDT)

Does anyone know the origins of the gun salutes and why specific numbers such as 21 guns were chosen? Many thanks on any advice.

Stan Carpenter
Dept. of History
Florida State University
SCARPENT@mailer.fsu.edu

Date: Sat, 25 May 1996
From: Linda Grant De Pauw, H-MINERVA
Reply-To: H-NET List for Discussion of Women & the Military and Women in War H-MINERVA@h-net.msu.edu
Subject: REPLY: Twenty-one gun salute and female "Paul Revere"

Subj: salutes and female teenage riders
Date: 96-05-2
From: Gene Moser

Reference Stanley Carpenter's query on 21 gun salutes and Kristie Lindenmeyer's mention of the teenage rider warning the community that the British were coming. My understanding is that the gun salute was designed originally for the same reason the hand salute was created - to show a possible foe that you were unarmed and not about to attack.

I've read (and I can't remember where or when) that as a naval vessel began to enter a foreign port, the guns on the shore side would be fired, letting the shore know that an unarmed side was presented to shore batteries. Twenty-one came from the standard number of guns along each side of a frigate. That came to be considered a salute to the other's flag, and the redu ction came in descending order to generals, admirals, Cabinet Secretaries, etc.

The same display of vulnerability is shown by the salute with a rifle (held in front of the body, vertically), the sword (point lowered almost to the ground), and even the flag (dipped so the troops can't easily see it). The only exception would be the guidon, where the pole is presented exactly like a lance poised for the charge.

I can't remember the name of the teenage female rider, but she is the namesake of an award by the National Rifle Association. I would like to mention, by the way, that Paul Revere had two associates, neither of whom are famous, and one of whom (unlike Revere), actually completed the mission, warning both Lexington and Concord. Revere is probably famous because his name rhymes with "hear".

Some people become famous, or don't become famous, purely by choice. I imagine that there are few people on this list who knows the name of the first female pilot to cross the English Channel. I forgot her name, too. But it was not her sex that droped her from household name to footnote.

--Gene Moser

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