The illustration depicts an exchange between two cartoon characters which would have been familiar to all American citizens (and soldiers) during the Civil War. We may not recognize either at first glance today. The one on the right, John Bull, is the personification symbol for Great Britain in general, but England in particular. Dating from 1712, the character was supposed to embody the “heroic archetype of the freeborn Englishman” and John Bull is usually portrayed as a stout, portly man in a tailcoat with light-colored pants and a top hat which by its shallow crown suggests his heredity from the yeomanry, or highest class of peasants. Early 19th century sketches depict him as a yeoman with a bovine head or sometimes the heraldic lion, but he evolved into the conventional image of the English country squire top-tobottom shortly afterwards. Early 20th century images depict John Bull in a waistcoat made from the Union Jack.
The origin of “Brother Jonathan” as our first national symbol is a little more obscured in post-Colonial American mythology. Anecdotally, the story goes that the character was based on Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut, whom George Washington declared “the first of the patriots.” Trumbull committed the full resources of Connecticut and its Western Reserve (now Ohio) to support the American Revolution of 1776. Trumbull was also the first “Commissary General” of the Colonial Army and when Washington was most desperate for advice or supplies he called on ‘Brother Jonathan.’ How the character of “Brother Jonathan” became the personified symbol of the fledging republic is still not precisely known, some attribute it as an attempt at sarcasm by American Loyalists. After 1783, and up until the War of 1812, Brother Jonathan had another meaning, too. The term became a generic reference to U.S. soldiers, much like “G.I. Joe.”
By the mid-1860s, however, Brother Jonathan either evolved or was absorbed into the more familiar icon called “Uncle Samuel.” The character of “Uncle Samuel” was at first secondary to “Brother Jonathan.” The term was first used in the war of 1812, when a Troy, N.Y., meatpacker named Samuel Wilson received a U.S. government contract to supply beef to the army. The meat was packed in government barrels marked “U.S.” Teamsters hauling the barrels quipped that the initials stood for the supplier, “Uncle Samuel” Wilson, and it caught on. And whether that is completely factual or not, it is the official version as recognized by the U.S. Congress.
So if “Uncle Samuel” was the accepted nickname of the government and “Brother Jonathan” was its symbolic personification, it seems that the two were bound to eventually be combined as the nation evolved. Thomas Nast created the characterization of “Uncle Sam” in the 1860s. It was one that combined existing elements of “Brother Jonathan” along with what is believed to be a similarity in appearance to a well-known mid-19th century circus entertainer named Dan Rice, who wore a patriotic ‘stars & stripes’ based suit and top hat. This gentleman is the subject for another day. His contributions to mid-19th century are well chronicled in a biography written by David Carlyon called Dan Rice: The Most Famous Man You’ve Never Heard Of. For a fuller understanding of the popular forms of entertainment of the times, it is well worth reading.
The reason for the change in symbolic characterization from “Brother Jonathan” to “Uncle Sam” is more significant than it first seems. It goes beyond the mere combination of values upon which the first United States symbol was based. It was a revised statement of character for what the United States had become. “Brother Jonathan” was the initial symbol of the individual American states where the majority of the power was at the state level. In contrast, “Uncle Sam” was a symbol of the centralized Federal government in Washington, D.C., that held greater power over the individual states. After the Civil War ended the United States is officially stated in the singular form, while in antebellum use referring to the United States, it was generally in the plural form. For example, antebellum the country was referenced as a group of independent states as in, “After the Mexican War the United States are at peace again.” Postbellum a similar statement would be written as follows, “After the Civil War the United States is at peace again.”
There was never a Confederate version of “Uncle Sam.” The closest equivalent to a unified Confederate States personification symbol is probably “Johnny Reb.” It is interesting that the South adopted a variation of the name “Jonathan” for their personification symbol during the Civil War. The figure of “Johnny Reb” currently takes the form of the nearly ubiquitous Confederate soldier statues in hundreds of Southern towns. The construction of these monuments throughout the South began about 50 years post-bellum and are commonly encountered near the county courthouse or in the town square, an interesting throwback to a forgotten aspect of our earlier American history.
Craig L Barry was born in Charlottesville, Va. He holds his BA and Masters degrees from the University of North Carolina (Charlotte). Craig served The Watchdog Civil War Quarterly as Associate Editor and Editor from 2003-2017. The Watchdog published both books and columns on the material culture of the mid-19th century and donated all funds from publications to battlefield preservation.