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Uncle Sam
The patriotic Uncle Sam beame a famous symbol during World War II on recruiting
posters. The exact origin is unknown, but may have been from a Troy NY
meat packer or inspector who signed his boxes "U.S." because those were
his initials.
This is from a website visitor:
About the origin of the term "Uncle Sam": I think the term existed
before then, but Civil War General (and later President) Ulysses S. Grant
was referred as "Uncle Sam" by the troops serving under his
command, from his initials (I have no idea why they called him "Sam",
but hey, it's a better name than Ulysess). Since Grant led the Union army
to victory in the war, I would think it's possible that he helped popularize
the term.
This is from another website visitor:
The idea of uncle sam was a joke during the civil war when all shipmentswere
marked with US standing of course for United States. Ration shipmentswere
also such marked and it became a joke among the enlisted men that their
meals really came from "Uncle Sam" back home. This would later
evolve into the patriotic symbol that is now Uncle Sam and be used on
recruiting posters and morale campaigns during WWII.
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