The 6-sided star

[Forrest]

Does anyone know the significance of the 6-sided star in U.S. military history? I've seen it show up in photos of Mexican-American War soldiers, but also on old daguerreotype cases and some Civil War uniforms. Here are two daguerreotype cases that have it, the one to the right looking very military. Neither case contained a person in uniform. I discussed this with a historian that just got back from Israel. He was doubtful that the 6-sided star in the mid-1800's had any Jewish significance.

 

[rpkennedy]

During the Civil War, IIRC, Eighth Corps' insignia was a 6-sided star.

R

 

[Forrest]

Thanks. Both of these cases came with ambrotypes, so I'm wondering if it just means the subject was patriotic, or if it indicates a possible military association - the one on the left contained a man dressed like a civilian and the other was a man wearing a possible military coat, but tough to say. I also have a few of the war-theme Union cases, but they've always arrived with civilian images.

Of course, it could just be that the image and case aren't original to one another.

 

[rpkennedy]

I looked it up just to make sure my mind wasn't tricking me. The Eighth Corps had no official insignia but the men adopted the 6-sided star by the summer of 1864.

R

 

[CW Watch & Sword Guy]

The six-pointed star is not really six-sided except in the sense that it can be represented as two superimposed triangles. It is an ancient symbol that did not originate as anything specifically Jewish. Through the ages, various orders with secret rites, including the Masons, have used variations of the six-pointed star (in the masonic case, the "Seal of Solomon," formed by two interweaving triangles) in their symbology. The history of the association of the six-pointed star, often today called the Star of David, with the Jewish religion, Jewish causes and Jewish institutions, is reviewed here:

https://books.google.com/books?id=uDBOCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA138&lpg=PA138&dq=world+zionist+congress+basel+"six+pointed+star"&source=bl&ots=JEZKh76ptn&sig=ws2DpaciKnFZD4oiB_wUf_o-jcc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi6qtqRxrnLAhWMMj4KHQboB9UQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=world zionist congress basel "six pointed star"&f=false

As that reference documents, this symbol, often called a "hexagram," only became an official Jewish symbol after the First World Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1897, an event which many historians mark as the birth of modern political zionism.

 

[Forrest]

Thanks - I'm still wondering what association it has with U.S. military. Over the last hour I've located two daguerreotypes of Mexican-American War era 'soldiers' with stars on their collars - one is 6-sided and the other is 5-sided. Perhaps it didn't matter? We also see both 5 and 6-sided star sheriff badges.

 

[Forrest]

From CRWFlags.com (History of the Stars and Stripes - all of the following - none are my thoughts):

Number of points on the stars
Six, seven, eight pointed stars were nearly as common as five pointed stars prior to the end of the 18th century. The number of points on the stars was never specified by Congress.
Dave Martucci, 8 January 1998

George Washington's HQ flag of blue had six pointed stars on it.

Is it correct then to assume that the 5 pointed star came about in U.S. flag history as another way to separate the country from Europe with their more numerous pointed stars?

It is also interesting to note that some Confederate flags of the Civil War had six pointed - and some even more - stars on them. The flag makers seemed to do so as a proper nod to heraldry.

 

[Patrick H]

Okay...six pointed stars. I've wondered about this, too.

 

[Forrest]

There is actually more info on the internet than I thought - guess my search criteria improved today!

Apparently the 6-pointed star was just a star - if you were going to use a star as a design or symbol for some group, it could just as easily been 6-pointed as 5-pointed. The 6-pointed star that you see associated with pre-Civil War items has to be thought of as 'just another star'. Anyway, that's what I'm going with.

 

[Forrest]

Here is a daguerreotype I recently picked up, that shows a large 5-sided star on the man's tie. This pre-dates the Civil War, but I think it's interesting in that the war-related habits/customs of our country in the 1850's certainly carried over to the early part of the Civil War. Also, it's probable that most of the men depicted in these daguerreotypes, if military, were officers during the Civil War.

 

[major bill]

If I am not mistaken there were some early American flags that used 6 pointed stars. Also 6 pointed stars are sometimes seen on American uniforms.

 

[zburkett]

I think it is possible that it has more to do with it is easier to make a six pointed star than an five or seven pointed star.

 

[Mike Serpa]

Do the photos of Mexican-American War soldiers always appear in union cases with a military motif? If not, maybe no significance is to be found with 6-sided star cases. The book "Union Cases: A Collector's Guide to the Art of America's First Plastics" is about $150 even at used bookstores online.

 

[Forrest]

Do the photos of Mexican-American War soldiers always appear in union cases with a military motif? If not, maybe no significance is to be found with 6-sided star cases. The book "Union Cases: A Collector's Guide to the Art of America's First Plastics" is about $150 even at used bookstores online.

If you applied that same logic to Civil War soldier images and their cases, you would have to conclude that cases with cannons and flags have no military significance, since they sometimes contain images of civilian women.

I'm not really concerned with value, and don't believe it can be associated with military relevance - there is no huge premium associated with some of the clearly military cases that house Civil War images.

 

[Al Murray]

My cousin found an ancestors grave with a "star of David" and led her to think the ancestor was Jewish. He is well documented in Germany prior to his immigration, no sign of Jewish ancestors. Another cousin says that this symbol was associated with Union veterans. Could anybody tell me who is correct here? As always thanks in advance

 

[CW Watch & Sword Guy]

deleted. This was redundant with an earlier post. Sorry.