sourced by JMJF
With the days of the draft gone, and a volunteer army in place, one does not get to see the picture of an old gentleman dressed in patriotic colors pointing at you and saying: UNCLE SAM NEEDS YOU! But the expression remains and refers to the United States in general.
Uncle Sam had his origins in a government inspector named Uncle Sam Wilson from Troy, NY. This was 1812, and there was a war on. A contractor in New York named Elbert Anderson bought large amounts of grocery items for the US Army. Upon inspection of the goods, Uncle Sam Wilson would imprint the initials E.A. – U.S., which literally meant Elbert Anderson for the United States. The workers in the line were not familiar with the initials U.S., since the United States was not known by that acronym then. So, they supposed that it meant “Uncle Sam” Wilson.
Even after realizing their mistake, they kept referring to U.S. as Uncle Sam. When they were drafted into the Army, they took their private joke with them and it got into common usage. Soon, the expression saw print and from that time on, UNCLE SAM has come to mean the United States or the nation.
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