Samuel Chester Reid

Samuel Chester Reid (24 August 1783 – 28 January 1861) was an officer in the United States Navy who commanded a privateer during the War of 1812.

At the Battle of Fayal Reid inflicted severe casualties on boats from a British Royal Navy squadron en route to Jamaica and Louisiana.

Wendover drafted a bill which stipulated that the thirteen-stripe, twenty-star design become the new official flag of the United States.

His daughter, Mary Isabel Reid, married in 1861 Italian-American officer Luigi Palma di Cesnola, who later received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the American Civil War (1863), served as the United States consul in Cyprus (1866–1877) and became the first director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (1879-1904).

[5] This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

Portrait of Capt. Samuel C. Reid, by John Wesley Jarvis , 1815
An American illustration of the Battle of Fayal
Reid's sketches of his designs, from an 1850 letter
The 1818 version of the flag of the United States, as designed by Reid. The pattern of the stars was later changed to four rows of five.