Twenty-One Gun Salute
TWENTY-ONE GUN SALUTE
TWENTY-ONE GUN SALUTE. Originally, British naval tradition recognized seven guns as the British national salute. British regulations provided that ships could fire seven guns only, but forts could fire three shots for every shot afloat. At that time, powder made from sodium nitrate was easier to keep ashore than shipboard. When the use of potassium nitrate in place of sodium nitrate improved gunpowder, the sea salute came to equal the shore salute of twenty-one guns. The British proposed that the United States return their salutes "gun for gun." Accordingly, on 18 August 1875 the United States adopted the twenty-one gun salute and the gun-for-gun return.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jessup, John E. et al., eds. Encyclopedia of the American Military: Studies of the History, Traditions, Policies, Institutions, and Roles of the Armed Forces in War and Peace. New York: Scribner, 1994.
Louis H.Bolander/a. e.