The Bellamy Salute

The Bellamy salute was a right arm raised, palm-down salute created by James B. Upham as the gesture that was to accompany the American Pledge of Allegiance, which had been written by Francis Bellamy*, who was a socialist.
It was sometimes known as the ‘flag salute’ during the period when it was used with the Pledge of Allegiance. Both the Pledge and its salute originated in 1892 and both were promoted by Francis Bellamy. Later, during the 1920s and 1930s, Italian fascists and Nazi Germans adopted a salute which was very similar, and which was derived from the Roman salute, a gesture that was popularly (albeit erroneously) believed to have been used in ancient Rome. This resulted in controversy over the use of the Bellamy salute in the United States. It was officially replaced by the hand-over-heart salute when Congress amended the Flag Code on December 22, 1942.

*Some historians say that the first version was written by Union Army Captain George Balch in 1885.