Uncle Sam is a national personification of the United States and sometimes more specifically of the American government, with the first usage of the term dating from the War of 1812. Common folklore holds that Uncle Sam's origins trace back to soldiers stationed in upstate New York, who would receive barrels of meat stamped with the initials U.S. The soldiers joked that these initials were a reference to the troops' meat supplier, (Uncle) Samuel Wilson of Troy, New York.