The idea that an inverted pentagram is some evil occult symbol was made up by occultists in the mid 19th century.

Absolutely right that this is when it got out into the open. Good historians do need to read between the lines, and here recognize that alchemists had for centuries prior been using the pentagram with a broad variety of symbolisms in relation to physical stars and so it is probable that the upright/inverted paradigm to mean good/evil arose some time before it was published. Of course lots of other crazy groups had the pentagram before it was coopted by the devil in one orientation, so it's pretty public-domain of a symbol now.

As I pointed out in other recent comments, the real use of pentagrams was to express the states and their leaders as superhumans, angelic apotheoses in human form who couldn't admit publicly that's what they aspired to (except in symbolic places like the Capitol rotunda ceiling artwork). There was syncretism between godly service to Christ, and superpower manifest destiny in uncountable heavens. Only God can sort out the details in human hearts.