Historical American Flags

A BRIEF HISTORY OF OUR HISTORICAL AMERICAN FLAGS

A Banner of Old England

The Color Bearers

BEARER OF ST. GEORGE'S CROSS

I. I come before you bearing the "Cross of St. George" which was the flag flown from the masthead of the Mayflower. This banner of the Old England they so dearly loved was a sacred emblem to the Pilgrims, and served to join them in thought to their old home so far away beyond the broad ocean. 

Once Endicott, the Puritan gov­ernor of Massachusetts, cut the cross out of the banner to show his hatred of Romanism. Many times the colonists tried to sub­stitute a rose, a tree, or some other device, but at last they were compelled to adopt the flag of the mother country. It was not until tyranny of the king became unbearable that new flags were used. 

The colonists failed to move the king and his ministers from their career of reckless obstinacy, and were forced to choose between abject submission to tyranny or armed resistance to their royal master. 

Then the electric words of Patrick Henry flashed throughout the country, 

We must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us. I repeat it, sir, we must fight!"

Soon the blood of the patriots flowed freely on many a hard fought field until all hope of reconciliation with the mother country was at an end, and national independence was secured.

The Flag of Bunker Hill

The coercive measures adopted by the king produced their natural result: the glory of the British empire waned, and the sun of liberty arose. 

BEARER OF THE RED FLAG

II. When the tyranny of England could be no longer borne, the colonists began to show their defiance by hoisting the red flag at many places. At Boston, in 1768, a large red flag was hoisted upon a liberty pole, and the people were urged to arise and clear the country of the oppressors. 

Trumbull's celebrated picture of the Battle of Bunker Hill has Colonel Prescott's troops marshaled under a red flag in which the upper inner square was white and contained a green pine-tree. The best authorities agree that the first flag flung to the breeze at Bunker Hill was red.

This was the symbol of defiance; and when Prescott's men marched forth that starlit night from Boston toward the dark heights of Bunker Hill to defy the British legions, they chose the red flag, and that meant war. The question regarding the flag used at Bunker Hill is unsettled, since contemporary writers are silent on the subject. 

The Pine Tree Flag

Some have claimed that the field was blue as in the New England flag. A flag unfurled by Putnam July 18, 1775, had on one side the words, "An Appeal to Heaven," and on the other "Qui transtulit, sustinet”—“He who planted will sustain."

BEARER OF THE PINE TREE FLAG

III. The famous Pine Tree flag was in use during 1775 as an ensign. The flag was white, with a green pine tree in the middle, and the motto: "An Appeal to Heaven”.

The pine tree was a fitting type of the sturdy people of New England. This was the first ensign shown by a regular American man-of­-war, (Fig. 27), and was raised on board the Alfred, in the Delaware, in December, 1775, by John Paul Jones, a lieutenant un­der Commodore Hopkins.

In a letter written by Colonel Reed October 20, 1775, these words occur,

Please to fix some particular color for a flag, and a signal by which our vessels may know one another. What do you think of a flag with a white ground, a tree in the middle, the motto ‘An Appeal to Heaven'?" 

Sergeant Jasper and the Crescent Flag

BEARER OF THE FORT MOULTRIE FLAG

IV. The first Republican flag unfurled in the southern states was blue, with a white crescent in the upper corner next to the staff. It was designed by Colonel William Moultrie, and was raised on the fortifications of Charleston in September, 1775. 

At the time there was no national flag; and the design was taken from the blue of the soldiers' uniforms and the silver crescents on the front of their caps. (Fig. 28)

The flag displayed on one of the bastions of Fort Sullivan (Moultrie) on June 28, 1776, was the same, with the word "Liberty" added. At the commencement of the action, the Crescent flag of South Carolina, that waved opposite the Grand Union flag upon the western bastion, fell outside upon the beach. 

Sergeant William Jasper leaped the parapet, walked the length of the fort, picked up the flag, fastened it upon a sponge staff, and fixed the flag firmly upon the bastion, amid the iron hail pouring upon the fortress. Three cheers greeted him as he leaped unhurt within the fort. 

Gov­ernor Rutledge presented Jasper his own handsome small sword which hung by his side, and thanked him in the name of his country. He offered the young hero a lieutenant's commis­sion, but he modestly refused, saying,

I am not fit to keep officers' company; I am but a sergeant." 

At the Spring Hill redoubt at Savannah, October 9, 1779, Sergeant Jasper, while planting the crescent flag upon the parapet of the British works, fell pierced by a rifle ball.

"Join or Die"

BEARER OF THE RATTLESNAKE FLAG

A favorite device with the colonists during the excitement over the Stamp Act was a serpent cut in ten pieces, with the in­scription ''Join or die!” or "Unite or die!”

The newspapers of the day placed this significant design at the head of their col­umns. The rattlesnake was considered an emblem of vigilance, true courage, and magnanimity, because, while it is not quarrelsome, it quickly resents oppression. It never gives its small but deadly wound without first shaking its rattles as a signal that it is about to strike.

The rattlesnake flags were probably suggested by the cuts displayed in the newspapers, and were of several kinds. One in use in the navy was a yellow ensign bearing the device of a rat­tlesnake in the attitude of striking, with the motto, "Don't Tread on Me."

The snake was represented, generally, with thirteen rattles; sometimes it was coiled around the base of the pine tree, and sometimes placed diagonally across the field of thirteen alter­nate red and white or red and blue stripes. (Fig. 31) 

The Cambridge Flag

BEARER OF THE GRAND UNION FLAG

After the devices of the palmetto, the pine tree, and the rat­tlesnake, the next step in the evolution of the flag was the "Grand Union flag”. This was the result of a conference between Dr. Franklin, Mr. Lynch, and Mr. Harrison, who were chosen to se­lect some device for a common national flag.

The First “Old Glory”

The flag was hoisted for the first time over Washington's camp at Cambridge, January 2, 1776. The colors were red, white, and blue, and there were thirteen stripes as in the flag today, but the field was not yet spangled with stars. The blue field carried the united crosses of St. George and St. Andrew instead of the white five-pointed stars.

The King's Colors, or Union Flag, meant the yet recognized sovereignty of England, while the thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, were emblematic of the colonies united against the tyranny and oppression of England. This has some­times been called the Cambridge Flag. 

BEARER OF THE FLAG OF 1777

Nearly a year after the Declaration of Independence, the first national legislation on the subject was enacted by Congress June 14, 1777, as follows: 

Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen united states be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation." (Fig. 32 B)

As to the origin of the stripes in the flag, the theories advanced are very interesting. It has been suggested that the stripes were originally drawn from the flag of the Netherlands. The Dutch flag con­sisted of three broad horizontal stripes,—red, white, and blue.

The coat of arms given to one of Washington's ancestors by Henry VIII, showed a, white shield with red stripes, (Fig. 22 ), and this is by some thought to be the origin of the flag.

Washington and Morris called upon Mrs. Betsy Ross of Philadelphia, and engaged her to make the flag from a crude pencil drawing. She suggested changes in the form of the stars, and defty folding a piece of paper, showed the gentlemen how a perfect five-pointed star could be made with a single clip of the scissors. Here is Betsy now, and she will show you how to do it. (See Figs. 39, 40, etc.)­

(A little girl comes upon the stage, and folds and cuts the star.) 

 

The Star-Spangled Banner Flag

BEARER OF THE FLAG OF 1812 (1794) 

When Vermont was admitted to the sisterhood of the states in 1791, followed by Kentucky in 1792, Congress voted that the flag should have fifteen stripes and fifteen stars. (Fig. 32 C)

This flag was carried during the War of 1812, and was the “Star-Spangled Banner" which was seen catching "the gleam of the morning's first beam" over the ramparts of Ft. McHenry. The red meant, indeed, defiance and valor; the blue eternal vigilance; and the white, purity and peace with honor.

BEARER OF THE FLAG OF 1818

Influenced by reverence for the flag of the Revolution, and by the fact that increase in the number of the stripes tended to destroy the beauty of the flag, Congress ordered a return to the original thirteen stripes, and an increase of the number of stars to twenty.

Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, and Mis­sissippi had been added to the constellation. It was also voted that a new star should be added to the flag on the Fourth of July next succeeding the admission of a new state. (Fig. 32 D)

BEARER OF THE FLAG OF 1897 ("Old Glory")

Today I bring you the beautiful flag of our glorious repub­lic. It has forty-five stars, each one representing a noble state. Our banner stands for freedom to all, and has a glorious record in all the years of the past. Let us, oh my fellow-pupils, see that we preserve undimmed its glories which our fathers have placed in our care. 

On many a hard-fought field, brave soldiers have borne this tattered old banner through clouds of cannon­-smoke to victory. There is more than history in the emblem.

Floating in the breeze; it means more than mere glory. The old Roman soldiers guarded their standards with religious venera­tion, and their reverence for their ensigns was a just measure of their bravery in battle.

Our own interest in flags must center in the evolution and meaning of our own bright banner. 

A Continuation of the History of Early American Flags by USA Flag Co.

During the Revolutionary War, several patriots made American flags for our new Nation. Among them were Cornelia Bridges, Elizabeth Betsy Ross, and Rebecca Young, all of Pennsylvania, and John Shaw of Annapolis, Maryland.