History of the National Flag of the United States of America Part 4

On the evacuation of Boston by the British, this standard was, on the entrance of the American army into Boston, carried by Ensign Richards.[47]

[47] American Archives, 4th series, vol. v. p. 423.

While we may fairly infer from General Was.h.i.+ngton's letter, that this emblem of union had presented itself to his mind as such, we may also infer from his not describing its accompanying devices, to mark the compliment to the United Colonies, that he supposed Colonel Joseph Reed, his military secretary, fully acquainted with them; and from this we may conclude Colonel Reed had something to do with its preparation.

This conclusion is strengthened by the fact, that Colonel Joseph Reed was Secretary to the Committee of Conference sent by Congress to arrange with General Was.h.i.+ngton the details of the organization of the army, which went into being January 2, 1776. And, at the very time that Committee was in session at the camp at Cambridge, we find Colonel Reed having the subject of flags under consideration. To the reply to a letter written by him at that time, we may possibly trace the origin of the use of a modification of the British ensign, a drawing of which is given under Queen Anne's proclamation before quoted, as the flag of the United Colonies. And we shall give good reasons to conclude that this modification consisted in applying to its red field a sufficient number of white stripes, to divide the whole into thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, as above shown; and we will show the propriety of this by establis.h.i.+ng the fact that a _stripe_ was the badge of rank in the ununiformed army that a.s.sembled about Boston in defence of liberty.

Colonel Joseph Reed, Secretary to the Committee of Conference from Congress, and Military Secretary of General Was.h.i.+ngton, the Committee being then in session, wrote, October 20, 1776: "Please fix upon some particular color for a flag and a signal by which our vessels may know one another.[48] What do you think of a flag with a white ground, a tree in the middle, the motto, 'Appeal to Heaven?' This is the flag of our floating batteries." To which Colonels Glover and Moylan replied, October 21, 1775: "That as Broughton and Selman, who sailed that morning, had none but their old colors, they had appointed the signal by which they could be known by their friends to be 'the ensign up to the maintopping lift."[49]

[48] From this, we may justly conclude that the Committee of Conference, composed of Dr. Franklin, Mr. Lynch, and Mr.

Harrison, had the subject of the flag under consideration, and that the flag prepared under their supervision was the one displayed as the flag of the United Colonies, on the day the army organized by them, General Was.h.i.+ngton, &c., went into being.

[49] Siege of Boston, p. 261.

This ensign, which is called their "old colors," must have been the ensign spoken of and described in Queen Anne's proclamation. (See Fig.

7, Plate I.) Since we have seen _one_ ensign prescribed 1707, for the merchant s.h.i.+ps and vessels of Great Britain, and the dominions thereunto belonging, and that no change was made until 1801. This being the case, the ensign of the colonial cruisers, inasmuch as they were armed merchant vessels, must have been the British ensign displayed at the maintopping lift. There were several reasons for this; the most forcible of which were, that it being usual to have no special place for the display of the national ensign at sea, but the custom being to exhibit it in such part of the vessel from which it could be most conveniently observed by the strange sail (on which occasion only it was worn at sea), to adopt a particular place for its display would be to give it a new character; one peculiarly happy for the then state of affairs, as it would betray the _English_ transports to the colonial cruisers, and would not betray the _Colonial_ cruisers to the British s.h.i.+ps of war, as "the maintopping lift" must have been such a position as would not attract the attention of those not in the secret. This reply of the gentlemen charged with the continental or colonial cruisers, would readily have suggested a modification of the British ensign for the ensign of the United Colonies of North America; for the transition, in the adoption of a flag, from a particular place for the display of a particular flag, to some modification of the same flag, was both natural and easy; especially, as a slight modification of this flag would enable them to indicate the number of colonies, while the emblem of union would happily indicate the union of those colonies, and at the same time would have justified them in saying, in their address of December 6, 1775, "Allegiance to our king. Our words have ever avowed it, our conduct has ever been in keeping with it," as having acknowledged their dependence on the mother country, even in the flag with which they were to struggle against her.

Before we proceed to consider the origin of the stripes, we shall give an account of the same flag as displayed on the fleet fitted out at Philadelphia about this time, so as to fix, beyond a doubt, this emblem of _union_. As a preliminary, we will give a short extract of the sailing orders given to Benedict Arnold's fleet,[50] when he set out on his expedition to Canada. They may be found at length in Major Meigs's journal of that expedition.

[50] Ma.s.s. Historical Collections, 2d series, vol. ii. p.

228.

"1st Signal." "For speaking with the whole fleet, _ensign_ at maintopmast head."

"2d Signal." "For chasing a sail, ensign at foretopmast head."

"6th Signal." "For boarding any vessel, Jack at maintopmast head, and the whole fleet to draw up in a line as near as possible."

The Jack, or Union, or Union Jack, as it was and is called, was and is, to this day, in the navy of Great Britain, the flag of the admiral of the fleet; and was probably, as such, worn by the vessel of the commander-in-chief of this expedition, and its use probably suggested the adoption of a standard for the commander-in-chief of the first American fleet, Flag No. 7, in our table. The date of sailing of the above fleet was Sept. 19, 1775, before the letter of Colonels Glover and Moylan, speaking of the "old colors," was written (the date of the latter was Oct. 21, 1775), and the use of the terms jack and ensign strengthens the conclusion that the term "old colors" meant British colors, for we shall find, in the orders of the first American fleet, that the ensign and jack are called the striped ensign and Jack.

In this connection, we give a few extracts from the sailing orders of the first American fleet, "given the several captains in the fleet, at sailing from the Capes of Delaware, Feb. 17, 1776."[51]

[51] American Archives, 4th series, vol. iv. p. 1179.

"Sir: You are hereby ordered to keep company with me, if possible, and truly observe the signals given by the s.h.i.+p I am in."

"In case you are in any very great danger of being taken, you are to destroy these orders and your signals."

SIGNALS FOR THE AMERICAN FLEET BY DAY.

"For chasing: For the whole fleet to chase, a red pennant at the foretopmast head." We have already said that, since the time of the Romans, a red flag has been the signal to prepare for battle.

"For seeing a strange vessel: Hoist the ensign, and lower and hoist it as many times as you see vessels, allowing two minutes between each time."

Supposing this _ensign_ to be a Union flag, observe the similarity between this signal and that for the lighthouse and castle in Boston Harbor in 1720; "the lighthouse," as we have already stated, "in time of war makes a signal to the castle, and the castle to the town, by hoisting and lowering the Union flag so many times as there are s.h.i.+ps approaching."

"For the Providence to chase: A St. George's ensign with stripes at the mizzen peak."

"For a general attack, or the whole fleet to engage, the standard at the maintopmast head, with the _striped_ Jack and ensign at their proper places."

Now let us look at some of the descriptions of the colors of this fleet, both by American and British writers.

SAILING OF THE FIRST AMERICAN FLEET.

"NEWBERN, NORTH CAROLINA, February 9, 1776.

"By a gentleman from Philadelphia, we have received the pleasing account of the actual sailing from that place of the first American fleet that ever swelled their sails on the Western Ocean, &c.

"This fleet consists of five sail, fitted out from Philadelphia, which are to be joined at the capes of Virginia by two more s.h.i.+ps from Maryland, and is commanded by Admiral Hopkins, a most experienced and venerable sea captain."

"They sailed from Philadelphia amidst the acclamations of thousands a.s.sembled on the joyful occasion, under the display of a Union flag, with thirteen stripes in the field, emblematical of the thirteen United Colonies."[52]

[52] American Archives, 4th series, vol. iv. p. 965.

And the following extract from a letter, dated New Providence, West Indies, of which Island Admiral Hopkins took prisoner the governor, &c.[53]

[53] Ibid. vol. v. p. 823.

This letter was kindly furnished by Colonel Peter Force, editor of the _American Archives_, and may be found in the _London Ladies'

Magazine_, vol. vii. July 1776, p. 390.

"NEW PROVIDENCE, May 18, 1776.

"The colors of the American fleet were striped under the _Union_, with thirteen strokes, called the United Colonies, and their standard, a rattlesnake; motto--'Don't tread on me.'"

The following extract was furnished by the same gentleman, to whom I cannot too warmly return my thanks for the facilities and a.s.sistance he has afforded me.

"WILLIAMSBURG, VA., April 10, 1776.

"The Roebuck [a British cruiser] has taken two prizes in Delaware Bay, which she decoyed within her reach, by hoisting a _Continental Union Flag_."

Reference to this letter not obtained, but in support of its correctness, see affidavit of Mr. Barry, master's mate, s.h.i.+p Grace, captured by the Roebuck, to be found in the _Pennsylvania Evening Post_, June 20, 1776, vol. ii. No. 221.

It is unnecessary to multiply proof on this subject. The term _union_, in these accounts, both by American and British writers, at sea and land, by the interpretation we give it, explains and harmonizes all of them. We therefore proceed to consider the other and what may be called the distinctive devices--we mean the stripes on this Continental Union Flag.

Under the head of Ensign (_Brande's Dictionary_), we are told: "Men of war carry a red, white, or blue ensign, according to the color of the flag of the admiral." By the 1st Article of the union between England and Scotland, we have seen that the ensigns, both "at sea and land,"

were to embody the union of the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew conjoined; hence the colors, red, white, &c., only apply to the field of the ensign.

In the extract from the King's Regulations for the British Army, we have shown that the ensign of the different regiments differed in color according as the facings of the uniforms of the particular regiments to which they belonged differed. We have seen, in the Crusades, the different nations were distinguished by different colored crosses on their surcoats, from which the particular colored cross was transferred to the national banners of at least Scotland and England. Here the striking distinction was color. The same practice prevailed at the time of the Revolution in the colonies.--See the Proceedings of the Provincial Congress of Connecticut, "July 1, 1775. One standard for each regiment, distinguished by their color, as follows, viz.: For the seventh, blue; for the eighth, orange."[54]

[54] American Archives, 4th series, vol. ii. p. 1582.

With this practice of nations, then, before them, and evidently applied by them, viz.: that of applying some badge of distinction in use in their armies to their national banner, combined with that of indicating different portions of their armies by different colors for their flags; and of two nations, when uniting, adopting as a common ensign something to indicate their union, and still preserve the original banners (both as to devices and color), under which they had respectively achieved signal triumphs, especially as this last example was that of the mother country, we may expect to see the colonies carrying out this practice in their Union flag.

They were British colonies: and, as we have shown, they used the British Union, but now, they were to distinguish their flag by its color from other British ensigns, preserve a trace of the colors under which they had previously fought with success, and, at the same time, represent this combination in some form peculiar to themselves.