American Flag In The 1700s

American Flag In The 1700s – Not to be confused with the Union Flag, which is the flag of England, or the flag of the East India Company.

The “Grand Union Flag” or “Continental Colors” (also known as the “Congress Flag”, “Cambridge Flag” and “Naval Ensign”) was the first national flag of the United States. The flag was first raised by Naval Officer John Paul Jones on December 3, 1775, and was widely used by the Second United States Continental Congress, as well as by Commander George Washington of his Continental Army in the early years of the American Revolutionary War. .

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Like the flag of the United States, the flag of the Grand Union has 13 alternating red and white stripes representing the thirty colonies. The upper inner corner or canton bears the Union Jack or the flag of the Kingdom of Great Britain, to which the colonies were subject.

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In 1775, during the first year of the American Revolutionary War, the Second Continental Congress acted as a de facto martial law government, authorizing the creation of a Continental Army, a Continental Navy, and a small body of Continental Marines. . A new flag was needed to represent Congress and the United Colonies, with a banner separate from the red ensign of Great Britain flown from civilian and merchant ships, the white ensign of the British Royal Navy and the ensign of Great Britain flown on land. British armies in the new states used their own independent flags, Massachusetts used the Taunton flag and New York used the George Rex flag before adopting the Union colors.

The USS Alfred flew the flag for the first time on December 3, 1775, when it was flown by Lt. John Paul Jones.

The Americans first raised the Union Flag on the colonial warship Alfred, in port on the west bank of the Delaware River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on December 3, 1775, under the command of newly appointed Lieutenant John Paul Jones of the new Continental Navy. This event is documented in letters to Congress and eyewitness accounts.

The flag was also used by the Continental Army as a naval ensign and as a garrison flag in 1776 and early 1777.

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It is generally believed that the flag was raised by George Washington’s army on January 2, 1776, on Prospect Hill in Charlestown (now part of Somerville), near his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts (across the Charles River north of Boston). which surrounded and besieged the British forces that had occupied the city.

It is also said that the flag was interpreted as a sign of surrender by the British military observers in the city under the command of General Thomas Gage.

However, some scholars challenge this traditional account and conclude that the flag raised on Prospect Hill was probably the flag of Great Britain.

This flag has had several names, at least five of which are remembered among the people. The more direct name, “Flag of the Grand Union,” was first used during the 19th century reconstruction by George Harry Prebble in his 1872 History of the American Flag.

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The Grand Union flag was abolished after the passage of the Flag Act in 1777 by the Continental Congress. The new national flag replaced the Union Jack in the canton with thirty stars (representing the thirty states) on a blue field. The resolution only described a “new constellation” for the arrangement of white stars in the blue canton, so the contours were later interpreted and built up of rows, columns, squares with a star in the center, circles, and various other designs. .

The flag’s design was partly based on the red ensign used in British America and the 30 colonies.

It is not known who or by whom the design of the continental colors was made, but this flag could easily be produced by sewing white stripes onto British red boards.

The design of the colors bears a striking resemblance to the flag of the British East India Company (EIC). In fact, some of the EIC designs used from 1707 (when the canton was changed from the Flag of the Glands to the Flag of Great Britain) were almost identical. However, the number of strips varied from 9 to 15. One theory about the origin of the design is that the American colonists knew and were familiar with the existing EIC flags and this may have influenced the design.

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The combined crosses in the British flag symbolize the union of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland. As in the flag resolution of 14. June 1777 (later celebrated in American culture and history as “Flag Day”), the symbol of the union of equals was retained in the new American flag.

According to toxicologist Nick Groom, the use of the flag of Great Britain in the canton part of the flag indicates that George Washington’s army did not adopt it as a protest against the sovereignty of the British Parliament, but as a profession of continued loyalty to the flag. . King George III.

This view is shared by George Washington biographer Laurie Kalkhoff, who suggests that the flag was designed to reflect the colonists’ hope for justice from King George III.

In Robert Sobel’s For Want of a Nail, it is the flag of the Confederacy of North America, a self-governing dominion established in 1843 through the second of two British designs following John Burgoyne’s victory at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777. As a result, the Conciliators gained control of the Continental Congress in 1778.

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In Du Georges by Harry Tretteldau and Richard Dreyfuss, it is the flag of the North American Union and is commonly referred to as the “Jack and Stripes”. A modified version of the flag used by the separatist party Indepdce and the nationalist terrorist organization Sons of Liberty replaces the Union Jack with a bald eagle on a blue field.

In the Sliders episode Prince of Wails, set in a reality where the American Revolution was successfully suppressed, it serves as the flag of the British States of America, a heavily taxed and dictatorial corner of the British Empire.

Versions of the Grand Union Flag in alternate history novels can be modified so that the Union Jack in the canton also represents Ireland. The Betsy Ross flag is a reconstructed original design for the flag of the United States that complies with the Flag Act. 1777 and has red outlines and stars arranged in a circle. This detail is from a 1777 law passed early in the American Revolutionary War which specified 13 alternating horizontal red and white stripes and 13 white stars in a blue canton. Its name derives from a story once believed that shortly after the action in 1777, Betsy Ross, a flag maker and engraver, produced a flag with this design.

Betsy Ross (1752–1836) was a Philadelphia upholsterer who produced uniforms, t-shirts, and flags for the Continental Army. Although his manufacturing contributions are documented, a popular story developed in which Ross was hired by a group of Founders to create a new American flag. He reportedly departed from the six-pointed stars in design and instead produced a flag with five-pointed stars. Her descendants’ claim that Betsy Ross was involved in the design of the flag is not generally accepted by modern American scholars and botanists.

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But how this particular design of the American flag became associated with him is unknown. An 1851 painting by Eli Sully Wheeler of Philadelphia shows Betsy Ross sewing an American flag.

The National Museum of American History indicates that the story of Betsy Ross first entered the American consciousness around the time of the Ctnial Fair festivities of 1876.

In 1870, Ross’ grandson, William J. Canby published an article for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in which he claimed that his grandmother made America’s “first flag” with her own hands.

Canby said he first got this information from his aunt Clarissa Sidney Wilson (née Claypool) in 1857, twenty years after Betsy Ross’ death. In his account, the original flag was created in June 1776, when a small committee—including his relatives George Washington, Robert Morris, and George Ross—visited Betsey and discussed the need for a new American flag. Betsy took on the task of producing the flag and changed the committee’s design by replacing the six-pointed stars with five-pointed stars. Canby dates the historical episode based on Washington’s visit to Philadelphia in the late spring of 1776, a year before Congress passed the Flag Act.

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Ross biographer Marla Miller notes that if one accepts Canby’s position, Betsy Ross was just one of several flag makers in Philadelphia, and her only contribution was to the design of the committee to change the shape of the star from 6 to 5.

In 1878, Colonel J. Franklin Reigart told a different story in his book, “The History of the First Flag of the United States, and the Patriotism of Betsy Ross, the Immortal Hero Who Who

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