THE "GRAND UNION FLAG"
During the summer following the battle of Bunker Hill, the colonies
had a congress without authority, a commander-in-chief without money,
and an army without discipline, equipments, or flag--or rather, with
so many flags that they must have had little significance except to
the respective groups of men who had marched under each. Before
Christmas a flag was designed and made, but how, where, and by whom is
not known. Neither Washington nor Franklin gives any information, and
the _Journal_ of Congress says nothing about its designer or maker. It
is true that a committee of three,--all signers of the Declaration of
Independence a few months later,--Benjamin Franklin, of Pennsylvania,
Benjamin Harrison, of Virginia, whose son Benjamin was afterwards to
become President of the United States, and Thomas Lynch, of South
Carolina, were sent by Congress to Cambridge, to discuss with
Washington and others many necessary questions, but there is no proof
that the design of a flag was among them. The flag, however, was made.
This was what is known as the "Grand Union Flag." The British flag,
red with a blue union, marked by the upright cross of St. George and
the diagonal cross of St. Andrew, was known as the "Union Flag,"
because it typified, as has been said before, the union of England and
Scotland. The new flag retained the blue union with its two crosses,
but instead of a red field it had red and white stripes. These
thirteen stripes represented the thirteen colonies; the blue union
suggested that the colonies still clung to the mother country.
Where the idea of using stripes came from is a question that has never
been solved. The Philadelphia Troop had thirteen stripes on their
banner, but they were blue and white. Washington's coat of arms
contained red and white stripes; but Washington was too modest a man
to suggest using his own family arms, and as to any one's suggesting
it for him, it must be remembered that he was not yet the revered
"Father of his Country," but simply a Virginia planter of forty-three
years who had been successful in fighting the Indians, and who,
because of his good judgment and uprightness of character, had been
made a member of the Virginia Legislature and then of the Continental
Congress. The flag of the Netherlands--but chosen thirty years after
the Pilgrims left that country for America--was red, white, and blue,
in three horizontal stripes. The ensign of the English East India
Company was a flag of thirteen horizontal red and white stripes with a
white canton containing a red St. George's Cross; but there is no
reason to suppose that this inspired the flag of the colonies. Bunting
was scarce and Franklin was always a thrifty soul. If that committee
of three did design the flag, it is not at all unlikely that Franklin
suggested utilizing the standards they already had, and changing their
character by stitching on white stripes. To deface the flag of Britain
was a serious offense, and maybe it was thought just as well that the
name of the originator of this "Grand Union" should not be on record.
The flag was first raised on the 1st of January, 1776, in what is now
Somerville, on Prospect Hill, and was saluted with thirteen guns and
thirteen rousing cheers. It was seen by the British troops in Boston,
and for some reason they took it as a sign of submission brought about
by the King's hostile proclamation, which they supposed had been read
in Cambridge. Washington wrote:--
Before the proclamation came to hand, we had hoisted the Union
Flag in compliment to the United Colonies. But, behold, it was
received in Boston as a token of the deep impression the speech
had made upon us, and as a signal of submission. By this time, I
presume, they begin to think it strange that we have not made a
formal surrender of our lines.
The colonists had adopted a flag, but all sorts of colors continued to
be borne on both sea and land. On the sea the favorite seems to have
been a white flag displaying a green pine tree. One year after the
battle of Lexington, Massachusetts formally decreed that this flag
should be used on her vessels, and that their officers should wear a
green and white uniform. Even two years later than this, the Pine-Tree
Flag was borne by floating batteries on the Delaware River. Sometimes
the British ran up an American flag to deceive the colonial vessels,
and sometimes the colonists ran up a flag made of horizontal red and
white stripes to persuade the British that it was one of their own
signal flags. Sometimes rattlesnake flags were used.
Congress ordered the building of war vessels as promptly as possible,
five cruisers first of all. The Alfred, on which John Paul Jones was
lieutenant, became the flagship of Commander-in-Chief Esek Hopkins.
This vessel was of English build and had been employed in commerce for
nine or ten years, making two voyages to the Indian Ocean during that
time. She had space for two hundred and twenty men, and had sixteen
guns, carried for the benefit of pirates. She had been put in full
repair and had now become a frigate of twenty-eight guns. Such was the
first vessel of the Continental Navy. An old account of the
embarkation of Commodore Hopkins at Philadelphia says:--
The Alfred was anchored at the foot of Walnut Street. On a
brilliant morning early in February, 1776, gay streamers were
seen floating from every masthead and spar on the river. At nine
o'clock a full-manned barge threaded its way among the floating
ice to the Alfred, bearing the commodore, who had chosen that
vessel for his flagship. He was greeted with thunders of
artillery and the shouts of the multitude.
When he stepped on board the deck of the Alfred, Captain Saltonstall
gave a signal, and Lieutenant Jones hoisted a new flag prepared for
the occasion. It is believed to have displayed a union with thirteen
stripes crossed by a rattlesnake in some position, with the ominous
motto, "Don't tread on me." When the flag reached the mast-head, the
crowds cheered and the guns fired a salute,--as well they might, for
this was the first ensign ever flung to the breeze on an American
man-of-war. Paul Jones appreciated the honor of raising it, but he was
no admirer of the rattlesnake flag. In his journal he wrote:--
I was always at loss to know by what queer fancy or by whose
notion that device was first adopted. For my own part, I never
could see how or why a venomous serpent could be the combatant
emblem of a brave and honest folk fighting to be free. Of course
I had no choice but to break the pennant as it was given to me.
But I always abhorred the device.
Three weeks after the Alfred was put in commission, the little fleet
sailed away from Philadelphia amid the cheers of thousands of people.
One of the eye-witnesses said that the ships wore the Union Flag with
thirteen stripes in the field. Of the admiral's flag an English writer
said, "We learn that the vessels bearing this flag have a sort of
commission from a society of people at Philadelphia, calling
themselves the continental congress." Scornfully as he spoke of
Congress, there is at least one record of which it may be proud.
Franklin, under its authority, issued letters of marque with a lavish
hand, but, hard-pressed as the colonists were, he bade John Paul Jones
"not to burn defenseless towns on the British coast except in case of
military necessity; and in such cases he was to give notice, so that
the women and children with the sick and aged inhabitants might be
removed betimes." Moreover, he bade all American cruisers if they
chanced to meet Captain Cook, the great English explorer of that day,
to "forget the temporary quarrel in which they were fighting and not
merely suffer him to pass unmolested, but offer him every aid and
service in their power."